Principal Cloud Engineer Salary:

£90,000 - £98,000 + Benefits + Unlimited Training Budget Active

SC Clearance

is required for this role. Principal Cloud Engineer Salary:

£90,000 - £98,000 + Benefits + Unlimited Training Budget Active

SC Clearance

is required for this role. Are you a Cloud Engineering leader ready to shape strategy, influence large-scale platforms, and drive engineering excellence? We're seeking a Principal Cloud Engineer to lead the design and evolution of secure, enterprise-grade cloud environments for a major UK government programme in Manchester. This hybrid role offers flexibility across home, office, and client site, while placing you at the centre of high-impact, mission-critical delivery. The Opportunity As a Principal Cloud Engineer, you'll operate at the forefront of technical leadership-setting direction, defining standards, and guiding multiple Cloud Pods. You'll combine deep technical expertise with strategic thinking, ensuring platforms are scalable, secure, and aligned with long-term organisational goals. This role goes beyond delivery-you'll influence architecture, mentor senior engineers, and play a key role in shaping the future of cloud engineering within the organisation. What You'll Be Doing Defining and driving

cloud architecture strategy

across multiple teams and platforms Leading the design of

scalable, secure, and reusable cloud solutions

using a code-first approach Establishing best practices across

Infrastructure as Code, DevOps, and platform engineering Providing technical leadership and mentorship to senior and mid-level engineers Collaborating with stakeholders to align technical solutions with business and programme outcomes Driving innovation, continuous improvement, and adoption of emerging technologies Overseeing and enhancing

CI/CD, automation, and cloud governance frameworks Acting as a key decision-maker on complex technical challenges and architecture What We're Looking For Extensive experience in

Cloud / Platform Engineering , with time spent in a senior or principal capacity Deep expertise in

AWS and/or Azure

at an architectural level Advanced proficiency in

Infrastructure as Code

(Terraform strongly preferred) Strong experience with

Git-based workflows

(e.g. GitHub) Proven track record of designing and implementing

CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices at scale Expertise in

Kubernetes, containerisation , and automation tools such as Ansible Strong understanding of

networking, security, and enterprise architecture principles Experience leading teams, influencing stakeholders, and setting technical direction Background working in

Agile environments

with cross-functional teams Why Join? This is a rare opportunity to operate at a principal level-where your decisions shape platforms, teams, and outcomes. You'll join a collaborative, forward-thinking engineering culture that values innovation, leadership, and continuous growth. If you're ready to lead at scale and make a lasting impact, we'd love to hear from you.

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