Job Description

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Senior Principal Software Engineer

Job Requisition ID: 25581
Job Closing Date: 10/10/2025
London, GBR, W1A 1AA
| Salford, GBR, M50 2QH
JOB DETAILS
Band: (Band E)
Salary: Upto 110,000 base salary depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.
Contract type: Permanent role
Location: This is a hybrid role, and the successful candidate will balance office working with home working - Salford or London office - 1 to 2 days a week
We're happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.
PURPOSE OF THE ROLE
We want the BBC to be as renowned for the quality of its engineering as it is for the quality of its content. We aspire to be the best so that we can engineer outstanding digital products, at scale. Working here in an engineering role means being part of a world-class team - and an opportunity to do some of the most meaningful work of your career.
Our Account & Identity platform underpins the BBC's digital future, with Identity & Access Management (IAM) at its core. To meet our strategic ambitions, we are evolving into three dedicated groups: Account Capabilities, Account Platform, and User Engagement. Together, they will deliver resilient, scalable foundations and audience-facing value at pace.
We are now hiring a Senior Principal Engineer to act as a cross-group technical leader. This is a senior individual contributor role, accountable for engineering practices, standards, and cost efficiency across all three groups. You will be expected to bring deep IAM expertise, while also providing floating technical leadership across Account Capabilities, Account Platform, and User Engagement. You will focus on high-impact problems for a defined period, embed sustainable solutions, and then move on to the next challenge - leaving behind stronger teams, clearer practices, and more cohesive systems.
The BBC offers an inclusive workplace where fairness, respect, equality, dignity and autonomy are part of our everyday goals and behaviours. We select candidates on merit and value diversity in all its forms.
Interview Process
We believe in fairness, transparency, and giving candidates the best opportunity to demonstrate their strengths.
Our process has two stages:

• Practical Exercise - a focused task designed to explore your approach to problem-solving and technical decision-making.
• Panel Interview - a values-based and technical conversation with peers and leaders, where we'll discuss your experience, approach, and how you'd tackle the challenges of this role.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT

• Own and shape the future of Identity and Access Management (IAM) at the BBC - guiding architectural direction, evaluating vendor solutions, and ensuring successful integration of third-party platforms.
• Provide cross-group technical leadership across Account Capabilities, Account Platform, and User Engagement, ensuring cohesion, clarity, and alignment to shared principles.
• Define and embed engineering standards that raise the bar for quality, security, and operational resilience across multiple teams.
• Ensure scalability and sustainability of our account and identity systems to support long-term growth and global reach.
• Support and mentor Principal Engineers and Team Leads, fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement.
• Work in partnership with cross-discipline peers to align technical strategy with business goals and accelerate time-to-market.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
Essential Skills

• Identity & Access Management (IAM): Proven expertise in IAM systems, authentication flows, and standards (OAuth2, OIDC, SAML, MFA).
• Consumer scale IAM delivery experience.
• Senior IC level (Senior Principal / Staff Engineer) with cross team influence.
• Strong grasp of modern engineering practices (DevOps, cloud native, infrastructure as code) with focus on cost, performance, and reliability.
• Proven ability to step into complex initiatives, bring clarity, and deliver results.

Desirable Skills

• Experience evaluating and integrating vendor solutions at scale.
• Broader platform architecture knowledge beyond IAM.
• Skilled in mentoring Principal Engineers and Team Leads.
• Comfortable working in ambiguity and embedding sustainable practices.
• Strong collaboration across disciplines (product, delivery, architecture).

Disclaimer
This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.
Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.
For any general queries, please contact:
Redeployment
The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.
Information at a Glance
This is your BBC
At the BBC you can create and innovate in an inclusive environment while contributing to some of the world's best loved content, and the BBC's mission to inform, educate and entertain.
Life at BBC
Here you will benefit from:

• Fair pay and flexible benefits including a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week, 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care and gym.
• Excellent career and professional development.
• Support in your working life, including flexible working which you can discuss with us at any point during the application, selection or offer.
• A values-based organisation where the way we do things is important as what we do.

Benefits may vary if you are joining on an FTC basis.
Learn more about life at the BBC and our values in our candidate pack.
You belong
We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, so all our employees feel that they can belong, thrive and achieve their full potential.
We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to join us. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.
We welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief.
Find out more about diversity, inclusion and belonging in our strategy below.
Disability confident
We are a disability confident employer. If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process, or to carry out this role, please contact us via email and we'd be happy to discuss:
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BBC Group and Public Services, Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London, United Kingdom, W1A 1AA. BBC Studios Distribution Limited, company no: 01420028, registered address: 1 Television Centre, 101 Wood Lane, London, United Kingdom W12 7FA.
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Skills Required