Rightmove Careers
Principal Engineer (Backend)
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**Principal Engineer (Consumer Product-Domain) – Java/Spring Boot Specialist
Our Vision
Our mission is to give everyone the belief that they can make their move. We simplify the process by providing the best platform for discovering properties, trusts, tools, and expert guidance.
With the UK’s largest property listing choice, Rightmove is the go-to destination for millions navigating their next move—whether researching market trends or actively browsing listings.
About the Role
Location: London office / Hybrid (2 days in-office) Reports to: Head of Engineering Domain: Consumer (Property search, listings, valuations, alerts, etc.)
This is a senior cross-domain Principal Engineer role, aimed at driving impact across teams by improving technical execution, product delivery, and platform health. The role focuses on the consumer product stack, which handles high-traffic, user-critical interactions like property searches, listing pages, maps, and valuations.
One of the largest engineering domains at Rightmove, it involves 60+ engineers working daily on a system designed for peak performance during stress-heavy user journeys.
The Ideal Candidate Focuses On
While your Java & Spring Boot expertise is foundational, you’ll exhibit mastery beyond your specialism, operating confidently across:
- Frontend & mobile development
- Data architecture & analytics
- Infrastructure & DevOps practices
You shape cross-cutting technical decisions with real-world context, thriving in ambiguity and diving into implementation details as needed.
Key Responsibilities
🔹 Engineering & Architecture Leadership
- Design scalable, resilient systems adapted for complexity across team boundaries.
- Shape the consumer domain’s architectural direction, aligning with business strategy.
- Identify opportunities for code reuse, performance upgrades, or strategic tech decisions.
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🔹 Delivery Impact
- Partner with Engineering & Product Managers to guide:
- Scoping of high-impact projects
- Mitigating risks in large initiatives
- Team dynamics and delivery patterns
- Streamline workflows or simplify complex challenges.
🔹 Standards & Practices
- Champion code quality, testing, observability, and DevOps.
- Diagnose efficiencies, collaboration gaps, and help teams adopt better practices.
🔹 Coaching & Influence
- Serve as a trusted mentor for senior engineers and technical leads.
- Model effective communication, leadership, and collaboration.
- Foster internal technical growth through knowledge-sharing and cross-domain learning.
What We Look For
You don’t have to check every box—just resonate with this directionally.
- Already operate across multiple domains with a broad technical overview.
- Strong experience designing/bUILDING complex systems with high business/user impact.
- AI/AGENTIC development curiosity, paired with the judgement to assess practical value.
- Complete clarity in cross-team communication and bringing stakeholders along.
- Balance technical precision with product/businessnuances.
- Actively mentor other engineers while growing our technical culture.
- Adapt between abstract architecture and hands-on troubleshooting.
- Earned trust: known for judgement, empathy, and pragmatism.
Rightmove sees software as solving human problems; AI is a lever for enabling human focus in design and execution.
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Why Join Rightmove?
- Shape the technical blueprint of high-visibility projects with enduring customer impact.
- Create environments where engineers thrive across a dense, divergent codebase.
- Gain a competitive edge within a fast-growing, vibrant domain.
- Support and be supported in career growth while driving your ambitions.
Our Approach to AI
At Rightmove, we embrace AI as a tool to redesign workflows, allowing teams to focus on user needs while mitigating dead-ends. Expect to be progressive but discerning in your AI usage—always tying outcomes to real value.
About Rightmove
Rooted in helping people move, we’ve grown into a versatile force in the property space—catering to everyday research, strategic moves, and market analysis. With a longstanding culture of trust, we prize collaboration internally despite industry competition. Core values include:
- Creating value through results and relationships.
- Thinking bigger and striving for bold innovation.
- Caring deeply by valuing diversity, authenticity, and fun.
Rightmove’s “employee #1 hasn’t left”—88% of staff agree it’s a great place to work.
Life at Rightmove
Our culture preserves accessibility and mutual growth, backed by: ✅ Competitive benefits: Enhanced pension, medical coverage, EAP, dental/optical. ✅ Flexible perks: Paid screens days, hybrid/high-perks schemes (travel loans). ✅ Inclusivity: Proud of our 88% top-worker satisfaction—and committed to sustaining it.
Disclosure: As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we honour diversity and inclusivity in hiring.
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