Principal Engineer
Likely
Sponsorship likelihood
This employer has issued visas recently
Not disclosed
Salary
Not disclosed by employer
£54,700
Going rate
Skilled Worker going rate
This role likely qualifies for a Skilled Worker visa
SOC 2134 (62% match) is an eligible occupation, with a going rate of £54,700, and London Metal Exchange is a licensed sponsor. That is our reading of the rules. Whether they issue a Certificate of Sponsorship is still their call.
This could also be SOC 2133 (IT business analysts, architects and systems designers). We read the code off the advert, so it is our best guess, not the employer's.
New graduate or PhD holder? Pick one of the lower rates.
What each route needs for this job
| Occupation code | New entrant 70% of going rate | STEM PhD 80% of going rate | Relevant PhD 90% of going rate | Standard rate 100% of going rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2134 Programmers and software development professionals Most likely code | £38,300 | £43,700 | £49,200 | £54,700 |
2133 IT business analysts, architects and systems designers Also possible | £38,400 | £43,900 | £49,400 | £54,900 |
We use the lowest threshold across the plausible codes. Likelihood is Possible at most when the pay clears only a lower rate, or only under a less likely code. How the Home Office picks the code
About the role
Standard 40 Hour Week (United Kingdom)
Scheduled Weekly Hours:
40
Corporate Grade:
C - Vice President
Reporting Line:
(UK Division) Information Technology
Location:
UK-London
Worker Type:
Permanent
The Principal Engineer is a senior individual contributor responsible for driving the technical direction, architecture, design, and delivery of complex software platforms and applications. The role provides leadership through hands-on software engineering, technical expertise, mentoring, and influence across teams, without direct people management responsibility. Success in this role means building secure, scalable, and resilient software systems, establishing engineering best practices, improving developer productivity and enabling the efficient delivery of business-critical capabilities.
Academic and Professional Qualifications Required Classification:
University degree in Computer Science, Engineering, related STEM discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
Required Demonstrable Experience Of:
- Significant hands-on software engineering experience in Java, building and operating distributed systems.
- Deep experience with microservices, APIs, event-driven architectures (Kafka) and integration patterns
- Define and influence engineering strategy, architecture standards, and technical roadmaps.
- Design and build secure, cloud-native applications using modern engineering practices (Kubernetes),
- Strong knowledge of secure software development, including authentication, authorisation, encryption, and secure-by-design principles.
- Experience with Kubernetes, container platforms, and scalable production environments.
- Practical DevOps expertise across CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, GitOps, automated testing, and deployment automation.
- Experience in financial services, trading systems, or other regulated environments,
- Python, Scala, or other modern programming languages,
- OpenShift, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm,
- Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practice,
- Observability tooling such as Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, OpenTelemetry, or Elastic.
- Analytical and pragmatic problem solver focused on outcomes, resiliency, and maintainability.
- Strong ownership mentality with the ability to independently lead technical initiatives.
- Collaborative and influential, building trust across engineering, product, operations, security, and business stakeholders.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to promote engineering best practices, drive continuous improvement, and share technical knowledge effectively
Core Functional Responsibilities of a Vice President: The successful candidate will act as a subject matter expert, providing technical leadership, defining engineering standards, influencing strategic technology direction, and supporting complex delivery initiatives across the organisation. The role is expected to engage regularly with senior stakeholders and external parties where required. Experience Criteria of a Vice President: Incumbents at this level possess significant engineering and industry expertise. They are recognised technical leaders capable of influencing architecture, security, reliability, platform strategy, software delivery practices, and long-term technology decisions across multiple domains.
This description is the source posting as it read when we added it. We are not affiliated with London Metal Exchange, so check their own site for the current details.
Where this offer sits in the market
Programmers and software development professionals (SOC 2134) · UK · ONS ASHE 2025 · basic pay · ~399k in sample- Middle half £42,536–76,752
- Median £56,784
- Going rate £54,700
- Threshold £41,700
- New entrant £38,300–49,200
Similar sponsored roles
See all UK visa jobsNo close matches live right now.
Browse more sponsored jobs at London Metal ExchangeAbout sponsorship for this role
Does this job guarantee visa sponsorship?
Not necessarily. London Metal Exchange holds a sponsor licence, but sponsorship for a specific hire is always the employer's decision. Be upfront in your application that you'll require it.
What salary is needed for this role to be eligible?
The offer must clear both the general threshold and the SOC 2134 going rate of £54,700. New-entrant and shortage discounts can lower it.