Principal Systems Engineer
NHS England
Leeds, London, Exeter, LS1 4PLView on map(opens Google Maps in a new tab)
Salary
£99,380 to £111,485
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Not specified
Closing date
26 October 2026
7 days leftJob description
Principal Systems Engineers provide technical leadership and are responsible for the operation and running of national, highly available distributed s...
As 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.
- 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.
Participation 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.
NHS 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 Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.
Knowledge
Essential
- Evidence of hands-on engineering developing systems across all layers of the stack including application, infrastructure, CI/CD, testing, monitoring and alerting etc.
Experience
Essential
- Experience leading on a complex application
- Experience representing engineering at a senior organisational level and influencing decisions beyond an individual delivery team.
- Experience leading and coordinating stakeholders to resolve technical or organisational challenges.
Qualifications
Essential: - Masters or equivalent qualification, specifically in a computer, scientific or mathematical subject or equivalent experience.
Skills
Essential: - Experience coaching and mentoring engineers, including developing senior technical leaders and contributing to a strong engineering culture.
How to apply
Applications are handled entirely by the employer on the original advert. We do not collect CVs, supporting statements or application data.
Provenance
Source
NHS Jobs
First seen
12 October 2026
Last checked
14 October 2026
Salary, closing date and description are taken from the employer's advert. The original advert always takes precedence.
About the employer
NHS organisation
This listing was structured from NHS Jobs. Vacancy details and the application process remain the responsibility of the original source.
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