Freelance Principal Engineer - £day rate (outside IR35)
Senior DevOps Engineer
- Join a production project (cross functional team of 13)
- Project is to rebuild very complex onboarding journeys (1000+) for a large wealth manager
- Platform engineering, software engineering and data engineering experience required
- Start date 1st January 2026
- Duration 6 months (Likely to extend)
- 2 days / week in person working (London)
- Immediate Interviews
- £Competitive outside IR35
The role
We’re looking for a Principal Engineer to join our digital product delivery function.
Red Badger delivers high quality digital products using a lean delivery process and multidisciplinary, cross-functional teams. The Principal Engineer has deep expertise in building and operating digital products, particularly within complex client environments and multi-team projects.
This role plays a key part in delivering high-quality outcomes through strategic influence, hands-on support, and deep domain knowledge.
You will collaborate closely with Principal Product and Delivery roles, as well as Technical and Delivery Leads, to ensure that technology choices align with both client goals and Red Badger’s value propositions.
You will engage with the wider team and stakeholders to consult and influence on topics such as technology adoption, continuous delivery, team structure, deployment strategy, and organisational policy.
Your ability to guide clients through emerging technologies and industry best practice will help create the conditions for teams to succeed with autonomy and impact.
As a Principal Engineer, you elevate those around you by supercharging delivery teams, mentoring others, and embedding technical excellence at every level. You bring thought leadership, pragmatism, and curiosity to solving complex problems, and are trusted to represent Red Badger in high-level client conversations with confidence and clarity.
Hands-on work is expected to be the majority of the role - demonstrating by doing, but also be prepared to get involved in thought leadership, sharing your knowledge with other badgers, and high value consulting activities.
Key Responsibilities
Discipline expertise
- Supporting lean approach to software delivery and overall solution design and focus on delivering maximum value with minimal effort
- Providing architectural framework and solution design
- Advocating innovative approach / use of new technology where appropriate
- Ensuring quality through coaching, pairing, reviewing code
- Advocating for simplicity in design approach, ways of working and tool choice
- Deep technical expertise and teaching mindset
- Upskilling Red Badger software engineers in new technologies and approaches
- Contributing to raising technology discipline standards within Red Badger
Collaborative leadership
- Feed into account level technology leadership / governance
- Contributing to the overall success of the Red Badger client engagement
- Potentially leading multiple technology teams across a programme of work
- Aligning Badger / client teams on appropriate processes & tooling
Influencing our clients
- Consulting on areas of technology expertise
- Operating as trusted advisor consulting on client technology strategy, technology roadmap Coaching senior client technology stakeholders