Principle Software Engineer - VP at Morgan Stanley

Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

06 Jan, 26

Salary

0.0

Posted On

08 Oct, 25

Experience

10 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Skills

Software Development, Team Management, Coaching, Performance Assessment, Quality Standards, Architectural Steering, Prototyping, Stakeholder Negotiation, Training, Learning Paths, Metrics Introduction, Internal Developer Platforms, Build/Test Pipeline Optimization, Monorepo Strategies, Security Hygiene, Inclusion, Career Development

Industry

Financial Services

Description

- Own end-to-end line management for a group of developers: coaching, feedback, performance assessment, compensation input, issue handling. - Design and execute individualized skill development plans mapped to longer-term fleet capability needs. - Drive retention through deliberate growth opportunities, psychological safety, and disciplined career pathing. - Use mentoring (skill transfer) and sponsorship (opportunity creation) intentionally to accelerate growth. - Hire for complementary skills; shape the overall competency mix (languages, architecture, tooling depth, delivery maturity). - Build and sustain a culture of idea sharing, peer coaching, and shared ownership. - Act as hands-on lead developer: design, prototype, review PRs, debug complex failures, set examples in code quality and operational rigor. - Set, communicate, and enforce engineering quality standards (testing depth, documentation expectations, observability, security hygiene, review discipline). - Provide architectural steering-recent and future domains include monorepo strategy, data & domain model design, build/test pipeline evolution, internal developer tooling, and foundational platform components (e.g., CDK / infra abstractions). - Perform exploratory prototyping to de-risk initiatives; hand off cleanly once direction is validated. - Uncover and execute the invisible sustaining work (refactors, dependency hygiene, test hardening, instrumentation) that preserves delivery velocity. Strategic & Cross-Fleet Impact - Represent the engineering perspective in higher-level planning-connect product intent, technical feasibility, and workforce capability shaping. - Balance BAU delivery with continual upskilling; negotiate time allocations with product owners to avoid long-term technical debt accumulation. - Identify and address systemic issues spanning multiple teams: architecture gaps, tooling friction, skill shortages, quality drift, process bottlenecks. - Make time-bounded decisions under incomplete information; communicate rationale and follow up with validation or course corrections. - Earn and maintain senior leadership trust through consistent judgment, transparency, and technical taste. Coaching & Enablement - Provide direct hands-on training sessions, pairing, code walkthroughs, technical deep dives. - Curate learning paths tied to future strategic capability needs (e.g., monorepo workflows, modularization patterns, platform migration readiness, secure-by-design practices). - Encourage measurable learning-convert abstract upskilling into observable competency shifts. - 10+ years of professional software development experience with a sustained hands on track (you still code, review, and design). - Proven experience directly managing software engineers (performance, career development, hiring, retention). - Demonstrated success elevating team capabilities via structured development plans and coaching. - Track record of setting and enforcing pragmatic quality standards (tests, automation, observability, review rigor, security hygiene). - Ability to make clear decisions under uncertainty and articulate trade-offs succinctly. - Excellence in stakeholder negotiation-balancing product timelines with non-functional and skill growth investments. - Experience introducing or scaling metrics (engineering effectiveness, quality, operational health, skill progression), we're prototyping this with our external partner Get DX currently. - Comfort prototyping and then transitioning ownership to teams. - Outstanding written and verbal communication tailored to audience (developers, product partners, senior leadership). - Commitment to inclusion, equitable opportunity, and psychologically safe team dynamics. - Prior responsibility for shaping org-wide capability roadmaps (e.g., test strategy uplift, migration programs, platform adoption). - Experience with internal developer platforms, build/test pipeline optimization, or infra-as-code (e.g., Terraform). - Exposure to large-scale repository strategies (monorepo tooling, dependency graph management, modularization). - Background in balancing regulated environment constraints with modern engineering practices. - Experience applying sponsorship to accelerate advancement for underrepresented or emerging talent. - Prior success resolving systemic cross-team architectural or process debt. What You'll Get - A high-visibility platform to shape the technical caliber and working habits of multiple development teams. - A dual-impact role-building software while building people. - The opportunity to institutionalize sustainable engineering practices that prevent future rework. - Influence over strategic architectural direction (e.g., monorepo, data model evolution, platform abstractions). - A culture that values thoughtful risk-taking, continuous learning, and transparent decision making. - The satisfaction of seeing measurable uplift in both delivery outcomes and developer growth trajectories. Our values - putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back - aren't just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what's best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work-life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There's also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work. To learn more about our offices across the globe, please copy and paste https://www.morganstanley.com/about-us/global-offices into your browser. If this role is deemed a Certified role and may require the role holder to hold mandatory regulatory qualifications or the minimum qualifications to meet internal company benchmarks. Flexible work statement Interested in flexible working opportunities? Speak to our recruitment team to find out more. We work to provide a supportive and inclusive environment where all individuals can maximize their full potential. Our skilled and creative workforce is comprised of individuals drawn from a broad cross section of the global communities in which we operate and who reflect a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives, and experiences. Our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion is evident through our constant focus on recruiting, developing, and advancing individuals based on their skills and talents.

Responsibilities

The Principal Software Engineer - VP will manage a group of developers, focusing on coaching, performance assessment, and skill development. They will also act as a hands-on lead developer, ensuring high engineering quality standards and architectural direction.