Principal Software Engineer - Unified Client Experience (UCX)

Overview

Integrating HL web and mobile apps with existing and new systems to deliver a seamless client experience across a range of products and services.

Delivering value iteratively, always focused on customer outcomes and short feedback loops.

Creating and visualising application metrics to help understand usage patterns and anomalies.

Reviewing code with peers, collaborating across teams to solve problems, with an eye for both quality and velocity.

Innovating, bringing new ideas to the table for adoption throughout HL Digital.

Driving technical decisions and shaping how we build our services.

Working closely with Product Managers and business stakeholders to align engineering outcomes with HL\’s mission and client value.

Championing a culture of continuous learning, cross-functional collaboration, and inclusivity with a growth mindset.

Responsibilities

• 8-10 years of software development experience within large-scale, regulated environments – ideally in Investment, Asset or Wealth Management.
• Solid experience in building and deploying frontend applications in React or React Native with hands-on knowledge of secure API design and authentication services.
• Experience in Java and Spring Boot, or iOS (Swift) or Android (Kotlin) along with exposure to Figma and Vercel is a big plus.
• Capable of writing clean, maintainable and well-tested code.
• Comfortable working in on-prem and cloud-native environments with an interest in observability, using tools like Prometheus and Grafana to keep services healthy and maintainable.
• Familiarity with AWS services and how to integrate them into modern applications.
• A keen focus on quality and security, combining testing and scanning into CI/CD pipelines.
• Passionate about mentoring, reviewing code and sharing knowledge across the team to help engineers thrive.
• Energised by fast paced, regulated environments where we ship at speed, embrace change, and never stop evolving.
• Desirable: Java (21) and Spring Boot.

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. This is your opportunity to shape technology that will redefine how people invest and achieve financial freedom. You will build our next generation Unified Client Experience (UCX) frontend that will streamline client journeys across a range of products and services, in both web and mobile domains. The UCX team consolidates the efforts of the whole organisation, transforming client journeys and delivering on HL\’s vision to give people financial freedom. You will work with like-minded people from business, product and engineering functions to develop and refine client journeys covering onboarding, KYC, account management and investment workflows in a secure and compliant environment. By joining us, you\\\’ll help deliver innovative and scalable solutions that make investing easier and more accessible to millions of users across the UK. Be part of HL\’s future. Be part of the future of investing. Shape it with 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.

Culture & Interview Process

For the technical part, we\’d like you to sit down with some of your potential peers to work through a technical solution or a coding problem. We\’ll be looking together at where a sample piece of technology / code has issues and how we might address them. 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.

Salary & Benefits

Salary & Package: We offer a competitive salary of up to £115,000, depending on experience, alongside a generous performance-based bonus scheme. Your total reward package includes:

• Up to 19% pension contribution – helping you plan confidently for the future
• Private medical insurance – giving you peace of mind and access to top-tier healthcare
• A wide range of excellent benefits, from lifestyle perks to wellbeing support, designed to help you thrive both in and out of work
• 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

Note: Some items are role-level dependent and may be subject to eligibility.

Working Schedule

• We are based in the Paddington Central offices at 4 Kingdom Street, London. Hybrid model: 2-3 days a week in the office and remote flexibility for deep focus.
• This is a full-time role, working 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday.

Location

Paddington, London (with hybrid working).