Principal Software Engineer in Thame

Hi, we’re PEXA! We know you’ll Google us before applying, so let’s keep this brief. PEXA revolutionised the way that property is settled in Australia, turning a paper-based process into a digital one. Our solution is a world-first, with over 500 people across Australia and an expanding international team, we’re helping 20,000+ families into their homes each week. We’re passionate about solving problems for our customers – always striving to set the standard for how property is bought and sold. Being awarded as one of the best places to work in Australia is a recognition of our culture and commitment to innovation, customers and our community.

We’re growing fast, that is where you come in. We believe our success in Australia is worth sharing and that our proven technology will advance how the UK buys and sells homes. Establishing ourselves within the UK in late 2020, we are committed to collaborating with lawyers, conveyancers, lenders, government and the property industry, to set the new standard for both remortgages and buying and selling property.

We're looking for an exceptional Principal Engineer to help shape the future of engineering at PEXA UK. This is one of the most influential technical roles within our organisation. Working closely with the UK CTO and engineering leadership team, you'll define technical strategy, drive architectural decisions, champion innovation, and help build the engineering capabilities that support our next phase of growth. As a technical leader, you'll operate across multiple teams, influencing engineering direction at an organisational level rather than within a single product or platform. You'll mentor engineers, establish engineering standards, evaluate emerging technologies, and ensure we're building secure, scalable and resilient solutions that deliver outstanding customer outcomes. You'll also play a key role in advancing how we leverage AI across both our products and engineering practices, helping PEXA stay at the forefront of technology innovation.

What You'll Be Doing

• Technical Strategy & Architecture: Define and execute engineering strategy across multiple teams and domains. Drive architectural decisions that balance business priorities, scalability, security and long-term sustainability. Design solutions that support future growth and evolving customer needs. Identify and address technical risks across the organisation.
• Engineering Excellence: Establish and evolve engineering standards, best practices and quality frameworks. Drive improvements in performance, reliability, security and developer productivity. Champion modern software engineering principles and continuous improvement. Support the evolution of platform, infrastructure and service architecture.
• AI & Emerging Technology: Lead the evaluation and adoption of emerging technologies and AI capabilities. Drive the integration of AI tools and practices that enhance engineering effectiveness. Explore and implement modern AI-powered development workflows, coding assistants and agentic systems. Help shape PEXA's approach to AI innovation and organisational adoption.
• Leadership & Mentorship: Mentor and coach engineers across all levels, from emerging talent to senior technical leaders. Foster a culture of technical excellence, curiosity and continuous learning. Lead technical discussions, knowledge-sharing initiatives and engineering communities of practice. Contribute to hiring and technical assessment processes.
• Collaboration & Business Impact: Partner with Product, Design and Business leaders to align technical strategy with organisational goals. Translate business objectives into technical roadmaps and engineering outcomes. Influence decision-making at executive level through clear communication and technical insight. Represent PEXA externally within the technology community and industry forums.

About You

You're a highly experienced technologist who combines deep technical expertise with strategic thinking and business acumen. You thrive on solving complex problems at scale, influencing engineering direction, and helping others grow. You'll bring:

• Significant experience designing and delivering large-scale distributed systems.
• A track record of defining technical strategy and driving organisation-wide engineering outcomes.
• Strong experience working across multiple teams, platforms and stakeholders.
• Proven ability to balance technical excellence with commercial priorities.
• Exceptional communication skills and the ability to influence at all levels of the organisation.

Technical Expertise

You'll bring deep expertise across modern software engineering practices and technologies, including:

• Node.js, Python and Kotlin
• Modern frontend technologies
• Cloud platforms such as AWS and Azure
• Microservices and distributed architectures
• Containerisation and cloud-native development
• Security architecture and secure software development practices
• Performance, scalability and reliability engineering

You'll also have a strong interest in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, including:

• AI-assisted software development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cline and Amazon Q
• Agentic AI frameworks and orchestration platforms
• Modern approaches to context engineering and AI-enhanced developer productivity
• Evaluating and adopting emerging AI technologies within engineering organisations

Nice to Have

• Experience within financial services, property technology or other regulated industries.
• Exposure to DevSecOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) or Platform Engineering environments.
• Knowledge of AI frameworks and technologies including Anthropic Claude, LangGraph, Hugging Face, LiteLLM or Pydantic AI.

Benefits for PEXA employees include:

• Annual Leave: 25 days per year (Jan-Dec), increasing to 27 days after 5 years, plus Bank Holidays (pro-rata for part-time).
• Annual Leave Purchase: Option to purchase up to 1 working week of additional leave.
• Wellness Days: 4 paid days per year to rest and recharge (pro-rata for part-time). We kindly ask you take 1 per quarter.
• Paid Volunteer Day: 1 paid day per year to volunteer at a charity of your choice.
• Pension scheme (Aviva): 6% employer contribution, 4% employee contribution.
• Life Assurance: 4x basic salary.
• Health Flex Pot via Benifex: £800 flexible benefit to spend on health options of your choice, including: Private Health Insurance / Health Cash Plan / Dental Plan / Health Assessments.
• Additional Benifex perks: Voluntary opt-in for additional benefits including Activity Pass, discounts via Perkbox, Beauty and Fitness Discount Card, Cycle to Work, Motor Breakdown, Will Writing, or enhance your cover of benefits provided by company.
• Critical Illness Cover: 1x basic salary.
• Group-wide Equity Plan: Eligibility for participation in our Group-wide employee share plan, subject to annual invitation.
• Enhanced Maternity/Adoption Pay: Up to 20 weeks full pay.
• Enhanced Paternity Pay: Up to 4 weeks full pay.
• Performance-based Incentive Scheme: Eligibility for a discretionary Short Term Incentive plan, based on job role and level.
• Learning & Development: Access to LinkedIn Learning, reimbursement of your professional membership costs.
• Additional: Access to our Employee Assistance Programme and wellbeing resources, eye test vouchers and VDU glasses contribution.
• Office Space: Use of our PEXA office workspaces in Leeds and Thame. Our new Leeds office is in West Village, managed by Bruntwood SciTech and allows you access to Bruntwood hosted local events.

Why become a PEXArian? Great question! Being a PEXArian is so much more than just a job. We’re a passionate, motivated and unashamedly enthusiastic bunch at PEXA – we love what we do and we’re proud to admit it! Creating brilliant experiences for our members and their clients wouldn’t be possible without ensuring we deliver an exceptional employee experience.

Here’s a snapshot of what your life at PEXA could look like:

• Your growth: We encourage you to hit your personal and professional learning and development goals with our tailored programs and tools.
• Your wellness: We care about your holistic wellbeing.
• Your work/life blend: We know that work is just one aspect of your life – we want to help you create your ideal work/life blend, rather than squeezing in life around work.

Sounds like you? We at PEXA are ready so if this role sounds like you apply today.