Principal Software Engineer

Team – UK Health, Adviser & Employer Engineering

Working Pattern - Hybrid – 2 days per week in the Vitality London, Bournemouth or Stockport Office. Full-time hours per week. 

We are happy to discuss flexible working!

Top 3 skills needed for this role

• Strategic Enterprise Technology Leadership
• Recognised Java Engineering Expertise
• Advanced Architecture & Systems Integration Capability

What this role is all about

We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join Vitality's Engineering function, providing technical leadership across complex enterprise platforms and customer-facing solutions. This is a highly influential role responsible for shaping engineering standards, driving architectural decisions, leading large-scale technical initiatives and ensuring the successful delivery of integrated software solutions that support critical business outcomes. The role operates across multiple teams and works closely with senior stakeholders, architects and third-party partners to deliver technology that enables seamless customer journeys and long-term business growth.

Key Actions

• Lead the design, development and delivery of full stack software solutions.
  
• Provide technical leadership, shaping engineering standards, architecture and best practice.
  
• Solve complex technical challenges and improve the reliability, scalability and performance of key platforms.
  
• Work closely with engineers, architects, product teams and business stakeholders to deliver customer-focused solutions.
  
• Drive continuous improvement through modern engineering practices, tooling and automation.
  
• Coach and mentor engineers, helping to grow technical capability across the organisation.
  
• Explore opportunities to use AI-powered tools and automation to improve engineering productivity and quality.
  
• Stay curious about emerging technologies, bringing new ideas and improvements into the team. 

What do you need to thrive?

• Strong experience building and supporting enterprise-scale full stack applications using Java.
  
• Experience with AWS and modern cloud-native development.
  
• Good knowledge of PostgreSQL, SQL and data-driven application design.
  
• Experience integrating APIs, services and enterprise platforms.
  
• Knowledge of event-driven architectures and technologies such as Kafka.
  
• Strong understanding of software design principles, DevOps, CI/CD and container technologies such as Kubernetes and Docker.
  
• A passion for continuous learning, innovation and the practical use of AI-assisted development tools.  

So, what’s in it for you?

• Bonus Schemes – A bonus that regularly rewards you for your performance
• A pension of up to 12%– We will match your contributions up to 6% of your salary
• Our award-winning Vitality health insurance – With its own set of rewards and benefits
• Life Assurance – Four times annual salary

These are just some of the many perks that we offer! To view the extensive range of benefits we offer, please visit our careers page. Fantastic Benefits. Exciting rewards. Great career opportunities!

If you are successful in your application and join us at Vitality, this is our promise to you, we will:

• Help you to be the healthiest you’ve ever been
• Create an environment that embraces you as you are and enables you to be your best self
• Give you flexibility on how, where and when you work
• Help you advance your career by playing you to your strengths
• Give you a voice to help our business grow and make Vitality a great place to be
• Give you the space to try, fail and learn
• Provide a healthy balance of challenge and support
• Recognise and reward you with a competitive salary and amazing benefits
• Be there for you when you need us
• Provide opportunities for you to be a force for good in society

We commit to all these things because we want you to feel that you belong, and are supported to be happy and healthy.