Principal Engineer - Corporate Technology
The Financial Times
In this role, you will lead engineering across Corporate Technology, defining strategy for People, Finance and Procurement platforms and driving secure, scalable, and well-managed services. You will mentor engineering leads, set ownership, and collaborate withProduct, Architecture, Security, Data, and business teams to modernise the estate and enable large-scale transformation. You’ll balance technical excellence with business priorities, shaping internal platforms that underpin critical FT functions. This is an opportunity to influence how core internal systems evolve in a globally respected organisation.
Pay / Benefits- generous annual leave
- medical cover
- inclusive parental leave
- subsidised gym memberships
- hybrid onsite model (50% onsite)
- community contribution opportunities
- Define the engineering vision for Corporate Technology and translate strategy into priorities and roadmaps for People, Finance, and Procurement platforms
- Provide senior technical direction across enterprise platforms, data flows, and internally developed capabilities
- Collaborate with Architecture and Engineering Leads to set standards, guardrails, and decisions considering security, resilience, operability, maintainability and cost
- Identify systemic risks, lifecycle challenges, technical debt, and opportunities to simplify the technology estate
- Ensure Engineering Leads have clear accountability for platform engineering, operation and continual improvement
- Guide complex decisions spanning multiple platforms while granting autonomy to Engineering Leads
- Mentor Engineering Leads and senior engineers to improve platform ownership and capability
- Lead engineering for key People, Finance, and Procurement initiatives and transfer capabilities into lasting internal stewardship
- Support platform selection, implementation and major technology investments, challenging approaches that add complexity or risk
- Maintain oversight of performance and technology risk, including reliability, incident and change management, DR and BC
- Ensure platforms comply with FT security, data governance, and technology standards
- Strengthen internal capability to reduce reliance on individual specialists or vendors
- Build strong cross-functional relationships to communicate trade-offs, risks and investment needs
- Represent Corporate Technology in FT engineering and technology forums with Architecture, Security, Data and other leaders
- Extensive senior engineering leadership experience in a complex tech organisation
- Solid knowledge of enterprise SaaS ecosystems and integration/operation of business-critical platforms
- Experience with Oracle Fusion, Workday, or similar ERP systems
- Strong grasp of integration methods, APIs, data flows and cloud technologies
- Experience leading major transformation or modernisation programmes
- Ability to establish clear technical ownership and sustainable operating models
- Strong understanding of reliability, security, operational risk and lifecycle management
- Experience working with third-party vendors and managed services while maintaining internal ownership
- Experience mentoring and developing Engineering Leads and senior engineers
- Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and translate technical concepts into pragmatic decisions
- Experience formulating technology strategies and roadmaps spanning multiple platforms
- Strong technical judgement balancing long-term direction with delivery priorities
- Desirable: experience with Oracle Fusion, Workday and related environments
- Desirable: experience with Finance, People, Procurement domains
- leadership
- mentoring
- stakeholder Influence
- enterprise SaaS integration
- Oracle Fusion
- Workday
Reference: WJ-747_30347269