Principal Engineer

TL;DR

Principal Engineer (Backend/Java): Setting technical direction for platforms supporting scholarly publishing lifecycle with an accent on system modernisation, reliability, and scalable services. Focus on designing distributed systems, APIs, data flows, and guiding AI integration for high-impact improvements.

Flexible hybrid: working remotely from home or in office (Oxford/London, UK)

Company

hirify.global is a global information analytics company specializing in science and health, part of RELX.

What you will do

• Set technical direction across teams and support delivery of shared goals
• Guide design of secure, scalable, resilient services, APIs, and data flows
• Contribute to high-impact work including system modernisation and risk reduction
• Coach engineers and strengthen practices like observability, automation, and incident learning
• Support AI-assisted development and production AI patterns where they add value

Requirements

• Experience at senior, staff, or principal level across multiple teams/domains
• Track record influencing technical decisions and supporting change at scale
• Designing/evolving distributed systems, services, APIs in cloud environments
• Strong backend engineering (e.g., Java, Spring Boot) in modern product teams
• Collaborative approach with clear communication on quality, risk, delivery

Nice to have

• Event-driven systems/messaging (Kafka, SNS/SQS)
• Frontend (React)
• Polyglot environments (TypeScript, Python)
• Containers, Kubernetes, IaC, CI/CD
• AI/GenAI in production (prompting, retrieval, LLMs)

Culture & Benefits

• Flexible hybrid work and hours for work/life balance
• Generous holiday allowance, buy additional days, shared parental leave
• Learning platforms, 10 days focused development time yearly
• Health screening, private medical, wellbeing programs, life assurance
• Competitive pension, long service awards, employee discounts
• RELX Cares days, employee resource groups, volunteer time