Principal Software Engineer

We are recruiting for a Principal Software Developer to provide additional leadership to the Software Development profession during a time of growth.

• Are you someone who could help encourage our profession to be the best it can be?
• Are you enthusiastic about making change and ensuring all our teams have the skills and knowledge they need to succeed?

These are exciting times at Companies House as we continue our transformation journey, developing new digital services that are used nationally at scale. Our services are built using the latest technology and cloud services, with a focus on microservice development on AWS.

This role is a unique opportunity to shape how we develop and secure our digital services. Working within an embedded agile delivery structure you will be empowered to define the processes and technology we use to produce software.

Watch this video to find out more about working in Digital at Companies House

Companies House offers a flexible and welcoming culture that promotes a healthy work life balance as well as a proactive approach to wellbeing that allows us to be our best at work. We recognise that people are the key to our success so offer a fantastic benefits package including flexible working with no core hours, 30 days annual leave, 8 bank holidays and 1 privilege day as well as enrolment into the Civil Service Pension scheme with a contribution rate averaging 28%.

Find out more about what a great place Companies House is to work

Job description

You’ll work closely with the Head of the Development to produce, lead and implement strategies to:

• Improve the flow of software into production and meet users needs.
• Ensure high quality software is delivered within an agile delivery environment through the constant improvement of standards and processes.
• Establish communities of practice both internally and externally, in order to share knowledge and help.
• Raise the profile of Development and Companies House both internally and externally through knowledge sharing and supporting others to create a culture of innovation and experimentation.
• Keep up to date with emerging technologies and lead the introduction into the development community when appropriate, ensuring that legacy technologies and services are constantly improved or removed as necessary.

We want our profession to:

• Be passionate about meeting user needs by releasing software as often as possible.
• Be enthusiastic about clean maintainable code, well designed software and coaching others with it.
• Love helping and mentoring others to enable them to work at their best.

We would love you to be part of our team and help us get to a point where the following are part of the culture. We want to:

• Have many releases per day automatically into production.
• Have automated test coverage for everything from accessibility to security and performance.
• Be constantly innovating and running iterations of our services to meet and exceed user needs.
• Be publicly recognised as an organisation that works openly on interesting things.
• Ensure we are meeting the needs of our users by ensuring we have diversity in thought and ideas.

Person specification

We're looking for the following, which will be assessed at sift and at interview. The successful candidate will be someone who:

• Values working in the open, and are comfortable sharing ideas early.
• Is optimistic and will lead the teams according to the Companies House values by being Adaptable, Bold and Curious.
• Is proactive, and encourage others to take practical action.
• Recognises that diverse views make our services better. You’ll communicate across borders, whether that’s teams, directorates or government agencies.
• Enjoys learning and experimenting with new approaches and tools.
• Relishes helping others to work at their best.
• Is confident using a coaching or mentoring approach to provide leadership within projects.

Technical

Knowledge of the following technologies:

• NodeJS, Java, AWS

And ideally some knowledge of these technologies:

• Go, API's, GitHub, Concourse

Experience

You’ll have significant experience as a developer and leading developers.

• Experience of improving the development practice ensuring that the engineering function is delivering software in its most optimum way.
• Experience of working using agile methodologies.
• Experience of setting and delivering strategic direction for the engineering function including the management of all necessary stakeholders.

About us

Companies House is an award-winning employer, building brilliant services on cutting edge technology. You’ll join our digital team at a time of transformation, and you will be a part of shaping the future of our department. We use Agile methodologies and promote a culture of continuous improvement.

We currently have 15 cross functional agile software development teams. Each containing developers, testers, business analyst, product owner, user researcher, user experience and agile delivery manager.

The teams are supported by a platform team who have already automated large parts of our development pipeline using Concourse CI, SonarQube, AWS, Terraform, Ansible, Artifactory & Docker. We also have a dedicate Research and Development driving Innovation at the heart of Engineering.

We’re migrating our current legacy systems into a Microservice architecture. All new services are hosted on AWS and we’re using trunk-based development and Continuous Integration.

We're working with data that is estimated to be worth £3 billion to our users. There are over 4 million companies on the register. Over 6 billion searches of the free register are made every year (excluding API calls). We register approximately 2,800 new companies every day.

What it is like to work in Companies House

Inclusive and diverse teams are important to us. Wherever possible we offer flexible working arrangements. We'll support you to meet other commitments and help you strike a better work-life balance. We’re keen to create an environment that works for everyone, and we particularly encourage applications from different underrepresented demographics.

Half a day a week is devoted to Innovation time where everyone in digital can work on whatever they choose, be that building new applications, trying new technologies or working towards certifications, it’s up to you. In addition to this we offer lots of opportunities to have training as and when it is needed. We trust and empower our staff to work in a way which best suits them.

Companies House is an award-winning employer, with an Investors in People Platinum Award we are at the forefront in ensuring our staff reach their full potential in building brilliant services on cutting-edge technology. You’ll be joining our Software Engineering Profession at a time of transformation and you will be a part of shaping the future of our department. We use Agile Methodologies and promote a culture of continuous improvement.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £51,854, Companies House contributes £15,022 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

We offer an excellent benefits package that includes:

• a generous 30 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays and 1 privilege day
• enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme with a contribution rate of averaging 28%
• a range of recognition schemes including instant awards to thank and recognise each other's efforts and contributions
• strong ethos of equality, diversity and inclusion
• great work life balance with flexible and mobile working available for many roles
• a pro-active approach to employee wellbeing that allows our employees to flourish and be their best at work and has enabled us to become an Investors In People platinum accredited employer
• online financial support and advice
• seasonal flu jabs
• generous maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave allowances
• a focus on career development and progression
• a number of inclusive network groups to support our colleagues and a great sports and social society
• cycle to work scheme
• staff discount scheme
• holiday play scheme for children
• 3 days paid volunteering leave

Next Steps

Click 'Apply Now' to be taken to our main advert Civil Service Jobs where you can see more details regarding the role, the incredible benefits we have to offer and what it's like to work in Companies House.

If you have any questions about the role or process, please reach out to kjones6@companieshouse.gov.uk.

This role closes on 1 June 2025.