[Hiring] Principal Engineer @Appnovation Technologies

Role Description

We are seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the technical direction of an internal developer platform for a global life sciences client. The platform is the paved road that lets any engineering team take an idea from a laptop to production in minutes, whether that’s a web application, an autonomous AI agent or an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server.

Developers reach the platform through several surfaces: native Mac and Windows desktop apps, web-based tooling and programmatic MCP interfaces. Each one is built and owned by a strong, independent engineering team. You will own the technical direction, architecture and delivery across all of them, bringing them together into one coherent developer experience without slowing down the engineers who already own each surface.

This is a senior technical leadership role with no direct reports. You will lead through influence and hands-on credibility, especially in the Electron and Vue desktop codebase. You will also be accountable for security- and privacy-first capabilities and for a better day-to-day experience for developers, measured through a quarterly Developer Experience (DX) survey.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in frontend, desktop or developer tooling engineering, with growing responsibility for delivering digital solutions, products and services.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field.
• Hands-on experience building and shipping developer-facing tools across more than one surface, ideally including Electron and Vue, shown through shipped apps, public repositories or code samples.
• Broad technical knowledge across frontend, desktop and backend systems: a genuine full-stack generalist who leans frontend.
• Experience with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) or similar programmatic interfaces for AI agents and scripts.
• Proven ability to lead without positional authority and build agreement across teams you don’t manage.
• Deep understanding of privacy and security by design, DevSecOps, CI/CD, RESTful APIs, and integration and microservice patterns.
• Experience delivering large-scale enterprise software in a global 24/7 environment, working in a DevOps model.
• Excellent communication skills, including explaining complex topics simply to senior non-technical stakeholders and working well asynchronously with distributed teams.
• Based in the UK or Europe with the right to work there, and able to work GMT/BST hours.

Requirements

• Be the top technical authority across the desktop (Mac and Windows), web and MCP surfaces.
• Stay close to the code, especially the Electron and Vue desktop codebase.
• Line up objectives, dependencies and schedules across the surface teams to keep them unblocked.
• Make sure privacy and security are built into the design from the start.
• Act on Developer Experience (DX) survey findings and team feedback.
• Represent engineering in program and stakeholder meetings.
• Work with other Principal Engineers to share best practices and quality standards.
• Lead or support the response to security incidents and operational outages.
• Mentor and coach engineers across each surface.

Benefits

• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is celebrated.
• Equal Opportunity Employer encouraging applicants from all backgrounds.
• Accommodations available upon request throughout the recruitment process.