Job summaryPrincipal Systems Engineers provide technical leadership and are responsible for the operation and running of national, highly available distributed systems being built and run within NHS England.These systems can differ in size, scale and purpose, but an example system would:Have a round-the-clock requirement to be available to a level of 99.9% or higherHave a national-scale impact on unavailability, and cope with the load associated with a daily transactional user-base of more than one hundred thousand peopleAdopt modern Cloud best-practices and open standards to support interoperability and re-usabilityAchieve high availability through operational simplicity.Provide flexible low-cost horizontal scale out to handle expected and unexpected variations in load.Handle the architectural trade-offs necessary to avoid logical bottlenecksProvide security controls appropriate for the storage of large volumes of sensitive data - hundreds of millions of records and documents.Have a direct clinical impact on patient care.These national critical systems enable safe, reliable identification across health and care, supporting services used by hundreds of thousands of people every day.Main duties of the jobAs a Principal Systems Engineer, you will focus on:hands-on engineering and technical leadership for national, highly available distributed systems being built and run within NHS England, driving up the engineering maturity for those systems leading and contributing to broader engineering improvement initiatives across the directorate / organisation, and the ongoing refinement of the NHS England engineering principles.You will also:represent System Engineering practice at a senior level within your business area, providing strong, decisive and visible technical leadership.act as an initial point of escalation for key technical issues, providing leadership, autonomy, support and direction.support Lead and Senior Systems Engineers to ensure every product or service has a clear technical vision with objectives aligned to the real needs of users and the mission of the organisation.ensure that relevant key stakeholders and delivery partners are included, work with them is well coordinated and that new partnership opportunities are evaluated.form part of a multi-functional leadership team to deliver user driven outcomes.On-callParticipation in a shared on-call rota may be required to support a 24/7/365 service, this rota covers evenings, weekends, and public holidays.Successful candidates may need to meet the requirements for Security Check (SC) clearance to access live systems and sensitive data.About usNHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority
Principal Systems Engineer in Kennington employer: National Health Service
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board is an exceptional employer, offering a supportive and collaborative work environment for healthcare professionals in North Wales. With a commitment to employee development and a focus on compassionate care, staff have access to continuous professional development opportunities and the chance to make a meaningful impact in both acute and community paediatrics. The Health Board's integrated approach ensures that employees are part of a dynamic team dedicated to improving health outcomes for the local population.
