IT Principal Engineer - Physical Infrastructure, Networking & Critical Applications

We are recruiting for an IT Principal Engineer to play a key role in the development, optimisation and ongoing evolution of our physical infrastructure, networks, and critical application platforms. If you are a strategic yet hands‑on technical expert who thrives in a fast‑paced, collaborative environment where technology plays a central role in organisational success, this could be the opportunity for you.

Who Are We?

Not just another building society. Not just another job. We’re the fourth largest building society in the UK, and what makes us different is that we’re a mutual organisation. We don’t have shareholders — we’re owned by our members. Our colleagues say Skipton is a great place to work, and you could be one of them, bringing fresh thinking to help ensure our customers remain at the heart of everything we do. Whatever your background and whatever your goals, we’ll support you to take the next step towards a better future.

You will join our IT function as a Principal Engineer specialising in Physical Infrastructure and Networking, helping to ensure our core platforms are resilient, secure and scalable in support of the Society’s most critical services. Acting as a key technical authority for a team of around 20 engineers, you will provide expert guidance, technical direction and decision support on complex engineering challenges. You’ll also work closely with teams across IT to ensure our data centre, network and platform capabilities meet the needs of our applications and services.

What’s In It For You?

Skipton values work–life balance, and we proudly support hybrid and flexible working wherever possible. Our newly refurbished head office provides a vibrant, modern and collaborative workspace. We also offer a comprehensive range of benefits, including:

• Annual discretionary bonus scheme
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays (rising by 1 day per year of service up to 30 days)
• Holiday trading scheme
• Matching employer pension contribution up to 10%
• Colleague mortgage (conditions apply)
• Salary sacrifice scheme for hybrid & electric vehicles
• Commitment to ongoing training and development
• Private medical insurance for all colleagues
• 3 paid volunteering days per year
• Inclusive colleague networks (e.g., Carers, Pride Alliance)
• Health and wellbeing support, including cycle‑to‑work and discounted gym membership

What Will You Be Doing?

As part of our modern infrastructure strategy, we are transforming and optimising the platforms that power the Society’s most critical services. Our physical technology estate spans compute, virtualisation, storage, networking and security — delivering the performance, resilience and protection our organisation relies on.

You will provide both strategic direction and hands‑on technical leadership across several key infrastructure domains, including:

• Enterprise compute and virtualisation platforms (currently Cisco UCS and VMware)
• Enterprise storage platforms (currently HPe Alletra SAN)
• Enterprise networking across data centre, campus and SASE environments (e.g., CATO)
• Network security technologies, including firewalls, load balancers and network access control
• Endpoint security technologies, such as EDR and antivirus

You will also support and guide our Critical Applications team, strengthening operational resilience, disaster recovery and cyber‑recovery capabilities. This includes expertise in enterprise backup and recovery platforms (e.g., NetBackup, Commvault), air‑gapped architectures, clean‑room recovery models, and wider resilience tooling.

In This Role, You Will:

• Act as the organisation’s senior technical authority for on‑premise and hybrid infrastructure, shaping the design and evolution of compute, storage, virtualisation, networking and security services.
• Define and embed engineering standards, architectural guardrails and best practices across physical infrastructure and critical platforms.
• Drive the Society’s resilience strategy across operational resilience, disaster recovery, backup, restoration and cyber recovery.
• Embed strong engineering discipline and SRE‑aligned principles to improve service reliability and reduce operational risk.
• Lead the lifecycle strategy for core infrastructure platforms, ensuring they remain performant, resilient and aligned to long‑term technology roadmaps.
• Partner closely with Senior Leadership, Architecture, IT Operations, Security and other engineering teams to influence direction and prioritise investment decisions.
• Provide technical oversight for the secure and highly available operation of business‑critical application platforms.
• Mentor and support engineers, promoting a culture of continuous improvement, technical excellence and accountability.

What Do We Need From You?

To succeed in this role, you’ll bring a strong track record of working across complex infrastructure environments and the confidence to act as a trusted technical authority. You will have experience navigating and solving challenging engineering problems across compute, networking, storage, virtualisation, security and resilience — ensuring platforms are reliable, secure and fit for purpose.

You’ll be comfortable working with a range of technologies, understanding how they integrate, and making sound technical decisions that balance performance, stability and long‑term maintainability. You will also bring:

• Clear communication skills, enabling you to translate complex technical topics for a range of audiences
• A collaborative mindset, working effectively with engineers, stakeholders and leaders to drive shared outcomes
• The confidence to influence architecture and shape future technology direction
• A commitment to high‑quality engineering, continuous improvement and operational excellence
• A proactive approach to learning and staying current with emerging technologies, especially those that strengthen resilience and security