Principal Software Engineer

Company Description

Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company, providing a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries, to make life and our environment safer, healthier and more sustainable. From the food you eat, to the water you drink, to the medicines you rely on, Eurofins laboratories work with the biggest companies in the world to ensure the products they supply are safe, their ingredients are authentic and labelling is accurate.

The Eurofins network of companies believes that it is a global leader in food, environment, pharmaceutical and cosmetic product testing and in discovery pharmacology, forensics, advanced material sciences and AgroScience contract research services. It is also one of the market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, and in the support of clinical studies, as well as in biopharma contract development and manufacturing. It also has a rapidly developing presence in highly specialised and molecular clinical diagnostic testing and in-vitro diagnostic products.

In over 37 years, Eurofins has grown from one laboratory in Nantes, France to over 65,000 staff across a decentralised and entrepreneurial network of more than 950 laboratories in over 1,000 companies across 59 countries. Eurofins companies offer a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods to evaluate the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability and purity of biological substances and products.

In 2024, Eurofins generated total revenues of EUR 6.95 billion; and has been among the best performing stocks in Europe over the past 20 years.

Job Description

Principal Software Engineer – Java

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will play a key role within the eLIMS-Forensics programme, supporting delivery of enterprise systems across Forensic Case Management, LIMS and Expert Reporting platforms.

This role operates within a complex, regulated forensic environment and combines software architecture, hands-on development, and delivery leadership. You will work with the core Qualitype team (based in Dresden, DE), operational SMEs, solution architects and distributed development teams across the UK, Europe, nearshore and offshore locations.

The position focuses on full lifecycle delivery including technical design, implementation, system evolution and automation, ensuring solutions are robust, scalable and aligned with forensic operational processes and compliance requirements.

Primary Responsibilities

Contribute to architecture and development of enterprise Java applications

Provide technical guidance on design and implementation across distributed teams

Support modernisation and evolution of legacy forensic systems

Ensure scalable, maintainable and high-performance solutions

Share knowledge and support capability development across nearshore and offshore teams

Collaborate with product, QA, DevOps and architecture stakeholders

Specific Assignments

Software Engineering & Full-Stack Development

Develop enterprise applications across client and server components

Work with:

Java 11 / Java 17

Java EE / Jakarta EE

Eclipse RCP, SWT & JFace (rich client applications)

WildFly Application Server

Support modularisation of legacy systems and development of new platforms

Implement integration and high-performance processing logic

Architecture & Design

Define software architecture for enterprise applications

Apply object-oriented design and design patterns (SOLID, Clean Code)

Support modular system design and decomposition

Contribute to technical concept design and implementation

Database & Backend Engineering

Design and optimise backend services and data models

PostgreSQL

JPA / Hibernate

JPQL / CriteriaBuilder

Ensure scalability, integrity and performance of data-intensive systems

DevOps, CI/CD & Automation

Work within Git-based development processes

Develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps

Manage containerised environments (Docker)

Use Maven / Eclipse Tycho for build management

Implement automated build, deployment and release processes

Quality, Performance & Reliability

Ensure high code quality through testing and best practices

Perform performance profiling and optimisation (JVM tuning)

Support production stability and continuous improvement

Work closely with QA for test coverage and release quality

Collaboration & Delivery

Work within Agile / Scrum delivery teams

Collaborate across UK, Europe, nearshore and offshore delivery centres

Support team mobilisation, onboarding, training and knowledge transfer

Act as a technical interface between business and IT teams

Skills Required

Core Technical Skills

Java (11 / 17)

Java EE / Jakarta EE

Eclipse RCP, SWT, JFace

PostgreSQL

WildFly Application Server

Architecture & Development

Enterprise software architecture

Object-oriented development

Clean Code and Design Patterns

Modularisation of applications

Legacy system evolution

Backend & Data

JPA / Hibernate

JPQL / CriteriaBuilder

DevOps & Tooling

Git / Git-based workflows

Azure DevOps

CI/CD pipelines

Docker

Maven / Eclipse Tycho

Automated build and release processes

Qualifications

Preferred Qualifications

Degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related field

Extensive experience (8 +) in enterprise Java development and DevOps practices

Proven experience in architecture and hands-on development

Experience working in regulated or complex operational environments (Forensics, LIMS, etc.)

Strong collaboration skills across distributed delivery teams