Principal Software Engineer
Australia, Western Australia, Perth
Fulltime: 40 hrs a week
Experience: > 10 years
Information Technology
Introduction
Brunel has partnered with a leading Australian energy company on a contract opportunity for a Principal Software Engineer to join an established software engineering function. This role suits a senior individual contributor with deep AWS and distributed systems expertise, a track record of cross-team technical leadership, and a focus on long-term platform stewardship.
What are you going to do
The Principal Software Engineer is a senior technical leader who maximises the impact of others by leading through example and influencing outcomes well beyond their immediate team. They mentor and support engineers across multiple teams, contribute to hiring and capability uplift, and actively share knowledge through coaching, workshops, and community learning to strengthen the overall Software Engineering discipline.
They set a clear technical vision and direction, defining where the bar sits and shaping strategies that cross organisational boundaries to achieve meaningful business outcomes. By establishing ambitious yet practical goals across a portfolio of work, they align technology decisions with business objectives, critically evaluate options, and continuously adjust direction in response to change. As a trusted custodian of platforms and systems, they provide stability, reliability, and confidence in long term platform ownership.
This role involves tackling the most complex and ambiguous technical challenges, applying deep industry insight and awareness of the evolving technology landscape to inform strategy and decision making. Principal Software Engineers develop proven systems and intentionally scale successful patterns across teams, removing barriers through thoughtful collaboration and shared purpose. They anticipate the needs of those around them, operate with professionalism and care in their communication, and create an environment where engineers can do their best work and continue to grow.
Essential skills and knowledge
- Extensive experience as a senior software engineer and high-impact individual contributor
- Proven technical leadership across domains, influencing architecture and engineering practice without formal authority
- Strong ownership of critical platforms, accountable for architecture, reliability, performance, security and production operations
- Deep expertise in distributed systems, cloud-native, serverless, event-driven and microservices architectures
- Sound judgement on trade-offs across scalability, cost, security and maintainability
- Advanced AWS cloud engineering, including IaC, IAM, networking, observability and resilience patterns
- Delivers end-to-end solutions, applying systems thinking to complex, evolving problems
- Strong programming foundations across multiple languages, with secure coding, testing and deployment expertise
- Lifts code quality, test coverage and system reliability across teams
- Embeds security through threat modelling, design reviews and risk management
- Influences engineering strategy, platform direction and roadmaps aligned to business outcomes
- Recognised mentor and coach, building capability across the discipline
- Strong communicator across engineering, product and executive audiences
What we offer
About Brunel
Brunel is a specialist recruitment and workforce solutions provider, connecting talented people with opportunities throughout Australasia and around the world. We specialise in highly skilled ICT and technical roles, pairing candidates with industry-leading projects and organisations on a contract, permanent or secondment basis.
Operating in Australasia since 1997, Brunel has major bases in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, backed by the strength and reach of a global network spanning more than 45 countries, 120 offices and 45 years of successful operation.
Brunel is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and female candidates.
Contact If you have any questions or would like to discuss this role, please contact j.bellinger-brown@brunel.net
Anything else ?
Shape your future
Are you ready for the next step in your career? Join Brunel’s powerful global network, where passionate, results-driven specialists come together with industry-leading clients. By connecting specialists to pioneering projects, we drive change in many industries, enabling growth and delivering great outcomes. Brunel helps you reach your full potential and empowers you to make an impact within a purpose-driven global company.
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Explore your career opportunities!
Our Culture and Values
At Brunel, we are proud of our unique corporate culture, which is shaped and nurtured by the collective efforts of our employees. Our work environment is characterised by an authentic, communicative and inclusive approach to teamwork that fosters an atmosphere of collaboration and creativity. Our values are at the center of everything we do – for our clients, our colleagues and ourselves.
Learn more about our global network of specialists!
Learn more about our global network of specialists!
Our ESG Commitment
Since 1975, our mission has always been to connect specialists to exciting career opportunities, to support the development of these careers, and to offer fair and equal employment. This has enabled us to create a truly sustainable and durable business model. Having a passion for people and caring deeply for the environment is not only part of Brunel’s DNA but is also reflected in our culture and values. As a global company, we take our social responsibility very seriously.
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Join us on our mission!
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