Principal Software Engineer

About Us

As featured in The Telegraph, The Independent and Forbes, Patchwork is an award‑winning digital healthcare solution built by doctors, for doctors. We are a rapidly growing team of 100+ people revolutionising flexible working in the NHS and helping NHS organisations save millions by connecting them to an increasing number of flexible bank workers. We build our services on a hybrid model and encourage all employees to come into the office twice a week.

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join our passionate Technology Team. The Engineer will play a crucial part in decisions and design choices, and will lead the migration of our codebase toward an agile, scalable environment. This leadership role requires a mix of technical expertise, mentoring, and cross‑departmental collaboration.

• Provide technical leadership and guidance to the Technology Team, defining technical strategies and embedding best practices.
• Lead the development, nurturing, and output of the team, upholding Patchwork’s high standards of excellence.
• Design and review software architectures for scalability, performance, and maintainability, and make informed decisions on stack, frameworks, and tools.
• Write high‑quality, clean, efficient code and develop complex modules and components.
• Set coding standards and design patterns; work collaboratively to embed practices across the team.
• Tackle complex technical challenges, troubleshoot existing codebases, and propose improvements.
• Collaborate cross‑departmentally to gather requirements, define scope, and deliver projects.
• Communicate effectively with non‑technical stakeholders, building strong relationships with Product and other functions.
• Ensure code quality through testing, code reviews, and continuous integration; set high standards for unit and integration testing.
• Assist in project management activities such as planning, estimation, prioritisation, and risk mitigation.
• Maintain technical documentation and uphold documentation standards within the team.
• Keep up with industry trends, evaluate new tools and methodologies, and drive continuous improvement.

• Experience with agile processes (pair‑programming, TDD) and building scalable, culture‑driven organisations.
• Proven experience leading and coaching teams.
• Strategies for identifying, managing, and reducing technical debt.
• Architectural decision‑making experience, including service extraction from a monolith.
• Ability to build infrastructure (AWS, IaC, CI/CD).
• Polyglot skills – at least one of JVM/Kotlin, Type Script, or Ruby.
• Full‑stack development capability.
• Ownership of delivery of atomic features to users.
• Strong automated testing practices and quality‑focused delivery.
• Self‑starter with strong attention to detail.
• Passion for fast‑paced, scale‑up environments.

• Mentoring squad leaders.
• Experience in a tech start‑up/scale‑up.
• Knowledge of the NHS, healthcare, or healthtech industry.
• Knowledge of workforce applications.
• Qualifications in Computer Science or Software Engineering.

Salary Range: £90,000 - £115,000

• Hybrid and flexible workplace
• Cycle Scheme
• Tech Loan Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme (Health Assured)
• Personal Learning & Development Budget
• Flexible income options via Wagestream
• Dog friendly London Hub
• Vibrant and fun London Hub with unlimited refreshments & games
• Access to co‑working spaces across the UK

We are unable to provide individual feedback on each application. If you have not heard from us within two weeks, you have not been selected for an interview. We pledge to always provide feedback to applicants who interview with us.

Patchwork is an inclusive employer and is committed to meeting legal requirements and standards, as well as our own diversity, equality, and inclusivity policies throughout all stages of the employee lifecycle. For more information on our pledges and policies, refer to our website or reach out to Patchwork's Talent Team.

London, England, United Kingdom