Go back NICE – The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
Principal Engineer
The closing date is 11 June 2026
This role qualifies for a 12.5% per annum recruitment and retention payment, in addition to the Band 8B base salary.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is seeking a Principal Engineer to provide senior leadership across the engineering, deployment, and production operation of digital applications and services.
This is a strategic role focused on ensuring services are technically robust and designed to meet real user needs. You will lead the engineering of modern, high-quality live services, applying best practice in product development and user-centred design from early discovery and prototyping through to secure, scalable, and maintainable production environments.
Working across the full product lifecycle, you will partner with NICE Business Service Owners, designers, and stakeholders to translate user needs, service outcomes, and policy intent into accessible, reliable, and well‑engineered digital services. You will act as a senior technical authority, ensuring that user‑centred design is realised through sound engineering decisions and that services meet recognised standards for accessibility, usability, and performance.
You will provide leadership across multiple teams, setting engineering and operational standards aligned to the GDS Service Standard, accessibility requirements, and DevOps best practice. You will ensure effective technical governance and support senior engineers to deliver consistently high‑quality outcomes.
The interviews will take place in‑person at our Manchester office
Main duties of the job
A key part of the role is ensuring innovation and emerging technologies are adopted in a responsible, user‑focused way, delivering measurable improvements to live services.
Reporting to the Associate Director of Engineering, you will lead technical direction across one or more teams and provide oversight across multiple programmes. You will balance hands on technical expertise with strategic leadership, governance and people management.
- Leading engineering delivery across large or complex digital services, ensuring successful transition from prototype to production
- Owning and assuring technical decision making, governance and delivery processes across the product lifecycle
- Setting and maintaining engineering standards aligned to GDS Service Standard, accessibility, security and DevOps best practice
- Partnering with product and design leads to translate user‑centred design into robust, scalable digital services
- Providing leadership across agile delivery, DevOps and continuous improvement practices
- Managing and developing senior technical staff, building capability and fostering a high‑performing, inclusive culture
- Identifying, assessing and championing the responsible adoption of emerging technologies (including AI) where they add value to live services
About us
The Engineering team at NICE designs, builds, and runs the digital services that underpin nationally relied upon health and care guidance used by millions of people. The team creates secure, reliable software that supports both internal guidance production and public‑facing services such as the NICE website, BNF, and Clinical Knowledge Summaries. Engineers work collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams, applying DevOps and secure by design principles to continuously improve live services and deliver meaningful digital outcomes. We can offer you a great place to work with good benefits, flexible working, and a supportive, friendly, and inclusive environment.
We are passionate and proud of the work we do and the impact we make. NICE offer:
- Generous NHS Pension – Secure your future with one of the most rewarding pension schemes in the UK
- Flexible working – Enjoy a healthy work‑life balance with options like remote working, compressed hours and flexible start/finish times
- Exclusive discounts – Save on shopping, dining and more with a Blue Light Card
- Time to recharge – Start with 27 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays
- Inclusive staff networks – Join supportive communities like Women in NICE, Race Equality Network, Disability Advocacy and NICE and Proud – we celebrate diversity
- Tailored development – Grow your career with personalised learning and development opportunities
Job responsibilities
Please see job description attached for full list of responsibilities.
Person Specification
Experience
- Significant experience leading delivery of complex digital products and services through the full delivery lifecycle
Experience
- Proven ability to provide senior technical leadership while working closely with product and design disciplines
Experience
- Experience setting and assuring technical standards across multiple teams or services
Skills/Knowledge
- Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence at senior levels
Skills/Knowledge
- Strong people leadership skills, including managing and developing senior technical professionals
Skills/Knowledge
- Highly skilled in modern software engineering, cloud platforms, DevOps and agile delivery
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
NICE – The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
£66,582 to £77,368 a year
This role qualifies for a 12,5% per annum R&R
Contract
Permanent
Working pattern
Full‑time, Flexible working, Compressed hours
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