Principal Engineer

Location: Reading, gb

Company Description

Because we strive to put people first.  
Culture, our way. 

Technology at Primark

What’s a career at Primark all about? The positive impact you’re making, the experiences you’re having and the people you’re with. You’re our inspiration. Embrace what sets you apart, own your career and develop in ways you never expected. Leave your mark. And do it your way.  

Job Description

What You’ll Get 

People are at the heart of what we do here, so it’s essential we provide you with the right environment to perform at your very best.

Let’s talk lifestyle: Healthcare, pension, and potential bonus.27 days of leave, plus bank holidays and if you want, you can buy 5 more. Because Primark is all about tailoring to you, we offer Tax Saver Tickets, fitness centre, and a subsidised cafeteria.

Qualifications

What You’ll Do as a Principal Engineer

We want you to feel challenged and inspired. Here, you’ll develop your skills across a range of responsibilities:

• Define and drive the technical vision, ensuring engineering best practices, roadmap alignment, and pragmatic decision‑making that supports business goals.
• Embed engineering excellence by establishing frameworks for automation, observability, monitoring, resilience, reliability, and continuous improvement across retail technology systems.
• Enhance delivery performance through agile leadership (including Kanban), workflow optimisation, technical debt management, and improved operational metrics.
• Build and maintain strong stakeholder relationships across internal teams, senior leadership, and external partners to enable seamless software delivery.
• Develop and grow engineering talent, coaching Engineering Managers, fostering cross‑functional collaboration, and cultivating communities of practice.
• Champion governance, security, and compliance, ensuring adherence to Security, GDPR, IT controls, and business continuity while staying ahead of industry trends and innovations.

Additional Information

What You’ll Bring

Here at Primark, we want everyone to feel valued so please bring your authentic self to work, of course with some other key experience and abilities for this role in particular:

• Strong understanding of engineering principles, system design, and modern software development practices.
• Hands‑on experience with the Atlassian Suite (or equivalent tooling) to support engineering workflows and collaboration.
• Working knowledge of scalable Agile SDLCs, distributed systems, and contemporary delivery models.
• Familiarity with high‑availability architectures, disaster recovery strategies, and business continuity planning.
• Proven experience leading teams through enterprise‑grade software delivery and operational excellence.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to communicate, influence, and negotiate effectively across technical and non‑technical audiences.

Does this sound like you? Great, because we can’t wait to see what you’ll bring. You’ll be supported within a team of equally capable people, celebrating who you are and aiding you reach your potential. At Primark, we’re excited about our future - and we’re excited to develop yours.

About Primark 

At Primark, people matter. They’re the beating heart of our business and the reason we’ve grown from our first store in Dublin in 1969 to a £9bn+ turnover business and over 80,000 colleagues and over 440 stores in 17 countries today. Our values run through everything we do. In essence, we're Caring and always strive to put people first. We're also Dynamic, bravely pushing the boundaries to stay ahead. And finally, we succeed Together.  

If you need any reasonable adjustments or have an accessibility request, during your recruitment journey, such as extended time or breaks between online assessments, a sign language interpreter, mobility access, or assistive technology please contact your talent acquisition specialist. 

All offers of employment are subject to background checks, including right to work, reference education and for some roles criminal, and financial checks. If you have any concerns, please reach out to our talent acquisition team to discuss. 

Our fashion isn’t one-size-fits-all and neither is our culture. Primark promotes equal employment opportunity, we strive to create an inclusive workplace where people can be themselves, access opportunities and thrive together.

If you require extra support at any stage of the selection process, please get in touch with our team at [email protected].