Principle Developer

Company Overview
 
ID-ware is a specialist provider of Physical Identity & Access Management (PIAM) solutions, supporting government, public sector organisations, critical national infrastructure, enterprise, and industry. As part of the international ID-ware Group, we design and deliver scalable, cloud-native platforms that enable secure physical access, credential management, and digital identity operations across Europe.
 
Position Overview

We are seeking a hands-on Principal Developer to work closely with the CTO and senior technical colleagues across the UK and wider group. You will lead the design, build, and continuous improvement of our enterprise PIAM platform, enabling the management of physical identity data, secure credentials, and access control at scale.
 
This is a senior technical leadership role, combining hands-on engineering with architectural decision-making, technical governance, and thought leadership. You will be responsible for shaping best practices, mentoring senior developers, and ensuring delivery of performant, secure, and maintainable systems in an agile environment.
 
Key Responsibilities
 
Technical Leadership

• Define and evolve the architecture of our PIAM platform
• Lead design and implementation of microservices using Node.js, TypeScript, and Fastify
• Establish coding standards, architectural patterns, and documentation practices
• Create and maintain Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)
• Champion secure-by-design principles and ensure scalability for high-concurrency, large-scale deployments

 
Development & Implementation

• Build and own secure, scalable backend services (Node.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL)
• Implement frontend components using React and/or Angular
• Take ownership of CI/CD pipelines, deployment workflows, and infrastructure readiness
• Deliver robust observability, monitoring, and logging across services
• Design for multi-tenant performance, resilience, and runtime security
• Implement integrations with enterprise systems, workflow platforms, and related infrastructure

 
Team & Delivery Leadership

• Mentor and guide senior developers, fostering a culture of engineering excellence
• Lead code reviews and maintain high-quality standards
• Participate in and lead solution design sessions
• Guide agile delivery, backlog refinement, and sprint planning
• Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams across multiple geographies

 
Quality & Performance

• Maintain API response performance consistently under 200ms (p95)
• Define and execute comprehensive test strategies (unit, integration, E2E)
• Ensure system observability and rapid fault diagnosis
• Drive continuous improvement in development processes and product quality

Essential Requirements
 
Technical Expertise

• Expert proficiency in TypeScript, Node.js, REST and WebSocket API design
• Proven experience designing and delivering microservices architectures
• Strong experience with PostgreSQL, Redis, and message queues (RabbitMQ or similar)
• Knowledge of containerisation (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes)
• Skilled in OpenAPI-first development and secure API design
• Practical experience with authentication protocols (OIDC, OAuth 2.0, JWT)
• Ideally, experience in cloud-native development and integration across hybrid or multi-cloud environments

 
Enterprise Software Integration

• Experience integrating complex enterprise systems and APIs
• Understanding of workflow automation platforms and process orchestration
• Familiarity with data synchronisation, transformation, and interoperability standards
• Proven ability to design solutions that span multiple enterprise platforms and services

 
Leadership & Collaboration

• Demonstrated ability to lead and mentor development teams
• Strong contributor to architectural decision-making
• Excellent communicator with technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Skilled at working across distributed teams and international collaboration
• Comfortable working in agile, sprint-based delivery environments

 
Clearance Requirement

• Must be eligible to hold or currently hold UK Government Security Clearance (SC or above)

 
Highly Desirable
 
Advanced Technical Skills

• Experience with frontend frameworks (React, Angular, Next.js, Remix)
• Knowledge of workflow engines and process automation
• Familiarity with service mesh technologies (Istio)
• Experience with observability tooling (OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana)
• Exposure to mobile platform development (iOS, Android)

 
Domain Knowledge

• Background in identity, access control, or secure credential management
• Understanding of regulatory and compliance frameworks (GDPR, SOC2)
• Experience with advanced authentication methods (FIDO2, Passkey, PKI)

 
Integration & Migration

• Experience with enterprise system integration and data transformation
• Supporting legacy system migration and modernisation programmes
• Familiarity with data synchronisation and workflow orchestration patterns

The hiring process for this role is 3-4 stages:

• First stage is an interview with a member of the HR department.
• Second stage is a technical interview with the CTO and a member of our Development Team.
• Final stage is an interview with the CTO and Head of Cloud & Platform.