Principal Software Engineer

BBC Studios Ltd; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading media organization in London is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead the design and development of secure, scalable distributed services. The role involves collaborating with multidisciplinary teams, setting engineering standards, and driving cloud native development. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience with object oriented programming, AWS services, and established CI/CD practices. This position offers a competitive salary, a hybrid working environment, and opportunities for professional growth.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Flexible benefits

25 days annual leave

Defined pension scheme

Discounted health care and gym

Qualifications

• Proficiency in a mainstream object oriented programming language (e.g. Java, C#, Python) and the ability to write clean, maintainable and well tested software.
• Cloud native development experience, ideally with AWS services such as Lambda, Step Functions and EventBridge.
• Experience designing and implementing microservices, APIs and distributed systems, with a strong understanding of event driven and message based architectural patterns.
• Strong knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing practices (TDD/BDD) and modern engineering approaches for secure, observable and resilient services.
• Experience integrating software with monitoring, alerting and security tooling, with a mindset that values operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of high quality, secure and scalable distributed services.
• Set and champion engineering standards, modern patterns and best practices across teams.
• Drive cloud native development approaches including automated testing, CI/CD and observability driven design.
• Partner with product, architecture and engineering teams to shape solutions from inception to production.
• Guide teams through complex problem solving, troubleshooting and continuous improvement.
• Mentor and coach engineers, supporting skills development and fostering a healthy engineering culture.

Skills

Proficiency in a mainstream object oriented programming language

Cloud native development experience

Experience with microservices and distributed systems

Strong knowledge of CI/CD pipelines

Experience with monitoring and alerting tools

Job description

JOB BAND: D
CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent
DEPARTMENT: BBC Media Services
LOCATION: London – Hybrid
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £70,000 - £80,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

Purpose of the role

Media Services powers the BBC’s online audio and video delivery, enabling billions of iPlayer streams every year. As a Principal Software Engineer, you’ll shape the systems and standards behind this critical platform. You will lead technical direction, guide teams in modern engineering practices, and help deliver resilient, scalable and secure services that keep the BBC at the forefront of digital media.

Why join the team

You’ll join a collaborative engineering community working at the heart of the BBC’s digital transformation. Media Services offers meaningful technical challenges, a culture of learning, and the freedom to explore modern cloud native and event driven architectures. You’ll work with talented multidisciplinary teams to deliver solutions with real public impact — and help shape the future of how audiences experience BBC content.

Your key responsibilities and impact

As a Principal Engineer, you’ll take a leading role in designing, building and evolving the distributed systems that power Media Services. You’ll collaborate with architects, team leads and fellow engineers to define engineering standards, drive technical strategy and support delivery across the full software development lifecycle. You’ll explore new approaches, improve observability, resolve complex issues and mentor engineers at all levels.

• Lead the design and development of high quality, secure and scalable distributed services.
• Set and champion engineering standards, modern patterns and best practices across teams.
• Drive cloud native development approaches including automated testing, CI/CD and observability driven design.
• Partner with product, architecture and engineering teams to shape solutions from inception to production.
• Guide teams through complex problem solving, troubleshooting and continuous improvement.
• Mentor and coach engineers, supporting skills development and fostering a healthy engineering culture.
• Produce and maintain clear, accessible technical documentation to support knowledge sharing.

Your skills and experience

You will have:

• Proficiency in a mainstream object oriented programming language (e.g. Java, C#, Python) and the ability to write clean, maintainable and well tested software.
• Cloud native development experience, ideally with AWS services such as Lambda, Step Functions and EventBridge.
• Experience designing and implementing microservices, APIs and distributed systems, with a strong understanding of event driven and message based architectural patterns.
• Strong knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing practices (TDD/BDD) and modern engineering approaches for secure, observable and resilient services.
• Experience integrating software with monitoring, alerting and security tooling, with a mindset that values operational excellence.

Most importantly, you enjoy helping others grow and fostering a culture of learning, collaboration and continuous improvement.

If you can bring some of these skills and experience, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.

Pre-start disclosures

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Contracts of Employment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.

Disclaimer

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

Information at a Glance

This is your BBC

At the BBC you can create and innovate in an inclusive environment while contributing to some of the world’s best loved content, and the BBC’s mission to inform, educate and entertain.

Find out more about the BBC

Life at BBC

Here you will benefit from:

• Fair pay and flexible benefits including a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week, 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care and gym.
• Excellent career and professional development.
• Support in your working life, including flexible working which you can discuss with us at any point during the application, selection or offer.
• A values-based organisation where the way we do things is important as what we do.

Benefits may vary if you are joining on an FTC basis or on an orchestra conditions contract.

Learn more about life at the BBC and our values in our candidate pack.

You belong

We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, so all our employees feel that they can belong, thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to join us. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief.

Find out more about diversity, inclusion and belonging in our strategy below.

Diversity, inclusion & belonging strategy

Disability confident

We are a disability confident employer. If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process, or to carry out this role, please contact us via email and we’d be happy to discuss: [e-mail]

BBC Group and Public Services, Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London, United Kingdom, W1A 1AA. BBC Studios Distribution Limited, company no: 01420028, registered address: 1 Television Centre, 101 Wood Lane, London, United Kingdom W12 7FA.