Principal Engineer - Backend

Principal Engineer – Backend

Location:

London office – Hybrid (2 days per week in the office)

Reporting to:
Head of Engineering

Domains:
Consumer

Role:
Principal Engineer to shape the future of engineering across the Consumer domain, specifically at the heart of the customer journey. The senior cross‑domain role focuses on driving impact across multiple teams, deepening architectural thinking, and raising the bar on technical execution, product delivery, and long‑term platform health. The role requires deep specialist knowledge in Elastic to guide the evolution of search and discovery capabilities.

We’re searching for a Principal Engineer to help shape the future of engineering across one of our most influential pieces of the business: the Consumer domain. We are particularly looking for someone with deep specialist knowledge in Elastic, who can guide the evolution of our search and discovery capabilities. You’ll bring a blend of technical excellence, strong product instincts, and collaborative leadership, acting as a trusted partner to engineering managers, product leads, and domain heads.

• Lead the design of systems that are scalable, resilient and fit for purpose, particularly where complexity cuts across team boundaries.
• Shape the architectural direction of the consumer domain, particularly search, in alignment with our strategic goals.
• Identify areas where we can increase reuse, improve performance or make smarter technology decisions.

• Partner with EMs and PMs to guide scoping, sequencing and risk mitigation for large, high‑value initiatives.
• Unblock teams by spotting better ways forward, helping shift delivery patterns or simplifying complexity.
• Influence outcomes through strong product awareness and a focus on business and user value.

• Champion engineering quality, from code structure and testing practices through to observability and operational readiness.
• Spot patterns and inefficiencies in how we build software and collaborate, and help teams adopt better ways of working.
• Influence how we think about platform services, shared capabilities and long‑term sustainability of our tech estate.

• Be a source of mentorship and thought partnership for senior engineers and tech leads.
• Model excellent communication, collaboration and leadership behaviours across teams.
• Help grow our internal technical community, supporting better knowledge sharing and cross‑domain learning.

• Already operates across multiple teams or domains and has a strong sense of the wider technical estate.
• Has deep experience designing and delivering complex systems with significant business or user impact.
• Communicates clearly, adapts to the audience and brings people along the journey.
• Thinks strategically, balancing technical concerns with product and organisational context.
• Regularly supports or mentors other engineers and is invested in growing our engineering culture.
• Can move between high‑level architecture and hands‑on technical problem solving as needed.
• Is trusted by peers and stakeholders alike, known for judgement, empathy and pragmatism.

• Influence some of the most strategic and visible areas of the business.
• Shape technical direction in ways that unlock better outcomes for teams and customers.
• Create the conditions for great engineering across a large, varied and interesting codebase.
• Help others grow while continuing to grow yourself.

We believe software and product are ultimately people problems, and everything we build aims to improve the lives of others. We see AI as a helpful way to create more space for the human side of our work, from understanding real needs to ensuring we solve the right problems in the right way.

Our vision is to give everyone the belief they can make their move. We aim to make moving simpler, by giving everyone the best place to turn to and return to for access to the tools, expertise, trust and belief to make it happen. We’re home to the UK’s largest choice of properties, and are the go‑to destination for millions of…