Principal Engineer (Backend focus -Java)

Role Title: Principal Engineer (Tech Lead)

Location: London (Hybrid - 3 days per week)

Reporting to: Delivery Lead / Client Services Director

Core Tech: Java, React, AWS

Who We Are

We’re on a mission to close the world’s tech skills gap. 

We help organisations navigate the future of technology, combining human expertise, emerging tech and AI to deliver better outcomes, faster.

Since 2014, we’ve worked side-by-side with clients to solve complex challenges, build high-performing teams, and create lasting capability. As technology continues to evolve, we believe the most successful organisations will be those that combine the best of both: human ingenuity AND intelligent technology.

That belief is embedded in everything we do. We call it the genius of the AND: deep expertise AND practical delivery, innovation AND responsibility, ambitious work AND sustainable careers.

Through our Guide, Build and Equip approach, we help organisations embrace change, deliver meaningful impact, and develop the skills they need to thrive in an increasingly agentic world.

We are looking for a Principal Engineer to take the technical helm of a high-profile project for one of our cornerstone clients—a global leader in media and entertainment.

As a Lead, you won't just be overseeing delivery; you’ll be the technical heartbeat of a mission-critical platform that powers advertising and audience insights on a global scale. This role is perfect for a hands-on technical expert who enjoys the challenge of scaling complex cloud-native architectures while fostering a high-performance culture across distributed teams.

• Hands-on Engineering: Lead by example. You will remain hands-on, committing high-quality code in Java and React while ensuring the platform is scalable, secure, and performant.
• Architectural Stewardship: Work closely with Technical Architects to ensure the long-term health of our AWS-based ecosystem, making pragmatic decisions that balance speed-to-market with technical excellence.
• Engineering Culture: Set the "gold standard" for engineering routines. From robust CI/CD pipelines to insightful code reviews, you will drive a culture of technical pride.

• Distributed Team Growth: Act as the bridge between our London-based stakeholders and our Nearshore development teams. You will be responsible for creating a "one-team" environment, ensuring high code quality and consistency across geographical boundaries.
• Mentorship: Support the growth of ANDis and client developers alike, fostering a high-achieving environment through coaching and peer reviews.

• Collaborative Influence: Navigate a multi-faceted stakeholder landscape. You’ll be equally comfortable discussing API design with engineers as you are discussing roadmap priorities and business value with Product Owners and Senior Executives.

• Full-Stack Mastery: Extensive professional experience with Java (Spring Boot) and React. You should have a deep understanding of modern frontend patterns and backend microservices.
• Cloud Expertise: Solid experience building and deploying on AWS, including serverless components and data pipelines.
• Distributed Leadership: Proven experience leading and enabling remote or nearshore teams. You know how to maintain velocity and quality when the team isn't in the same room.
• Consultative Mindset: The ability to build trust quickly and provide technical leadership during moments of rapid growth.
• Media/Ad-Tech (Advantageous): Experience in high-volume data streaming or programmatic advertising platforms is a significant plus.

Why join AND Digital?

We’re building a culture where talented people can do meaningful work, continue growing, AND enjoy the journey along the way.

Our model is designed to build belonging and connection: we’re organised into regional ‘Clubs’ of no more than 80 people, so you (and our clients) get the benefits of that small company feel while also being connected to a larger whole.

Our Practice Areas act as a ‘second home’ for our ANDis - a place where you can innovate and learn with like-minded experts who care deeply about their craft, support each other generously, and believe the best ideas come from collaboration, not hierarchy.

Our culture is rooted in our values of Wonder, Share and Delight, and shows up through five traits that we celebrate and nurture in all our ANDis: we value curiosity, ambition and a growth-mindset. We are deeply client-centric. Most important of all we are human - we create an inclusive environment where people feel trusted, supported and able to be themselves.

By joining AND, we’ll provide:

• 25 days bookable holiday + flexible Bank Holidays 
• Pension: 6% of salary paid by AND Digital with a further 2% paid by you (can be increased by choice).
• Aviva healthcare cover (including pre-existing condition cover) for you.
• Flexibenefit: £1000 assigned to you via our benefits portal to select or upgrade the benefits that suit you the most. Any unused allowance from the £1000 can be taken as cash. 
• Life Assurance.
• Income Protection.
• Eye test + first pair of glasses.
• Parental Benefits: Generous Enhanced Maternity and Enhanced Partner (Paternity) Leave.

Equal Opportunities Statement

Diversity and inclusion are hugely important to us, and we’re committed to providing equal opportunities for all. We’re actively recruiting for a diverse and inclusive workforce so want to ensure we do everything we can to support your application.

We want you to feel safe and empowered to let us know if you need any adjustments to be made to your application or interview process, so please speak to our recruitment team.