Principal Software Engineer - Transfers in Bristol

Our purpose is to make it easy for people to save and invest for a better future. We are looking for great people to join us, so please come and invest in YOUR future at Hargreaves Lansdown.

We know that sometimes people can be put off applying for a job if they don't tick every box. If you're excited about working for us and have most of the skills or experience we're looking for, please go ahead and apply. We’d love to hear from you!

About HL And The Opportunity

We’re building the next generation platform for one of the UK’s largest financial services companies, trusted by over 2 million clients and managing c.£150 billion in assets. You will contribute in expanding our new capabilities that will enable our clients to seamlessly transfer in (and out) financial products like SIPPs and ISAs. Be part of HL’s future. Be part of the future of investing. Shape it with us.

About the Role

As the Principal Engineer in our Transfers Tribe, you will be the technical authority across the Transfers domain, shaping the architecture, technical direction, and long-term health of systems. You will focus on solving the hardest technical and architectural problems at scale, reducing systemic risk, and enabling teams to deliver faster without compromising stability, security, or regulatory compliance. You will work closely with Engineering Managers, Product Managers, Architecture, and Platform teams within an end-to-end, product-led delivery model.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaboration & Influence
  • Lead through influence: Align stakeholders, run design reviews, drive decisions, own technical governance and unblock delivery teams.
  • Work closely with Product, Operations, Architecture, and Platform teams to ensure solutions are fit for live service.
  • Support regulatory, audit, and operational discussions by clearly articulating technical design choices and risks.
• Technical Strategy & Architecture
  • Set and evolve the technical direction for the Transfers domain, ensuring architectural integrity, scalability, and resilience.
  • Own and maintain architectural principles, guardrails, and standards, balancing short-term delivery with long-term sustainability.
  • Lead early technical discovery for initiatives, shaping solution options, trade-offs, and technical risk assessments.
  • Identify and proactively reduce system-level and cross-team technical risks, including performance, operability, and data integrity.
• Engineering & Problem Solving
  • Solve complex technical problems across event-driven flows, integrations, orchestration, and data consistency.
  • Drive improvements in testability, observability, deployment safety, and recovery across Transfers systems.
• Technical Leadership & Enablement
  • Act as a technical mentor and coach to senior engineers, raising the technical bar across tribes.
  • Partner with Engineering Managers to enable sustainable, predictable delivery.
  • Provide clear technical direction through shared patterns, guidance, and architectural decisions.

Skills & Experience

Essential

• At least 2+ years in a Principal Engineering or Solution Architect role or similar.
• Proven ability to set technical direction across multiple teams without line management responsibility.
• Strong Java software engineering background with the ability to engage on architecture decisions. We use Java 21 and Spring Boot paired with RDBMS and NoSQL databases.
• Experience with AWS and event-driven architectures.
• Experience delivering product-led, agile software.
• Strong stakeholder management across Product, Operations, and Engineering.
• Excellent communication skills, able to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Desirable

• Experience in financial services.
• Experience improving operational resilience and throughput via system redesign and automation.
• Experience with agent-first organisations.

What Success Looks Like

• Transfers systems are simpler, more resilient, and easier to change, with fewer incidents and faster recovery.
• Technical risks are surfaced and addressed early, enabling predictable delivery.
• Clear architectural direction reduces rework, inconsistency, and regret spend.

Interview Process

• 3 Stage Interview
• Stage 1 – Discussion with our Hiring Manager (45mins): A chance to talk with our Hiring Manager in more detail about the role, our tech stack and some of the problems we solve every day. Here, we’ll dig a bit more into some of your experiences, understand the processes you’re familiar with and the technologies you’ve used to deliver end user value as well as your approach to influencing without line management.
• Stage 2 – Technical (90mins): For the technical part, we’d like you to sit down with some of your potential peers to work through a technical solution. We’ll be looking together at system design, deep-dive into areas like event-driven systems or migration paths for live systems, and how to influence your peers.
• Stage 3 - Culture Fit (30mins): In our Cultural Fit interview, we’ll be looking to learn more about your past experiences, what keeps you motivated, where we may be able to help you improve further, key decisions you’ve helped to make and issues you’ve resolved.

Why us?

Here at HL, we’re the UK’s number 1 investment platform for private investors, based in Bristol. For more than 40 years we’ve helped investors save time, tax and money on their investments. To achieve our mission, we believe we have a workplace like no other, with constant learning, dynamic teams, and a great ethos. We're steered by core values that promote service, quality, innovation, and opportunity in everything we do.

What's on offer?

• Discretionary annual bonus and annual pay review.
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays and 1-day additional Christmas closure.
• Option to purchase an additional 5 days holiday.
• Flexible working options available, including hybrid working.
• Enhanced parental leave.
• Pension scheme up to 11% employer contribution.
• Income Protection and Life insurance (4 x salary core level of cover).
• Private medical insurance.
• Health care cash plans - including optical, dental, and outpatient care.
• Health screening programme.
• Help@hand - confidential support including mental health counselling and remote GP.
• Wellhub - unlimited access to fitness providers and wellness coach sessions.
• Variety of travel to work schemes with bike storage and shower facilities.
• Inhouse barista and deli serving subsidised coffee and sandwiches.
• Two paid volunteering days per year.

Hargreaves Lansdown is an inclusive employer that values diversity in its workforce. We encourage applications from all individuals without regard to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, disability or age.

This role may also be available on a flexible working or part time basis – please ask the Recruitment & Onboarding team for more information.

Please note, we are unable to provide employment sponsorship to candidates.