Our client, a leading name in global financial markets, is expanding its Communications Surveillance and Record Keeping Technology function in response to increasing regulatory scrutiny. With regulators worldwide elevating expectations around Market Abuse monitoring and robust Record Keeping controls, this is a critical and high-profile hire. We are seeking an exceptional Principal Engineer to play a central technical leadership role within their Surveillance Technology team. This is an opportunity to influence strategy, shape engineering standards, and drive innovation across a complex, business-critical technology landscape. The Opportunity Communication Surveillance and mobile capture capabilities now sit at the forefront of internal and external regulatory enquiries. As the Principal Engineer, you will act as the technical authority for a major Communications Surveillance Technology programmeleading architectural decisions, engineering best practice, and the design of next-generation solutions. This role is ideal for a senior technologist who is hands-on, passionate about Surveillance and Record Keeping technologies, and capable of influencing cross-functional teams in a fast-moving environment. Key Responsibilities Serve as the primary technical leader within the Surveillance Technology team. Provide expert oversight across analysis, architecture, design and delivery of complex systems. Architect, build, and evolve scalable, high-performance solutions for Communications Surveillance and Record Keeping. Lead engineering standards: architecture reviews, vendor assessments, impact analysis, and automated testing. Mentor and develop engineering talent, fostering a culture of continuous learning. Champion innovation by evaluating new technologies and methodologies within Surveillance and Record Keeping. Translate complex technical concepts for both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Support agile planning, estimation and prioritisation. Identify opportunities for system optimisation, refactoring, and alignment to target architectures. Manage technical risks, issues and dependencies. Benchmark against peer organisations to ensure alignment with regulatory and industry expectations. Experience & Competencies Essential Proven experience within Communications Surveillance Technology. Strong background in technical leadership within software delivery teams. Hands-on expertise across the full software development lifecycle. Deep knowledge of at least one leading Communications Surveillance platform. Familiarity with Regex, SQL, and Boolean search concepts. Strong understanding of distributed systems, information security, and cloud technologies. Experience with major communication platforms and capture solutions (e.g., Bloomberg, LSEG, ICE, Symphony, whats app, WeCom, Smarsh, Global Relay, Behavox). Experience with communications data structures, ETL/ELT pipelines, and data integrity standards. Strong understanding of CI/CD practices and agile methodologies. Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills. Desired Understanding of financial markets or trading systems. Knowledge of FCA Market Abuse Regulation. Experience in performance optimisation and profiling. Familiarity with modern UI frameworks (React, Typescript). Exposure to containerisation and orchestration tools. Understanding of architectural frameworks and best practices. Knowledge of AWS or other cloud platforms.