Principal Developer / Technical Architect

Salary: Up to £71,957

Contract Type: Permanent

Security Level: SC

Location: Gatwick – Hybrid

Visa Restrictions: This position does not offer visa sponsorship

Closing Date: Friday 18th September 2026

Screening Calls: From w/c 21st September 2026

Interview Date: w/c Monday 5th October 2026

We are the UK's aviation and aerospace regulator and recognised as a world leader in its field. Our activities are diverse, enabling the aviation industry to meet the highest safety standards, and we pride ourselves on our ability to adapt to the constantly evolving aviation environment.

Please note that both a CV and a cover letter are required for any application detailing how you meet the person specification for the role as well as answering the below questions:

What attracts you to this role?

How does your experience and approach prepare you to succeed in this role?

We are the UK's aviation and aerospace regulator and recognised as a world leader in its field. Our activities are diverse, enabling the aviation industry to meet the highest safety standards, and we pride ourselves on our ability to adapt to the constantly evolving aviation environment.

The Role

We are looking for an experienced hands-on Technical Architect or Systems design focused Principal Engineer to provide technical leadership across a portfolio of digital services. 

This is a role that combines architecture, engineering, and delivery. You will work closely with software engineering teams, product managers, security specialists, and operational teams to design secure, reliable, and maintainable services that support the CAA's regulatory responsibilities. 

You will help shape technical direction across our Next.js, .NET and Azure estate whilst remaining actively involved in delivery. The role will be approximately 70% architecture, design, and technical leadership and 30% hands-on engineering, although this will vary depending on delivery priorities and the complexity of the work. 

Core Accountabilities

Technical architecture and leadership 

• Define and maintain architecture principles, standards, and patterns across multiple CAA digital services. 

• Produce solution designs and technical guidance that support secure, accessible, resilient, and supportable services. 

• Work with Engineering leads, Product, and delivery teams to identify technical risks, dependencies, and opportunities early, balancing business priorities, technical debt, security requirements and operational needs to develop a pragmatic technical roadmap.

Hands-on technical delivery 

• Lead technical and architecture spikes and proof of concepts where complex or high-risk decisions require validation. Support hands on prototyping of novel technical solutions to validate approaches before rollout.

• Review solution designs, code, and technical approaches to improve consistency and quality across teams, and work alongside developers to resolve complex engineering problems. 

• Promote automation, modern engineering practices, and appropriate use of AI-assisted tooling within agreed CAA security, information management, and governance controls. 

Working across teams 

• Work with product, engineering, architecture, security, data, and operational teams to translate business requirements into elegant, scalable technical solutions. Communicate decisions, risks, and trade-offs clearly to technical and non-technical colleagues. 

• Coach and mentor software engineers, helping develop software architecture, system design, and engineering capability across teams. Help engineers to grow and solve engineering blockers.

About You 

• 5+ years of experience designing and delivering enterprise level cloud-based web applications and services, gained as a hands-on Technical Architect, Principal Engineer, Lead Engineer or in a similar senior technical role.
• Able to communicate complex technical issues clearly through concise documentation, diagrams, and constructive conversations with technical and non-technical colleagues. 

• Technical skills and experience: 

• Experience with React, Next.js including server-side rendering and web performance. 

• Experience designing and building APIs, integrations and backend services using C# and .NET. Experience of messaging and event-driven patterns would be beneficial. 

• Hands on Azure experience, including application hosting, security, monitoring, networking, integration and platform services such as App Service, Functions, Azure SQL, Key Vault, API Management and Service Bus. 
• Working on software designs and solution architecture to agreed standards.

• Able to make and explain architecture decisions based on business value, risk, security, maintainability, and operational needs, rather than pursuing an idealised technical solution. 

• Experience with CI/CD, automated testing, observability, application security, accessibility, and the operation of live services. 

Desirable experience 

• Experienced working in a regulated, public-sector, or safety-critical environment. 

• Experienced modernising or replacing legacy applications whilst continuing to support live services. 
• Experienced designing solutions that use AI, automation, or intelligent services appropriately and securely. 
• Relevant Microsoft Azure certifications.

Additional Information

For many appointments within the CAA, these roles require access to operationally sensitive infrastructure and/or Nationally Protected information. For these roles the post holders must undergo National Security Vetting and achieve the appropriate level of clearance.

SC - To be vetted we will usually expect a reasonable period of residency in the UK so that meaningful checks can be undertaken. For this role this will need to be 5 years.

If you do not meet these requirements, we may not be able to accept your application.

For more information on CTC and SC clearance please visit - Vetting explained - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The CAA values high ethical standards and personal integrity among employees. If invited for interview you will be asked to complete a declaration of interest.

Relocation & Property

The CAA will be relocating from Aviation House (Our Gatwick Office) to new premises in a few years’ time. Our move is driven by strategic, operational and environmental considerations.

We will be moving to a new local home, up to a 15-mile radius of Aviation House, to minimise disruption for our valued colleagues and customers.

We are now working with colleagues and visitors to understand what we need in our new office, before we start our property search. We will sell Aviation House and land, vacate the site and move to new premises, but we do not expect to move before 2028

Inclusive Recruitment

We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome applications from all backgrounds. As a Disability Confident employer, candidates who meet the minimum requirements will be guaranteed an interview. Find out more about the Disability Confident Scheme. If you require any adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.

Use of Artificial Intelligence by candidates in the CAA recruitment process

We recognise that many of our candidates find Artificial Intelligence to be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be rejected on that basis.

Working With Us

Explore What We Offer section on our careers website to find out about our benefits and how we support work-life balance.

Our Values

Do The Right Thing, Never Stop Learning, Build Collaborative Relationships, Respect Everyone – For more information please Click Here

Closing Date: Friday 18th September 2026

Screening Calls: From w/c 21st September 2026

Interview Date: w/c Monday 5th October 2026

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

No recruitment agencies please.