At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead innovative software projects and mentor teams while solving complex technical challenges.
- Company: Join 8th Light, a dynamic tech solutions provider with a collaborative culture.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive pay, unlimited learning resources, and flexible hybrid work options.
- Other info: Be part of a supportive environment that values continuous education and personal growth.
- Why this job: Make a real impact by working on cutting-edge AI systems and scalable solutions.
- Qualifications: 10+ years of software engineering experience and strong leadership skills.
The predicted salary is between 50000 - 70000 £ per year.
Location: Waterloo, London, England, UK | Hybrid (1 day per week in office)
About Us
At 8th Light, we bring life to the best ideas. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Chicago, we are a technology solutions provider that partners with organizations to solve meaningful challenges and drive sustainable growth. From early-stage startups to global enterprises, we work across industries to optimise our clients’ digital products through product strategy innovation, experiential design, AI solutions, and deep engineering expertise. Our commitment to quality means we deliver solutions we’re truly proud of, while our curiosity sparks innovation and breakthrough thinking. 8th Lights thrive in an environment that champions continuous education, fueling our growth through mentorship and hands‑on work. We foster an open, collaborative culture grounded in honesty that builds trust, and believe true success is measured by the outcomes we create for our clients.
Who You Are
You’ve shown long‑term repeated success on a variety of projects, typically over the course of 10+ years. You are a trusted expert and leader, often called upon to guide ambiguous initiatives and architect scalable solutions. You bring a blend of deep consulting acumen, technical expertise, and product thinking that drives measurable and impactful outcomes. In your previous experience, you have:
- Demonstrated long‑term success on high‑stakes consulting engagements across multiple language paradigms, stacks, ecosystems, technical environments, and client industries
- Built high‑quality, maintainable software collaboratively, incrementally, and through an approach tailored towards the unique needs of the clients you’ve served
- Led the development and delivery of production‑grade software using a variety of languages and frameworks, including but not limited to: Python, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Ruby, Scala, R, SQL, and Go
- Evaluated and strategically applied AI‑assistive development tools to accelerate delivery and improve quality
- A track record of understanding, assessing, and embracing new tooling and trends within the software industry
- Experience building or integrating AI/ML‑powered features into products or systems (e.g., recommendation engines, NLP models, computer vision, predictive analytics)
- Used context‑appropriate automated testing to inform software design choices and catch bugs
- Successfully led modernization efforts to align legacy systems with short and long‑term business needs
- Remedied architecture‑level concerns such as scalability, security, reliability, and performance
- Facilitated alignment and collaboration across technical and non‑technical stakeholders to move initiatives forward in the face of ambiguity and complexity while balancing technical considerations with product and user needs
- Provided mentorship and team support at scale, while sharing knowledge and improving team practices
- Actively sought out and effectively gave feedback
- Collaboratively led stakeholders to balance technical considerations with product and user needs
What You’ll Do At 8th Light
As a go‑to technologist and strategist within 8th Light, you’ll work with a variety of clients, typically one to two in a year, while continuing to deepen your and our collective domain expertise over the course of your career with us. You’ll be responsible for:
- Rapidly building trust with clients, demonstrating technical expertise and understanding of their domain and objectives
- Guiding technical direction, solving complex problems, and demonstrating best practices while remaining deeply engaged within the codebase
- Working pragmatically to balance technology choices while delivering high‑quality work within deadlines
- Advising clients on architecture, scalability and platform evolution, connecting technical decisions to product and business outcomes
- Collaborating on systems that involve the full ML lifecycle from data ingestion and preprocessing, to model deployment, integration, and performance monitoring
- Driving innovation by proactively surfacing new technical approaches and product solutions
- Leading or initiating formal feedback conversations with teams and clients via retrospectives
- Clearly articulating and documenting outcomes and driving forward action items
- Contributing to the health of your team and 8th Light’s culture by modelling our values
- Designing and managing high‑level technical roadmaps for large engagements
- Building your network and maintaining relationships with clients and other industry leaders within your domain
- Coaching client engineering teams, transferring knowledge and leveling up practices
- Influencing client CTOs and executive decisions
- Planning and executing technical work that involves stakeholders outside of project boundaries such as across a client’s technical organization
- Participating in account planning; opportunity identification
- Facilitating retrospectives, strategy sessions, and technical deep dives to improve team and project outcomes
- Identifying, mitigating, and resolving blockers to team progress
- Contributing to 8th Light by serving as a mentor, leading or designing workshops internally or for clients, representing 8th Light in the tech community, or supporting our hiring processes
- Demonstrating leadership in scalable system design, modular architecture, and platform‑oriented development
- Bringing depth in testing strategies, observability, fault tolerance, and secure engineering practices
- Applying architectural patterns to evaluate tradeoffs and drive clear, documented design rationale
Strongly Preferred Skills
- Delivering and advising on enterprise‑grade AI systems, including RAG pipelines, vector search, and agentic frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, Crew AI, AutoGen, n8n), ensuring scalable, production‑ready solutions that empower developers and align with business outcomes
- DevSecOps & DevOps
- MLOps
- Infrastructure as Code
- Data Engineering: including platforms like Databricks for data processing and analytics
How You’ll Be Supported
Our wellness package is designed with the Whole YOU in mind and includes:
- A robust L&D programme featuring unlimited access to thousands of books, courses, and expert‑led training on the O'Reilly learning platform
- Annual financial stipend and time allotment for learning & development
- Coworking support for our global team
- 12 weeks of new‑parent leave available for eligible employees
A Note On Compensation
At 8th Light, we are committed to a compensation philosophy that is transparent, fair, and helps us attract and retain top talent in alignment with our company’s strategic growth goals and clients’ needs. We benchmark our salaries using Geographic Structures to establish competitive pay ranges within the regions where 8th Light live. Our pay ranges for our Principal Engineer position within London is: £92–818–£116–122 GBP.
8th Light Hubs and Geographies
London Co‑working: Employees working from our London hub follow a hybrid model, which includes a minimum of one day per week in our Waterloo Office. This co‑working day is designed to encourage collaboration and further strengthen our community. In most cases, our consulting engagements do not require travel.
We hope to see you apply!
Privacy Note
At 8th Light, one of our core values is Honesty that builds trust — and that shapes how we approach hiring. We want you to have a clear picture of who we are, what we’re looking for, and how we handle your information throughout the process. Before submitting your application, please take a moment to review our Global Candidate Privacy Notice. By applying, you acknowledge that you’ve read it.
Principal Software Engineer (Hybrid) employer: hackajob
At 8th Light, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer that fosters a culture of continuous learning and collaboration. Our hybrid work model allows for flexibility while maintaining strong community ties through regular in-office days in Waterloo, London. With a robust learning and development programme, generous parental leave, and a commitment to transparent compensation, we empower our employees to grow both personally and professionally in a supportive environment.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Principal Software Engineer (Hybrid)
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at hackajob or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to hackajob.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like hackajob.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like hackajob that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Principal Software Engineer (Hybrid)
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at hackajob.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at hackajob and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at hackajob
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If hackajob uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
