Principal Software Engineer - Food

As part of the M&S Software Engineering team, you’ll be joining a well-loved historic brand, working on solutions that serve millions of loyal customers and thousands of colleagues. With ethical values that run right through the company’s core and technology leaders who truly understand software engineering, it’s an exciting time as we’re redefining ourselves into a digital-first and engineering-led organisation, with the quality of our engineering team being a key differentiator. We are seeking a passionate Principal Software Engineer to join our Food & International Food category, where you will be a driving force behind the modernisation of mission-critical systems as M&S continues to scale and transform. Working across multiple engineering teams, you will provide technical leadership, shape engineering strategy and help build robust, scalable and reusable platforms that support critical Food and Supply Chain capabilities. Due to high interest, this role may close earlier than advertised. We recommend applying as soon as possible. What You'll Do Your key accountabilities will include: Lead technical excellence across the full software development lifecycle, from architecture and design through delivery, launch, operations and continuous improvement of strategic platforms and programmes. Drive technical direction and influence engineering strategy, technology investment decisions and product roadmaps while partnering with Engineering, Technology and Product leadership. Champion engineering excellence through Communities of Practice, promoting clean code, clean architecture, modern engineering practices and operational excellence. Mentor and develop senior engineers across the organisation, helping teams solve complex problems, improve engineering maturity and adopt scalable delivery practices. Drive innovation, DevOps and automation, enabling teams to improve engineering productivity, delivery quality, reliability and ownership of their services. Support recruitment, onboarding, engineering branding and knowledge-sharing initiatives while contributing to the broader engineering ecosystem and technical community. Who You Are Your skills and experience will include: Significant experience delivering large-scale software engineering initiatives, with a proven track record of strategic thinking, technical leadership and successful execution. Deep expertise in software engineering best practices including clean code, design patterns, quality engineering, testing strategies and distributed system design. Strong experience designing secure, resilient and scalable platforms, with expertise across cloud technologies, automation, observability, reliability and performance engineering. Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders, lead technical discussions and guide engineering teams through complex technical and business challenges. Experience driving engineering improvements, optimising processes and mentoring senior engineers to deliver measurable outcomes and organisational growth. Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to engage both technical and non-technical audiences and align teams around shared goals. Tech Stack M&S uses a variety of technologies across the Food & International Food domain, including: Java, Micronaut and PL/SQL ReactJS and Next.js Azure Cloud and Dynatrace Mule, Kafka and MQ Blue Yonder Dispatcher Desirable Experience Experience leading engineering communities, Communities of Practice or organisation-wide engineering initiatives. Strong experience with DevOps, Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery in enterprise-scale environments. Experience presenting at conferences, contributing to open-source projects, technical writing or engineering thought leadership. Strong commercial awareness and a product mindset, with the ability to connect technology decisions to business outcomes. Demonstrable entrepreneurship, innovation and ownership within previous organisations. A passion for developing engineering talent and building high-performing technical cultures. What’s in it for you? Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We’re inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing. Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding: 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you’ve completed your probation. Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more. Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours. Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future. Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one. Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal. Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave. 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services. One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you. Everyone’s Welcome We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen. We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together. If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process. #LI-NO1 #LI-Hybrid