A major Australian enterprise is investing heavily in modernising its engineering capability and we’re searching for a Principal Engineer who can lead the charge.

This role is perfect for someone who operates comfortably at the intersection of architecture, delivery, and engineering uplift. You’ll work closely with internal stakeholders and external vendors to ensure solutions are well-designed, well-governed, and implemented to a high standard, while still staying close enough to the hands-on detail to guide engineers effectively. 
 
The Opportunity

As the Principal Engineer, you’ll be a key technical authority responsible for shaping engineering practices, design quality, and solution consistency across the organisation.

You’ll partner directly with senior technology leaders to set direction, assess technical approaches, and ensure the engineering function is equipped with the right patterns, tooling, and guardrails.

This isn’t a coding-heavy role, but you should still be capable of diving into code when needed (e.g. writing a git hook to enforce Jira processes) and setting the example for the level of quality expected across the ecosystem. 
 
What You’ll Be Doing

You’ll play a pivotal role across solution architecture, engineering quality, and vendor oversight:

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Guide vendors and internal teams through solution design, implementation patterns, and best practice engineering;

• Shape system architecture across domains, ensuring solutions are scalable, maintainable, and aligned to organisational goals; and

• Support teams with code reviews, design validation, data modelling and engineering uplift.

Engineering Uplift

• Improve development workflows and engineering practices across teams;

• Introduce and refine tooling, including plugins, accessibility improvements, and automation guardrails (e.g. git hooks enforcing standards); and

• Promote high-quality engineering standards across CI/CD, testing, DevOps and quality gates.

Vendor & Stakeholder Management

• Work closely with external delivery partners to ensure solutions meet architectural, security and operational expectations;

• Collaborate with product owners, business stakeholders and senior leaders to translate needs into clear, pragmatic technical direction; and

• Provide technical guidance, challenge assumptions and ensure accountability across delivery streams.

What You’ll Bring

Technical Skills

• Strong experience in large enterprise environments or complex engineering landscapes;

• Expertise in C#, SQL, data modelling, API design and modern engineering patterns;

• Ability to evaluate solutions, uplift practices and guide others, even when not hands-on every day; and

• Exposure to cloud environments (Azure ideal), CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps tooling.

Leadership & Delivery

• Proven experience influencing technical direction across multiple teams or vendors;

• Ability to balance architectural thinking with practical delivery constraints;

• Comfortable mentoring engineers, facilitating change, and navigating senior stakeholders; and

• Experience ensuring vendors deliver to agreed standards and design principles.

Bonus Experience

• Hands-on capability to jump into code when required (e.g. creating git hooks, reviewing complex PRs, designing SQL models); and

• Background in accessibility uplift, plugin integration or workflow automation.

Why You’ll Want This Role

• Opportunity to define engineering quality and architecture principles for a major organisation;

• High visibility role partnering closely with senior technology leadership;

• Work across multiple domains with the ability to influence long-term technical direction;

• Strong salary package (~$180k + super) with career pathways, flexibility, and supportive leadership; and

• A chance to leave a lasting mark by modernising engineering standards, practices and system design.

How to Apply
 
For more information or a confidential discussion please email Matt Kirk at u&u on matt.kirk@uandu.com quoting reference number 43482.
 
At u&u Recruitment Partners, we value diversity, equity and inclusion. We welcome applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds and people with disability.
 
Should you require reasonable adjustments or have a preferred method of communication throughout the recruitment process, we encourage you to make a request via adjustments@uandu.com or phone the above-mentioned u&u consultant to discuss. In response to these requests, we will collaborate closely with you to implement the appropriate adjustments.
 
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Please submit your resume in Word format only.