Principal Software Engineer

Principal Software Engineer

Shropshire, UK

£65,000 – £85,000

Lead vision-based autonomous vehicle development from prototype to production and put real driverless technology into real systems.

The opportunity

• Our client is the UK engineering centre of a global agricultural machinery group; an innovative engineering-led team building the next generation of agricultural technology. They are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to take full ownership of their flagship autonomy programme.
• Your job is to make the system safe, robust, cost-effective and market-ready, then carry it along a clear roadmap from assisted steering towards supervised autonomy and ultimately driverless operation, with staged production releases along the way.
• You will own the architecture, the technical direction and the delivery. Decisions will be yours to make as you guide and lead the team through each stage.

What you will do – Principal Software Engineer

• Own the architecture and roadmap: define the interfaces across perception, localisation, planning, motion control and vehicle integration and make the final call when expert opinions differ.
• Lead the team: line manage, mentor and develop a small team of PhD engineers providing clear, commercially viable and technically feasible solutions.
• Lead C++ and ROS2 delivery: run design and code reviews, set engineering standards and CI and stay close to the code through integration and debugging. Occasional hands on support may be required.
• Run the programme and suppliers: plan and prioritise with the team and hold a small group of subsystem suppliers to clear deliverables and acceptance criteria.
• Prove it works: own verification and validation, from simulation to field trials and work with safety engineers to define operating limits, safe behaviour and reduce risks.
• Take it to production: shape over-the-air updates, diagnostics and remote support, and see the product through deployment and in-field support.

About you

Essential - Principal Software Engineer

• Substantial hands-on C++ experience, with a track record of delivering integrated software on physical robotic, autonomous vehicle or comparable mobile systems.
• Credible technical team leadership: a pragmatic, decisive and approachable leader who can align expert opinions around practical delivery decisions.
• Industry experience across one or more of the following: robotics, warehouse and industrial automation, agricultural or construction machinery, autonomous vehicles, UAS, MASS, ASV, AUV or MAV etc
• Practical ROS2 and embedded Linux experience or similar, including integration, debugging and deployment.
• A strong grasp of the autonomy stack and how perception, localisation, planning and motion control fit together, with the confidence to make and review system-level design decisions.
• Experience taking software through requirements, architecture, implementation, integration, verification and controlled release, having delivered or played a major role in delivering a product to market.
• Git-based development, code review, automated testing, continuous integration and configuration management.
• Experience validating on real hardware in real operating environments and diagnosing issues from test data.
• Experience coordinating suppliers or development partners, with sound commercial awareness.

Beneficial / nice to have experience:

• Camera and stereo vision, computer vision, sensor fusion, ultrasonics, Lidar or machine learning applied to perception.
• NVIDIA Jetson (AGX Orin or Xavier) and Linux for Tegra.
• Python, OpenCV, Docker and Nav2.
• Simulation, hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) testing, GNSS-based validation or outdoor field trials.
• OTA updates, cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure for deployed systems.
• CAN, vehicle control interfaces, or agricultural, construction or off-highway experience.

This Principal Software Engineer role is based onsite 5 days a week in Shropshire and is commutable from Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford, Shrewsbury, Stafford, Uttoxeter, Wolverhampton.

The company offers financial support towards relocation.