Principal Software Engineer

at Anaplan

York, United Kingdom

At Anaplan, we are a team of innovators focused on optimizing business decision-making through our leading AI-infused scenario planning and analysis platform so our customers can outpace their competition and the market.

What unites Anaplanners across teams and geographies is our collective commitment to our customers’ success and to our Winning Culture.

Our customers rank among the who’s who in the Fortune 50. Coca-Cola, LinkedIn, Adobe, LVMH and Bayer are just a few of the 2,400+ global companies who rely on our best-in-class platform.

Our Winning Culture is the engine that drives our teams of innovators. We champion diversity of thought and ideas, we behave like leaders regardless of title, we are committed to achieving ambitious goals, and we love celebrating our wins – big and small.

Supported by operating principles of being strategy-led, values-based and disciplined in execution, you’ll be inspired, connected, developed and rewarded here. Everything that makes you unique is welcome; join us and let’s build what’s next - together!

System Specification and Verification Principal Engineer

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to drive and apply formal methods and scalable verification frameworks to verify a complex, mission-critical system. This role sits within our System Specification team, which designs specification languages, writes rigorous system specifications, and builds verification frameworks that operate at scale in the cloud.

The ideal candidate has a strong academic foundation in computer science coupled with pragmatism—able to bring rigorous correctness methods into real-world, large-scale systems. They should be passionate about software correctness over delivery speed, with an interest in the theoretical aspects of computing and the ability to make formal methods practical and scalable.

Key Responsibilities

Work closely with engineering and product teams to codify design decisions into executable criteria.
Advocate for correctness-first approaches and foster a culture where quality is paramount.
Develop verification frameworks and DSLs that integrate formal specifications with automated testing and cloud-based scalable execution.
Define and write rigorous system specifications, ensuring correctness and precision in critical system behaviours.
Mentor and guide engineers in formal methods, language design, and scalable verification.
Communicate complex technical concepts clearly and effectively to team members and stakeholders.

Required Competencies

Professional Experience: as an individual contributor and some experience as technical lead in the development and testing of large-scale, complex software systems.
Solid grasp of requirements engineering and systems design for large scale/complex systems.
Strong background in domain modelling and language design—experience designing and implementing DSLs or specification languages.
Strong experience of languages and underpinnings of the JVM and strong functional programming skills.
Testing: Experience with the automation of automated testing. For example, scenario generation or Property Based Testing. Understanding of Behaviour Driven Development
Communication Skills: Ability to clearly and precisely explain technical challenges and solutions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, in both written and verbal form, ensuring alignment and informed decision-making.
Mentoring & Knowledge Sharing: Ability to mentor and support team members by providing technical guidance, fostering best practices, and promoting a culture of learning. Capable of onboarding new engineers, conducting code reviews, and facilitating knowledge transfer to strengthen the team’s expertise.

Desirable Competencies

Experience in writing compilers, creating DSLs and DSL adapters
Formal methodologies such as VDM, B, or Z.
Advanced Mathematics/Set theory, first order predicate logic, higher order functions and lambda calculus
Experience of GCP, AWS
Gradle plugin writing and maven repository management
Experience working in Agile teams, balancing iteration speed with rigour.

Personal Characteristics

Correctness-first mindset – values rigorous correctness over rapid delivery.
Deep interest in theoretical aspects of computing, particularly in formal methods and language design.
Academic excellence combined with pragmatism—comfortable applying research to real-world problems.
Curious and intellectually rigorous, with a drive to push the boundaries of software correctness.
Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a team environment.

This is a rare opportunity to influence the future of correctness-driven engineering, applying formal methods, language design, and scalable verification to real-world systems. We appreciate that careers take different paths, and while direct experience is valuable, a deep interest in software correctness and a drive to apply rigorous thinking to complex problems are what truly matter. If that resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB)

We believe attracting and retaining the best talent and fostering an inclusive culture strengthens our business. DEIB improves our workforce, enhances trust with our partners and customers, and drives business success. Build your career in a place where diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging aren’t just words on paper – this is what drives our innovation, it’s how we connect, and it contributes to what makes us a market leader. We believe in a hiring and working environment where all people are respected and valued, regardless of gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, disability status, citizenship, or any other aspect which makes people unique. We hire you for who you are, and we want you to bring your authentic self to work every day! 

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive equitable benefits and all privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation. 

Fraud Recruitment Disclaimer 

It has come to our attention that fraudulent and fictitious job opportunities are being circulated on the Internet. Prospective candidates are being contacted by certain individuals, mainly through telephone calls, emails and correspondence, claiming they are representatives of Anaplan. The main purpose of these correspondences and announcements is to obtain privileged information from individuals.  

Anaplan does not: 

Extend offers to candidates without an extensive interview process with a member of our recruitment team and a hiring manager via video or in person.  
Send job offers via email. All offers are first extended verbally by a member of our internal recruitment team whenever possible and then followed up via written communication.

All emails from Anaplan would come from an @anaplan.com email address. Should you have any doubts about the authenticity of an email, letter or telephone communication purportedly from, for, or on behalf of Anaplan, please send an email to people@anaplan.com before taking any further action in relation to the correspondence.  