At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead and innovate in software engineering, focusing on COBOL development and infrastructure modernization.
- Company: Join Rocket Software, a diverse and inclusive tech company with a passion for innovation.
- Benefits: Enjoy remote work, competitive salary, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with a focus on mentorship and technical excellence.
- Why this job: Shape the future of mission-critical technologies and make a global impact.
- Qualifications: 10+ years in software engineering with expertise in systems-level development and leadership.
The predicted salary is between 80000 - 100000 £ per year.
It's fun to work in a company where people truly BELIEVE in what they're doing!
The Infrastructure Modernization business unit is seeking a highly experienced Principal Software Engineer to join our engineering organization and provide deep technical leadership across our COBOL development ecosystem and our Enterprise Server application replatforming products. This is a hands-on, strategic role focused on designing, building, and evolving mission‑critical infrastructure used by global enterprises running high‑volume, high‑reliability systems.
In this role, you will influence architecture across multiple product lines, guide engineering best practices, and help define the future of our platform as customers modernize decades‑old workloads into more agile, distributed environments. You will partner closely with senior engineering leaders, product managers, and domain experts to drive innovation at scale.
What You’ll Do
- Technical Leadership
- Architect, design, and implement core components within our COBOL development tools, runtime environments, and mainframe replatforming infrastructure.
- Provide technical direction across multiple engineering teams building compilers, runtimes, middleware, and large-scale distributed systems.
- Drive modernization strategies for legacy application ecosystems, including cloud migration, workload transformation, and hybrid deployment scenarios.
- Hands-On Engineering
- Own complex technical domains end-to-end, from design through production, balancing long‑term architecture with immediate product needs.
- Build highly reliable, scalable, and secure infrastructure software used in mission‑critical enterprise environments.
- Conduct deep code reviews, troubleshoot production issues, and mentor engineers in system-level design and performance optimization.
- Cross-Functional Impact
- Collaborate with product management to shape roadmap priorities and translate customer challenges into technical solutions.
- Work with System Test, DevOps, and release engineering to ensure high-quality, low‑risk releases across a diverse product portfolio.
- Introduce and champion engineering excellence practices, including automated testing, performance benchmarking, observability, and maintainability.
What We’re Looking For
- Required Experience
- 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including leadership over complex, multi‑team technical initiatives.
- Deep expertise in systems-level software development, such as compilers, runtimes, operating systems, or infrastructure‑level platforms.
- Strong background in mission-critical, high‑availability software (e.g., financial services, telecom, government, or core enterprise platforms).
- Demonstrated experience with COBOL, PL/I, C, or C++—or significant experience in other lower-level languages with a willingness to dive into COBOL domain internals.
- Proven track record building or modernizing enterprise-grade tooling, middleware, or distributed systems.
- Ability to decompose legacy architectures, assess modernization paths, and design scalable solutions.
- Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with mainframe-to-cloud migration, workload replatforming, or runtime compatibility layers.
- Familiarity with Azure, AWS, or hybrid cloud architectures.
- Understanding of static and dynamic language runtimes, compiler pipelines, and virtual machine internals.
- Prior technical mentorship or architectural leadership spanning multiple scrum teams.
- Strong diagnostic skills for debugging low-level performance, memory, concurrency, or runtime issues.
Who You Are
- A pragmatic engineer who balances ideal architecture with real-world constraints.
- Passionate about long-term maintainability and operational excellence.
- Comfortable working with legacy systems and excited about evolving them for the future.
- A collaborator who elevates teams through mentorship and cross-functional alignment.
- Someone who thrives in a technically rich, complex domain where your expertise has large-scale impact.
Why Join Us?
- Influence the future of mission‑critical modernization technologies used worldwide.
- Work with a highly experienced engineering organization with deep domain expertise.
- Opportunity to shape architecture and product direction across multiple major portfolios.
- A culture that values technical depth, thoughtful engineering, and long-term product stewardship.
Principal Software Engineer in Newbury employer: Rocket Software Development India
At Rocket Software, we foster a dynamic and inclusive work environment where innovation thrives and every team member's expertise is valued. As a Principal Software Engineer, you'll have the opportunity to lead transformative projects that modernise mission-critical technologies, while enjoying a culture that prioritises technical excellence and employee growth. With a commitment to diversity and a focus on collaboration, we empower our engineers to make a significant impact in a supportive and engaging atmosphere.
Contact Details:
Rocket Software Development India Recruitment Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Principal Software Engineer in Newbury
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
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✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
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We think you need these skills to ace Principal Software Engineer in Newbury
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 Rocket Software Development India.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Rocket Software Development India 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 Rocket Software Development India
✨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 Rocket Software Development India 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.
