Overview
Principal Engineer
Grade A: £52,737 (National Framework) or £58,409 (London Framework – if you are London office based or homebased and live within the boundary of the M25) – There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £581 per annum for those working from home
Contracted Hours: Full time 37 hours per week
Contract Type: Permanent
Location: Home Based
Closing Date: 12 October 2025 at 11.59pm
Make a difference
Every role at CQC contributes to our mission. If you’re looking for a new role in the Technology Directorate that gives a true sense of meaning and purpose, then you have found it. Our Engineering team is at the heart of transforming how we deliver digital services that protect people and improve care.
Picture this
In the last 12 months, as a Principal Engineer in the Engineering Team, you would have:
• Led the design and delivery of Azure cloud-based services that support critical transformation programmes, ensuring they are secure, scalable, and user-focused.
• Championed the adoption of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, helping shape governance and operational processes for future innovation.
• Help create a library of reusable IAC modules to help standardise and mature our code base.
• Guided engineering initiatives through complex governance processes, ensuring alignment with best practices and organisational goals
You’ll play a key role in the organisation by:
• Designing and maintaining software and cloud engineering processes that support automation, testing, and deployment.
• Building, designing and operating scalable cloud services in collaboration with software, platform, and QA teams. Ensuring reusable patterns code and standards are utilised.
• Reviewing project designs to ensure they meet performance, security, and scalability standards.
• Leading the development of engineering standards and patterns and ensuring they are followed across teams.
• Mentoring colleagues and engineers to improve design, coding, and testing practices.
• Following a well architected framework ensuring solutions are secure, scalable and as cost effective as possible.
• Ensuring the Azure platform is secure, well architected and best practices and patterns are followed
Show us
What we’re looking for in your application:
• Demonstrated experience : Using cloud adoption framework to help design and manage Azure based cloud infrastructure. Using infrastructure as code tools like Terraform to define patterns and modules for reusable code and solutions.
• Proven ability to design and build CI/CD processes and pipelines to help support a devOps approach to build and deployment.
• Evidence of leadership in mentoring and supporting technical teams and guiding non-technical stakeholders through complex engineering changes.
To progress your application, you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without valid right to work you won’t be eligible for the role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. Some roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.
Next steps
If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. Please see our information for applicants for more details on the process. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.
You can read the full details of the role in the Job Description
If you’d like an informal chat about the role contact – Shuaib Butt ;Deputy Director of Engineering; Shuaib.Butt@cqc.org.uk For general enquiries, please email recruitment@cqc.org.uk .
The Benefits
We offer a wide range of benefits , including:
- Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
- Training and development opportunities.
- Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
- NHS pension scheme, with around 14% employer contribution.
- Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of £4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!
Please see our benefits page for the full list.
Equity for all
We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they’re a good fit. This happens more often to people from underrepresented groups (e.g. ethnic minority backgrounds). If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills, and experience could be exactly what we need.
We want every candidate to feel supported and able to do their best. If you need adjustments to our process, we’ll work with you to remove any barriers. Visit our accessibility page for more on this. If you’d like to chat, please contact recruitment@cqc.org.uk . Please note, if you have previously informed us of adjustments you need for interview or within your role these are not carried over and must be discussed for each individual application you make.
We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. Diverse teams make our work better, help us deliver our mission and make our culture stronger. See our ED&I page for more about this.
We welcome applications from everyone, and colleagues can find support and community among our many employee networks. This includes people of any:
- Age
- Sex
- Gender identity or expression
- Sexual orientation
- Religion or belief
- Ethnicity
- Disability
Values and vision
We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.
Excellence – being a high-performing organisation.
Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect.
Integrity – doing the right thing.
Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best we can.
We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.
A Note on AI
AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:
- AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
- Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
- Do not copy and paste AI generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember we want to hear about your skills and experience.
- Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.
