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 architectureWhat 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 teamsWhy 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