Job Details

Principal Engineer

Ordnance Survey

Latest Job
Expires in 10 days

Overview

We are Ordnance Survey, Great Britain’s national mapping service and a global leader in geospatial data and technology. For over 230 years, our data has helped governments, businesses and communities make better decisions about the world around them.
£74,781.00 to £87,244.00
Per year, depending on experience
Permanent, Full time
(Full-time hours)
Southampton, United Kingdom

Key information

This is a rare and high-impact opportunity for an exceptional Principal Engineer to operate as the senior technical authority within Business Systems.

You won’t just contribute to engineering decisions — you will set the direction.

Research indicates that women, individuals with disabilities, LGBTQ+ community members, neurodiverse individuals, and people from ethnic minority backgrounds often hesitate to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Ordnance Survey, we are dedicated to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and genuine workplace where everyone can thrive.

About the role

You will

  • Lead on our most complex and business-critical engineering challenges
  • Shape and influence technology strategy across the organisation
  • Define engineering standards, architecture and best practice at scale
  • Provide technical assurance across platforms, integrations and systems
  • Elevate capability by mentoring and inspiring engineers across multiple teams

Working at the intersection of technology, strategy and delivery, you’ll partner with senior leaders, architects and product teams to ensure OS continues to build secure, scalable and future-ready systems.

Alongside leading 3 direct reports, you’ll operate as a technical leader across a wider network of c.20 engineers — influencing design decisions, embedding best practice, and driving engineering excellence across multiple teams.

Requirements

You are a recognised technical leader with the ability to operate at both strategic and hands-on levels, bringing clarity to complexity and driving meaningful change.

Essential

  • Deep, broad technical expertise across software engineering, system design, integrations, Azure and enterprise platforms (e.g. CRM, Finance systems, APIs)
  • Proven track record leading large-scale engineering or architectural transformation
  • Strong ability to shape technical strategy and influence at senior level
  • Experience providing technical governance and assurance across complex environments
  • Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to translate complexity into clear direction
  • A passion for coaching, mentoring and raising engineering standards
  • Ability to balance long-term strategic thinking with pragmatic delivery focus


Desirable

  • Experience in product-aligned or service-led operating models
  • Strong understanding of modern engineering practices (Agile, DevOps, CI/CD)
  • Knowledge of cloud-native architectures and modern platforms
  • Experience improving engineering capability across multiple teams or domains