GCP Principal Engineer

About the role 

This role sits within Advisory, where multidisciplinary teams help clients address complex business and technology challenges and turn strategy into practical change. Within Google Cloud Platform Engineering, you will combine hands-on engineering credibility with consulting and engagement leadership, setting direction across major cloud transformation workstreams and helping teams deliver solutions that are secure, supportable and ready for operation. 

You will work across discovery, solution design, build, migration, testing, release and early-life support. Alongside client delivery, you will help grow the capability through reusable assets, reference architectures, recruitment, knowledge sharing and support for proposals and bids. 

About the team

The team delivers complex Google Cloud and hybrid-cloud transformations alongside specialists in platform engineering, cyber security, data, architecture, operating models and change. It combines hands-on engineering with consulting and engagement leadership, supporting clients from discovery and solution design through build, migration, testing, release and early-life support. Team members also develop reusable assets, reference architectures and engineering patterns, while sharing knowledge and developing the next generation of architects and engineers.

About the role

You will provide senior technical leadership for complex Google Cloud and hybrid-cloud transformations, setting the engineering direction from discovery through delivery and ensuring solutions are secure, resilient, scalable, supportable and aligned to measurable business outcomes.

Roles and responsibilities 

• Own the technical direction for major Google Cloud and hybrid-cloud workstreams, translating business priorities into clear architectures, engineering roadmaps and delivery plans. 

• Lead end-to-end solution design across landing zones, resource structures, networking, identity, security, data and artificial intelligence platforms, integration, observability, resilience and disaster recovery. 

• Make and communicate architecture decisions that balance business value, security, performance, cost, compliance, operational readiness and delivery risk. 

• Establish practical engineering standards for infrastructure as code, continuous integration and delivery, automated testing, policy as code, configuration management and documentation. 

• Guide multidisciplinary teams through build, migration, testing, release and early-life support, resolving complex issues and maintaining alignment with the agreed design. 

• Lead technical assurance and architecture reviews, identify risks early and drive proportionate action to protect delivery quality. 

• Facilitate client workshops and explain technical choices, trade-offs and recommendations clearly to senior technical and business stakeholders. 

• Strengthen the Google Cloud capability by creating reusable patterns and assets, contributing to proposals and estimates, and coaching architects and engineers. 

Experience and skills needed 

• Experience leading large Google Cloud Platform transformation programmes in complex enterprise environments, with clear ownership of technical direction and delivery outcomes. 

• Deep Google Cloud architecture and engineering knowledge, including landing zones, identity, networking, security controls, logging, monitoring and workload onboarding. 

• Practical experience applying Terraform, Git-based workflows, continuous integration and delivery, automated testing, Google Kubernetes Engine, serverless services and operational observability. 

• Experience designing secure and resilient solutions using least privilege, defence in depth, encryption, recovery planning, performance engineering and cost optimisation. 

• Consulting experience spanning discovery, architecture, delivery leadership, assurance, stakeholder engagement and presales, with the ability to explain complex topics to mixed audiences. 

• Evidence of leading major workstreams, influencing senior stakeholders and developing multidisciplinary architects and engineers through coaching and knowledge sharing. 

Qualifications required 

• A relevant Google Cloud professional-level certification or equivalent demonstrable expertise. Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect certification is desirable.