Principal Engineer - Savings & Payment Services in Leeds

Are you a highly experienced Engineer ready to lead complex technical change and shape the future of our technology platforms? We’re looking for a Principal Engineer to provide technical leadership across critical delivery initiatives, translating business needs into scalable, high-quality solutions. This is an opportunity to work at the forefront of engineering, influencing design, delivery and innovation across our technology landscape. This is a hybrid role, a mix of working from home plus time in our central Leeds & Bradford offices.

About the role

As a Principal Engineer, you’ll act as a technical lead across complex initiatives, shaping solutions and guiding delivery from design through to live service. You’ll work closely with engineering teams, stakeholders and third-party partners to ensure solutions are robust, scalable and aligned to business outcomes.

You will:

• Lead the design and delivery of complex technical solutions, translating business requirements into clear deliverables.
• Own technical direction across projects, including solution design, build, testing and release planning.
• Assess solution options and perform gap analysis to ensure alignment between current and future state systems.
• Collaborate with stakeholders and 3rd party partners, acting as a key technical contact and subject matter expert.
• Maintain awareness of technology trends, ensuring platforms remain supported, resilient and aligned to future needs.
• Support live service stability by coordinating defect resolution and acting as an escalation point for risks and issues.

About you

You’re a senior software engineering professional with deep technical expertise and a strong track record of leading complex delivery. You’re confident shaping solutions, influencing stakeholders and driving high-quality outcomes.

You’ll have:

• Strong experience designing and delivering complex technical solutions across enterprise environments.
• Ability to translate business requirements into scalable, well-architected solutions.
• Experience leading technical delivery across the full lifecycle, from design through to live service.
• Strong analytical skills, including solution evaluation and gap analysis.
• Experience working with suppliers and third-party partners in delivery environments.
• Awareness of emerging technologies and a proactive approach to continuous improvement.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at all levels.
• Hands-on experience of APIs and Java Spring Boot Microservices.

In addition, you’ll have:

• Strong knowledge of modern technologies and platforms used within digital and cloud applications.

Desirable skills include:

• Restful Design, working with API Gateway management products Apigee / Azure.
• Containers and Container Orchestration: Openshift, Docker, Kubernetes.
• Continuous Integration Pipelines: Gitlab, Jenkins.

About our Benefits

We offer lots of fantastic rewards that you can make the most of in and out of work, including:

• Holiday: You’ll get 25 days plus Bank Holidays, as well as the option to buy up to a further 5 days.
• Bonus: At YBS we work collaboratively and share in our success together, so when we reach our goals we are all rewarded with an on-target bonus of 7% of eligible pay (with the opportunity to earn up to a maximum 15%).
• Pension: We know how important it is to save towards the future, that’s why we’ll contribute up to 11% into your YBS pension.
• Healthcare: Health and wellbeing are an important part of life at YBS, when you join us you’ll have access to a range of health benefits to suit your life including private medical insurance, dental and healthcare plans.
• My Benefits: When you join YBS you’ll have access to our self-service benefits portal, where you can access a range of retail, hospitality and health discounts.