Principal Engineer

Purpose of the role

To drive technical excellence and innovation by leading the design and implementation of robust software solutions, providing mentorship to engineering teams, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and contributing to strategic planning to ensure the delivery of high-quality solutions aligned with business objectives. 

Accountabilities

• Provision of guidance and expertise to engineering teams to ensure alignment with best practices and foster a culture of technical excellence.
• Contribution to strategic planning by aligning technical decisions with business goals, anticipating future technology trends, and providing insights to optimize product roadmaps.
• Design and implementation of complex, scalable, and maintainable software solutions, considering long-term viability and business objectives.
• Mentoring and coaching to junior and mid-level engineers to foster professional growth and knowledge sharing, elevating the overall skillset and capabilities of the organization.
• Collaboration with business partners, product managers, designers, and other stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions and ensure a cohesive approach to product development.
• Innovation within the organization by identifying and incorporating new technologies, methodologies, and industry practices into the engineering process.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

Join us as a Principal Engineer at Barclays where you will spearhead the evolution of our infrastructure and deployment pipelines, driving innovation and operational excellence. You will harness cutting-edge technology to build and manage robust, scalable and secure infrastructure, ensuring seamless delivery of our digital solutions. 

To be successful as a Principal Engineer, you should have experience with:

• Define and communicate the technical vision and architectural direction across teams.

• Lead the design and implementation of scalable, maintainable, and resilient technology solutions.

• Drive engineering excellence by establishing technical standards, best practices, and quality benchmarks.

• Evaluate technical trade-offs, non-functional requirements (NFRs), dependencies, and solution options.

• Align technology decisions with business strategy, product roadmaps, and long-term objectives.

• Partner with Solution Architects, Product Owners, and Engineering Leads to deliver business outcomes.

• Embed security, resilience, and risk considerations into solution design.

• Mentor and coach engineers, building technical capability and engineering maturity across teams.

• Support resolution of complex technical, performance, and production issues.

• Drive innovation and continuous improvement through adoption of new technologies and engineering practices.

Some other highly valued skills may include:

• Lead modernization, cloud, AI, and platform engineering initiatives.

• Define enterprise integration and API strategies across platforms.

• Influence technology investment decisions and future-state architecture.

• Build and nurture engineering communities of practice.

• Represent engineering in portfolio, platform, and strategic governance forums.

• Evaluate emerging technologies and identify innovation opportunities for the business.

• Influence stakeholders and drive alignment across multiple teams without direct authority.

You may be assessed on key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

The role is based out of Pune.