Jobs Companies Barclays Principal Engineer - Director

About this Principal Engineer - Director role at Barclays

Barclays · Onsite · Building 400-Whippany Campus, Jefferson Park

Job Description

Purpose of the role

To drive technical excellence and innovation by leading the design and implementation of robust software solutions, providing mentorship to engineering teams, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and contributing to strategic planning to ensure the delivery of high-quality solutions aligned with business objectives. 

Accountabilities

  • Provision of guidance and expertise to engineering teams to ensure alignment with best practices and foster a culture of technical excellence.
  • Contribution to strategic planning by aligning technical decisions with business goals, anticipating future technology trends, and providing insights to optimize product roadmaps.
  • Design and implementation of complex, scalable, and maintainable software solutions, considering long-term viability and business objectives.
  • Mentoring and coaching to junior and mid-level engineers to foster professional growth and knowledge sharing, elevating the overall skillset and capabilities of the organization.
  • Collaboration with business partners, product managers, designers, and other stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions and ensure a cohesive approach to product development.
  • Innovation within the organization by identifying and incorporating new technologies, methodologies, and industry practices into the engineering process.

Director Expectations

  • To manage a business function, providing significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Contribute to and influence policy and procedures for the function and plan, manage and consult on multiple complex and critical strategic projects, which may be business wide..
  • They manage the direction of a large team or sub-function, leading other people managers and embedding a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects and act as deep technical expert and thought leader, identifying new ways of working and collaborating cross functionally. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
  • Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives.
  • Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub-function.
  • Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately.
  • Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence.
  • Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate.
  • Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives.
  • Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up-to-date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives.
  • Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations.
  • Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area.
  • Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally.
  • Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions.
  • Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division.

All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

Salary / Rate Minimum: $225,000

Salary / Rate Maximum: $300,000

The minimum and maximum salary/rate information above includes only base salary or base hourly rate. It does not include any another type of compensation or benefits that may be available. Barclays employees are eligible for a suite of a competitive and generous employee benefits, including medical, dental and vision coverage, 401(k), life insurance, and other paid leave for qualifying circumstances. This position is eligible for an incentive award.

This role requires a senior technology leader with deep expertise in enterprise Java and corporate banking platforms, strong architectural authority, and a security-first mindset. The ideal candidate combines hands-on technical mastery with the ability to design, govern, and modernise complex, regulated systems, while also influencing engineering culture and aligning technology strategy with business and regulatory priorities.

Candidates must have min 15 years experience.

Essential Skills

  • Expert-level proficiency in modern Java (Java 17+), Spring Boot, and Spring Cloud within large-scale, mission-critical banking environments

  • Proven experience designing and operating high-volume corporate banking platforms (payments, cash management, trade finance, liquidity, treasury)

  • Strong command of distributed systems, event-driven architectures, APIs, data consistency, and streaming technologies (e.g. Kafka)

  • Demonstrated leadership in enterprise and solution architecture, including microservices, cloud-native design, and legacy modernisation

  • Ability to make and defend complex architectural trade-offs balancing performance, resilience, speed, risk, and regulatory compliance

  • Deep understanding of security, risk, and regulatory controls, with security embedded across design, development, and deployment

Desirable Skills

  • Strong corporate banking domain knowledge, translating business strategy and product needs into scalable technical solutions

  • Strategic mindset to align technology roadmaps with growth, cost efficiency, and regulatory change

  • Experience partnering with product, risk, operations, and senior architecture stakeholders

  • Proven ability to mentor senior engineers and act as a technical role model across teams

  • Drives engineering excellence through CI/CD, testing, observability, and operational best practices

  • Influences engineering culture and maturity through leadership and example rather than formal authority

Ready to apply to Barclays?
Apply to Barclays

How this Principal Engineer salary compares

This role pays $225,000/yrabove the typical range for Principal Engineer roles.

$111,800 median $168,119 $274,627

Typical range $133,900–$215,000/yr, from 3,050 comparable Principal Engineer listings on JobsRadar (pay annualized to USD). See Principal Engineer salary insights →

About Barclays

Our Work Experience is the combination of everything that's unique about us: our culture, our core values, our company meetings, our commitment to sustainability, our recognition programs, but most importantly, it's our people. Our employees are self-disciplined, hard working, curious, trustworthy, humble, and truthful. They make choices according to what is best for the team, they live for opportunities to collaborate and make a difference, and they make us the #1 Top Workplace in the area.

See all jobs at Barclays →

Similar jobs

Coupang
Principal Engineer, ML
Coupang
⚡ Apply early Seattle, USA Onsite $207,900–$207,900
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 4h ago
CI
Principal, Security Engineer
Coupang Internal
⚡ Apply early Seattle, USA Onsite
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 4h ago
Coupang
Principal, Security Engineer
Coupang
⚡ Apply early Mountain View, USA; Seattle, U... Hybrid $209,000–$209,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 4h ago
Rocket Lab Corporation
Principal Electrical Engineer
Rocket Lab Corporation
⚡ Apply early Chantilly, VA Onsite $173,300–$259,850
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 8h ago
Rocket Lab Corporation
Principal Electrical Engineer
Rocket Lab Corporation
⚡ Apply early Tucson, AZ Onsite
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 8h ago
Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions - External
Principal Software Engineer, Developer Experience Platform
Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions - External
⚡ Apply early Durham, NC Onsite
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 8h ago
STR
Principal Model-Based Systems Engineer
STR
⚡ Apply early Arlington, VA Onsite $206,000–$284,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 9h ago
STR
Principal Model-Based Systems Engineer
STR
⚡ Apply early Woburn, MA Onsite $206,000–$284,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 9h ago
STR
Principal Software Reverse Engineer
STR
⚡ Apply early Arlington, VA Onsite $204,000–$284,000
● New 👁 Seen ✓ Applied 9h ago

Sign up for suggestions tailored to the jobs you open and the searches you save.

More jobs at Barclays

See all jobs at Barclays →

Apply now
🤖

Whoa — hold up

JobsRadar was built for real people having a rough time in their job search — not for automated requests. You're clicking way too fast and you're now temporarily blocked.

Come back later. If you're genuinely job hunting, we've got your back — just act like a human.

Catch your next role the second it’s posted.

Create a free account and we’ll watch the boards for you — the instant a job matches your search, it lands in your inbox or Telegram. No digging, no refreshing.

Create free account

Free forever · takes 30 seconds · already have one?

Get an edge on your job hunt.

Join our Telegram channel for the stuff that helps you land the role — salary benchmarks, the weekly market pulse, and new-feature drops. No spam, just signal.

Join the channel — it's free