We are looking to hire a Principal Performance Engineer who will be a part of The Solution Performance Research and Optimization team. This team exists to optimize the performance of our standard solutions and the work involves the creation of a global API for performance strategies and a reference implementation. This reference implementation will contain the optimizations and operationalizable performance strategies - essentially the output of the Solution Performance Research and Optimization group.
This role is intended to take an existing prototype codebase, operationalize it, integrate all current-generation performance strategies, and further develop the next-generation strategies that have already been started, as well as contributing to all the activities of the Solution Performance Research and Optimization team as required.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Strategic Thinking — ability to take a long-term view of technology and align software direction with business goals. Anticipates future needs, balances immediate demands with future scalability, and contributes meaningfully to organisational strategy.
• Decision-Making Under Uncertainty — skilled in navigating ambiguity, balancing trade-offs, and making sound judgements even with incomplete information. Takes ownership of critical decisions and ensures they are well-reasoned and well-communicated.
• Influence Without Line Management — capable of inspiring, guiding, and aligning diverse teams, even when not in a formal management chain. Gains trust and drives change through expertise, clarity of thought, and collaborative engagement.
• Communication and Storytelling — able to articulate complex technical ideas clearly and persuasively to a variety of audiences, including engineers, non-technical stakeholders, and executives. Brings others along on the journey by providing context, clarity, and conviction.
• Mentorship and Talent Development — committed to developing others by providing guidance, encouragement, and thoughtful feedback. Builds capability within the team and fosters a culture of continuous learning and growth.
• Systems Thinking — sees the bigger picture and understands how software interacts with hardware, people, process, and the wider business. Optimizes the whole rather than just the parts, and designs for sustainability, maintainability, and resilience.
• Calm Under Pressure — maintains clear thinking and steady leadership during high-stakes situations, such as critical incidents or project crises. Reassures teams, protects psychological safety, and helps focus efforts where they matter most.

TECHNICAL SKILLS REQUIRED:

• Java – Extensive experience with Java is mandatory.
• Extensive experience in all aspects of software development.
• Team-leading experience.

ADDITIONAL SKILLS AND CAPABILITIES THAT ARE NOT STRICTLY REQUIRED, BUT ARE EXTREMELY BENEFICIAL:

• Deep working knowledge of solving scheduling and optimization problems in a static-shuttle automatic storage and retrieval system with a whole-system approach.
• Deep working knowledge of an internal Dematic storage and retrieval optimization prototype.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES WITHIN THE SOLUTION PERFORMANCE RESEARCH AND OPTIMIZATION TEAM:

• Software Architecture — overarching responsibility for defining the structure of software systems, including key abstractions, interfaces, deployment models, and long-term architectural direction. This includes ensuring alignment with organizational goals and scalability needs.
• Software Design — responsibility for translating architectural vision into detailed module, component, and interface designs. This covers design patterns, modularity, readability, and maintainability, ensuring solutions are both elegant and pragmatic.
• Software Testing, Verification, and Validation — ownership of ensuring the correctness, robustness, and quality of software. This includes unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and validation of requirements. Also ensures traceability and sign-off processes are appropriate for critical software.
• Software Source Control — governance of version control strategies, including branching models, code integration practices, and tool usage (e.g., Git). This also includes defining review processes and ensuring codebase integrity.
• Software Installation and Delivery — responsibility for software build pipelines, deployment automation, release processes, and delivery packaging. Ensures that releases are consistent, traceable, and reproducible across environments.
• Software Optimization — guiding performance tuning, profiling, and resource efficiency across the software stack. This includes both proactive design for performance and reactive improvements based on real-world usage.
• Software Development Process & Lifecycle Governance — defining and evolving the team’s development methodology, including Agile practices, CI/CD workflows, documentation, coding standards, and code review procedures. Ensures the software lifecycle is efficient, transparent, and adaptable.
• Technical Leadership & Mentorship — providing technical direction to the rest of the team, reviewing work, and fostering engineering excellence. Actively supports the growth of individuals through mentoring, knowledge sharing, and leadership by example.
• Security and Compliance — ensuring that software systems meet appropriate cybersecurity standards and regulatory requirements. This includes secure coding practices, dependency management, access controls, and auditing where required.
• DevOps and Tooling Strategy — integrating development with operational considerations, including automation, monitoring, observability, and incident response. Guides selection and configuration of tools supporting the build-test-release cycle.
• Technology Strategy and Stack Selection — evaluating and selecting appropriate technologies, platforms, and frameworks. Aligns choices with organizational strategy, future scalability, and team capability, and manages technical debt proactively.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration — working closely with product management, hardware teams, UX designers, operations, and other business stakeholders to ensure that software development supports and enables broader organisational objectives.
• Support of Live Systems — ultimate responsibility for the correct functioning of deployed software in live environments. Whilst first- and second-line support are provided by others outside this organization, this role acts is ultimately responsible third-line and final point of technical escalation. Ensures root cause analysis, resolution of complex issues, and implementation of preventative improvements where needed.
• Innovation and Technical Exploration — responsibility for driving innovation within the software domain, identifying emerging technologies, exploring novel approaches, and translating research concepts into practical prototypes or production-ready solutions. Encourages a culture of experimentation, curiosity, and continuous improvement within the team.
  Whilst technical leadership skills are key, and the support of colleagues and delegation of responsibilities is instrumental, this role is not intended to have any direct line management responsibilities.