This role strengthens technical excellence across EMEA while aligning to global technology strategy and leading the Starbucks Digital Solutions technical direction for International markets. It will set engineering direction, raise standards and guide decisions across internally developed and third-party platforms that matter most to our business, customers, partners, baristas and shareholders.
As a Principal Engineer, you will be a strategic technical leader, trusted advisor and hands-on technologist. You will partner across product, delivery, security, infrastructure and technology teams to turn enterprise strategy into scalable, secure and resilient engineering outcomes.
EMEA’s technology landscape is predominantly third-party today. This role will help determine where Starbucks should build, own and differentiate in line with our CTO vision and Starbucks Digital Solutions strategy, focusing on the systems and capabilities where greater engineering ownership can create competitive advantage, agility and long-term value across International markets.
This role is for an ambitious self-starter who thrives in ambiguity, operates with significant autonomy and influences effectively at all levels of the organisation. Equally comfortable discussing code-level solutions with engineers or presenting technology strategy to senior executives, you will bring technical depth, commercial awareness and sound judgement to every decision.
As Starbucks expands its global engineering capability, this role offers a unique opportunity to shape, build and potentially lead future engineering teams supporting EMEA and broader International products and platforms. Reporting to an EMEA Director, you will work across business functions, global technology teams, Starbucks Digital Solutions, vendors and delivery partners to ensure technology investments are scalable, secure, resilient and aligned to long-term strategic objectives.
The role will deliver impact by:
Technical Strategy & Leadership
- Set and influence the technical direction for EMEA technology capabilities, aligned to Starbucks’ global technology strategy and the Starbucks Digital Solutions direction for International markets.
- Serve as a trusted technical advisor to senior technology and business leaders.
- Provide clear recommendations on technology investments, build-versus-buy decisions and platform evolution.
- Identify opportunities to increase Starbucks-owned technology capabilities and reduce unnecessary third-party dependency where strategic value exists.
- Drive technical decision-making across programmes, products and business domains.
- Balance speed, scalability, maintainability, resilience, security and cost in technology decisions.
Engineering Excellence & Standards
- Raise engineering standards, practices and technical maturity across EMEA.
- Promote modern engineering principles, tooling, patterns and ways of working across EMEA teams.
- Lead architecture and engineering reviews, providing guidance on solution design and implementation.
- Champion best practices in testing, observability, reliability, security, automation and operational excellence.
- Help teams reduce technical debt and improve platform health.
Platform Strategy & Solution Ownership
- Partner with Product teams to deliver business outcomes through sustainable technical solutions.
- Modernise platforms, simplify technology landscapes and consolidate capabilities where they create strategic value.
- Shape integration strategies across SaaS platforms, cloud-native services and custom-developed solutions.
Enterprise Alignment & Collaboration
- Partner with Starbucks Global Technology and Starbucks Digital Solutions teams to align EMEA priorities with enterprise standards, platforms and International market direction.
- Represent regional needs in global roadmaps and shape Starbucks Digital Solutions priorities where International market requirements can create broader enterprise value.
- Build strong relationships across engineering, infrastructure, security, product and vendor communities.
- Ensure technology investments have a clear return for Starbucks and International licensees.
Engineering Capability & Talent Development
- Shape the future engineering operating model for EMEA in alignment with global engineering strategy and Starbucks Digital Solutions priorities for International markets.
- Expand internal engineering capability and ownership of strategic systems where it creates business value.
- Coach engineers, technical leads and future engineering leaders.
- Support recruitment, capability assessment and succession planning.
- Develop a clear engineering career path and capability framework for the region.
The successful candidate will demonstrate:
- Creating an environment where learning, experimentation and innovation are encouraged.
Skills & Qualifications
Essential Experience
- Significant experience in software engineering, technical leadership or principal engineering roles within complex enterprise environments.
- Proven experience influencing technical strategy across multiple teams, products or technology domains.
- Demonstrable experience leading technology transformation, platform modernisation or engineering improvement initiatives.
- Experience operating within highly matrixed, global organisations.
Technical Expertise
- Strong full-stack engineering expertise across modern application architectures, APIs, integrations and cloud-native platforms, including Azure.
- Deep understanding of software engineering principles, design patterns, architecture and system design.
- Strong understanding of event-driven architectures, API-first design and integration patterns.
- Experience with DevOps, CI/CD, automation, observability and operational excellence practices.
- Strong understanding of security, resilience, scalability and performance engineering.
- Ability to challenge and assess vendor-supplied architectures and technical solutions.
- Experience balancing SaaS, third-party and internally developed capabilities to maximise strategic value.
Leadership & Influence Skills
- Exceptional ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Credibility and confidence engaging with senior technology and business leadership teams.
- Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence without direct authority.
- Ability to build consensus across global, regional and vendor organisations.
Strategic & Commercial Acumen
- Ability to align technology decisions to business strategy, customer outcomes and commercial objectives.
- Experience evaluating technical debt, technology investments and platform sustainability.
Leadership Behaviours
- Highly self-motivated and comfortable operating autonomously.
- Challenges thinking constructively and drives positive change.
- Takes ownership and accountability for outcomes.
- Demonstrates resilience and adaptability in fast-changing environments.
- Collaborates effectively across cultures, geographies and organisational boundaries.
Desirable Experience
- Experience within retail, hospitality, digital commerce or customer-facing technology environments.
- Experience supporting geographically distributed engineering teams.
- Experience establishing, scaling or leading engineering functions.
- Experience working alongside Product Management organisations in a product-led operating model.
- Knowledge of modern engineering practices including Platform Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), AI-assisted development and Developer Experience (DevEx).
What else should you know?
We have a flexible working policy. Meaning 50% of the time we collaborate with each other in our London office and the rest of the time you may choose to work remotely.- Depending on your portfolio travel to other locations may be required occasionally. We will work with you to ensure this fits your home life.
- We also actively encourage partners to spend time in our stores. We believe it is essential we all understand the customer and ‘Green Apron Partner’ Starbucks experience.
Our standard working hours are Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:30. We value flexibility and offer it in return- recognising that balance looks different for everyone
If this resonates with you and sounds like something you’d love to be part of, we want to get to know you. Apply today to start your journey!
At Starbucks, we strive to offer equal employment opportunities to everyone. If you’re passionate about this position, we want to hear from you!
We value the uniqueness of each team member and endeavour to create a workplace where everyone feels they can be their true selves. If you require additional support during the recruitment process, please let us know.
