About this role
DEA Aviation is the UK-based lead operational company within the wider DEA Group. As part of a strategic corporate structure, the Group includes European Specialised Aviation Operations (ESAO), a wholly owned subsidiary based in Malta. Our technology is at the core of what we do. We design and build integrated software and hardware systems that bring together complex sensor technologies and different technical standards. The result: flexible, reliable systems that perform under pressure and deliver on tight timelines. The Principal Software Engineer has responsibility for, owning both the airborne software architecture and the AWS cloud infrastructure, including regular updating of end-to-end cybersecurity in accordance with Secure by Design, development, and delivery of robust, critical business & aviation mission systems. In this hands-on role, you build high-quality software, collaborate closely across the organisation while growing your technical influence in a highly regulated environment. You take ownership of your work, contribute to team standards, and continuously develop your skills while solving real-world problems. You care about clean code, reliable systems, and delivering value in a safe and efficient way. Design, build, and maintain scalable applications using Python and React Contribute to solutions from design through to delivery and support, with guidance from senior engineers Develop applications, including Progressive Web Apps, using React, Flask, and Python backends Build and integrate REST APIs and contribute to event-driven services Troubleshoot and resolve issues across business and aviation systems, owning resolution Deliver robust changes consistently and communicate progress clearly Write and maintain clear technical and user documentation Work within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to customer and regulatory requirements Write clean, maintainable code and continuously improve your approach Build reusable components and contribute to front-end architecture using React Apply basic resilience patterns such as retries and timeouts, with support from senior engineers Consider performance and scalability, including latency and reliability Contribute to microservices-based systems and API development Follow secure development practices and support security requirements Help implement observability through logging and monitoring tools Use CI/CD pipelines to build, test, and deploy your work