Principal Software Engineer

Job details

Location: Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich, Nottingham, Plymouth, Reading, South Coast - Southampton, Watford

Capability: Audit

Experience Level: Senior Manager

Type: Full Time

Service Line: Central Audit

Contract type: Permanent

Job description Role Type: Hybrid working The Team

The KPMG Audit Technology team is dedicated to building cutting-edge solutions in close collaboration with the Audit function. We blend audit expertise with the latest technology, enabling us to understand the challenges our customers face daily and develop indispensable products that simplify their lives while promoting Audit Quality.

As a crucial member of the team, you will collaborate with a talented mix of Product Owners/Managers, Solution Architects, Experience Designers, Business Analysts, and Testing Specialists. Together, we build, deliver, and manage a portfolio of truly exciting products.

In recent years, our products' size and scale have rapidly expanded, leading to significant growth in our technology capability. There's never been a better time to join us.

With our ambitious growth plans, your future here is something to get excited about. As a valued team member, you'll be expected to stay current with the tech field and the latest trends in Audit delivery.

The Role

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will lead a full-stack engineering squad within the Audit Technology team. You will play a critical role in architecting, developing, and scaling cloud-native platforms and applications that embed automation, analytics, and intelligence directly into audit workflows.

You’ll be responsible for shaping engineering best practices, driving technical excellence, and ensuring our solutions meet the highest standards of security, reliability, and performance. You’ll work together with data scientists, AI engineers, cloud architects, audit SMEs, and product managers to bring innovative solutions to life.

You will also mentor engineers, foster a culture of technical curiosity and delivery excellence, and contribute to strategic technology decisions that impact the future of audit.

Responsibilities

• Engineering Leadership & Mentorship: Lead and inspire a team of full-stack engineers. Provide architectural direction, set development standards, and guide the team in delivering high-quality, scalable software.
• Solution Architecture: Design end-to-end software solutions across the stack, from front-end interfaces to backend services and cloud infrastructure, ensuring they are robust, secure, and scalable.
• Hands-On Development: Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code across modern tech stacks (e.g., TypeScript, React, Node.js, Python). Review code and support continuous integration and deployment processes.
• Cloud & DevOps: Leverage platforms like Azure, Databricks, and Kubernetes to build and deploy resilient cloud-native applications. Use CI/CD and DevOps pipeline for automation.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with data scientists, AI engineers, cloud architects, audit specialists and product teams to translate business needs into secure, scalable, and maintainable technical solutions.
• Governance & Compliance: Ensure adherence to secure development practices, regulatory requirements, and firm-wide engineering standards.
• Innovation & Best Practice: Stay ahead of trends in software engineering, AI engineering and cloud development. Contribute to reusable components, promote engineering excellence, and share best practices across the team.

Requirements

• Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Proven experience leading full stack engineering teams and delivering complex, scalable software products in production environments.
• Demonstrated ability to design, evolve and implement robust, modular, and scalable application architectures, with familiarity in microservices, event-driven patterns and API-first design.
• Strong proficiency in both frontend and backend technologies, such as:
• Frontend: React, Angular, Next.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, Tailwind CSS
• Backend: Python, Node.js, Java
• Expertise in cloud-native development, preferably on Microsoft Azure and Databricks. Familiarity with containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes), serverless architectures, and distributed systems.
• Hands-on experience with modern DevOps practices including Git, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing and monitoring tools.
• Solid understanding of software security, accessibility, and performance optimisation.
• Experience in Agile methodologies and tools like Jira and Confluence.
• Proven ability to collaborate cross-functionally with product managers, UX designers, data scientists, platform teams, and business stakeholders to align technology delivery with strategic objectives.
• Strong leadership, problem-solving, and communication skills with the ability to guide teams and work with non-technical stakeholders.
• Professional accounting qualification preferred, however not a requirement.

Why Audit at KPMG?

Audit is the largest of our UK practices. Some of the world’s biggest companies rely on us to provide independent insight, challenge and expertise, so the work we undertake affects investment decisions, inspires confidence in public sector expenditure and supports our economic growth. Today, more than ever in disruptive times, audit is a function needed by society, and in the future, so we can capitalise, and grow. As part of the Audit team, you’ll be helping to build the confidence and trust that business and society need to thrive. We want to lead the conversation when it comes to shaping the future of the profession. And given the scale and variety of our audit engagements in both the UK and globally, we are well placed to create change. If you share our commitment to achieving excellence and working to the highest audit standards, are a natural collaborator who values different perspectives and relishes the opportunity to develop and progress - then KPMG could be the place where you can thrive.

Why Audit at KPMG?

Audit is the largest of our UK practices. Some of the world’s biggest companies rely on us to provide independent insight, challenge and expertise, so the work we undertake affects investment decisions, inspires confidence in public sector expenditure and supports our economic growth. Today, more than ever in disruptive times, audit is a function needed by society, and in the future, so we can capitalise, and grow. As part of the Audit team, you’ll be helping to build the confidence and trust that business and society need to thrive. We want to lead the conversation when it comes to shaping the future of the profession. And given the scale and variety of our audit engagements in both the UK and globally, we are well placed to create change. If you share our commitment to achieving excellence and working to the highest audit standards, are a natural collaborator who values different perspectives and relishes the opportunity to develop and progress - then KPMG could be the place where you can thrive.