Principal Software Engineer

Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom Contract Duration: 12 months Rate: £63.83 p/h PAYE (£73.11 inc. holiday rate) OR £87.04 p/h Umbrella

We seek an engineer with recent high-integrity or safety-critical industry experience (defence, aerospace, or similar), or eligible for UK security clearance.

Role Overview

An experienced Principal Software Engineer is required to join a well-established Test Engineering community, supporting advanced defence and aerospace programmes. The role focuses on developing software solutions for complex test systems used in cutting-edge radar and aerospace platforms.

The successful candidate will play a key technical leadership role, contributing to the design, development, and delivery of high-quality test software while working closely with multi-disciplinary engineering teams and stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

Design, develop, and deliver software solutions within defined work packages, ensuring stakeholder requirements are met Elicit, analyse, prioritise, and manage stakeholder needs to deliver optimal technical solutions Produce high-quality, robust, and well-documented code, ensuring outputs are maintained under configuration management Provide progress reporting, planning, and technical updates to line management Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to ensure software architecture alignment across the wider programme Apply appropriate tools and techniques for test equipment and test system software design Identify, resolve, and drive solutions to emerging technical issues, escalating complex risks where required Mentor, coach, and support the development of engineers within the wider team

Essential Skills & Experience

Strong experience designing and developing software using C Proven expertise with NI LabWindows/CVI Familiarity with NI TestStand Experience working in test engineering or test system software environments

Desirable Skills & Experience

Development of low-level software drivers Software development for automated or complex test systems Experience working within a structured development process framework Agile development experience and use of modern collaboration/tooling platforms Familiarity with configuration management, defect tracking, and peer review practices