Principal Engineer/Architect (Java, AI) - Greenfield Platform Location: Manchester (hybrid) (4 days a week on site)The role Opportunity to join a greenfield build focused on a next-generation Corporate Actions platform within a global financial environment.This is a hands-on Principal IC role with no line management, owning architecture and driving engineering direction across a large-scale distributed system.What you'll doDesign and build Java (Spring Boot) microservicesArchitect event-driven systems (Kafka / messaging)Apply AI/ML to real-world business problemsWork with modern development tooling, including AI-assisted environmentsInfluence technical direction and engineering standardsWhat you'll needExperience operating at Principal / Staff / Architect levelStrong Java and distributed systems backgroundHands-on AI/ML experience (Python or similar)Experience with Kafka or MQ, SQL/Oracle, cloud and containerisationNice to haveFinancial services experience (post-trade, custody, corporate actions, trading)