Principal Software Engineer

Principal Software Engineer (Cloud), Retail Solutions Oliver Wyman is a global leader in management consulting. With offices in more than 70 cities across 30 countries, Oliver Wyman combines deep industry knowledge with specialized expertise in strategy, operations, risk management, and organization transformation. The firm has more than 7,000 professionals around the world who work with clients to optimize their business, improve operations and risk profile, and accelerate performance to seize the most attractive opportunities. Oliver Wyman is seeking a Principal Software Engineer (Cloud) to join the Retail Solutions team in the UK, with London or Newcastle as preferred office locations, though some flexibility is offered. Retail Solutions is an internal product startup that blends a strong engineering culture and an obsession for creating products that deliver the world’s biggest retail impact. Our suite of retail tools empowers merchandising teams to address complex analytical challenges and make the most important commercial decisions at the heart of every retailer: optimizing assortments, promotional programs and pricing strategies. About the role The Retail Solutions engineering teams build and operate our SaaS products, enabled by our cloud Platform. The combination of our platform with common services, patterns and approaches unlocks our ability to innovate and build new products and functionality, ultimately increasing our value proposition. We are looking for an experienced Engineer to join the Application‑Enablement team, serving as the bridge between our SaaS product engineering and our Platform teams. This team leads some of our most innovative and cutting‑edge work such as the extraction of new common services and/or the creation of new products. This is a hands‑on role that requires a strong software and cloud engineering foundation. The role also requires solid collaboration and leadership skills. You will collaborate with our product teams as well as our Platform team, facilitating the work on initiatives that involve multiple teams. Because the Application‑Enablement team often spearheads the adoption of new patterns, strategies and platform functionality, you will also have the leadership and organizational skills to see these adopted across our engineering teams. You will be comfortable working with Retail’s leadership to develop and understand the organizational goals and priorities, feeding these into the roadmap of the application‑enablement team and balancing short‑term impact with long‑term vision. Key Responsibilities Lead the design, development and operation of new services and functionality added to our SaaS offering. Facilitate knowledge sharing and cross‑team collaboration across the engineering organization to maximize the impact of the application‑enablement team initiatives. Drive the roadmap of the application‑enablement team in collaboration with Retail leadership and engineering teams, balancing short‑term impact with long‑term vision. Champion best practices in cloud architectures such as 12‑factor apps, observability, and others, to meet high availability, performance, security, and cost efficiency needs. Lead the adoption of solutions, patterns and strategies that improve efficiency and development experience across our engineering organization. Evaluate and integrate existing or emerging cloud services and open‑source technologies to enhance our products and platform capabilities and maintain a competitive edge. Collaborate with security and compliance teams to embed policies and controls into our products and platform, ensuring adherence to organizational and regulatory standards. Foster a culture of continuous improvement, mentoring and leading engineering teams to deliver high‑quality solutions and operational excellence. Who We Are Looking For You’ll have a solid understanding of software, cloud and platform engineering fundamentals, an ability to deliver new solutions into production and a strong desire to learn, rather than a perfect match with our stack. Technical Skills 7+ years of engineering experience overall, with at least 2‑3 years in a similar principal software engineering or engineering architect role. Codebase uses primarily JavaScript and Python across various web applications, backend services and analytical processes, leveraging frameworks such as Express.js, Vue, Flask or Pandas. Hands‑on coding and build solutions; comfortable writing code and building solutions. Experience designing and building distributed applications and architectures, comfortable with different architectural styles and concepts such as DDD, service‑mesh or data‑mesh. Experience building, deploying and operating applications in Kubernetes – use AKS with tools like ArgoCD, Argo Workflows, Helm, Dapr and more. Familiarity with DevSecOps, Infrastructure as Code and GitOps patterns; ideally familiar with Terraform. Familiarity with database engines such as MongoDB or PostgreSQL. Familiarity with large data and data warehouses/lakehouses, ideally with Databricks. Familiarity with FinOps concepts and processes. Strong understanding of software engineering best practices such as version control, CI/CD, automated testing, observability and security. Relevant certifications such as Azure’s Solutions Architect or Kubernetes’ CKA are a bonus but not required. Why Join Us Our team is distributed over several countries, with a center of gravity in the UK and Spain. By mixing diverse backgrounds and experiences, we build great software. We are a small, inclusive team that values learning, improvement and building stuff. Our team is growing fast to deliver ambitious plans to bring our product suite to the largest retailers on the planet. This is an opportunity to work in multi‑disciplinary teams, build great products and see real‑world impact. You will have autonomy, trust, support to make decisions, take responsibility and drive experience forward. Decision‑making is transparent, with a relatively flat structure that values expertise over hierarchy. Equal Opportunity Employment Oliver Wyman is an equal‑opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Marsh & McLennan Companies and its affiliates are EOE Minority/Female/Disabled/Veteran/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity employers. Oliver Wyman, a business of Marsh McLennan (NYSE: MMC), is a management consulting firm that combines deep industry knowledge with specialized expertise to help clients optimize their business, improve operations and accelerate performance across the globe. Marsh McLennan is committed to embracing a diverse, inclusive and flexible work environment, providing reasonable adjustments to candidates with disabilities in accordance with applicable law. We are committed to hybrid work, which includes flexibility to work remotely and the collaboration benefits of working together in the office. All colonies are expected to be in their local office or working onsite with clients at least three days per week, with designated “anchor days.” #J-18808-Ljbffr