Principal Engineer - Backend hybrid

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 people planning their next move, reading the latest industry news, or just browsing what’s on the market.

Location
:
London office / Hybrid (2 days per week in the office)

Reporting to
:
Head of Engineering

Domains
:
Consumer

The Role

We’re searching for a Principal Engineer to help shape the future of engineering across one of our most influential spaces in the business: the Consumer domain, specifically . This is the heart of the customer journey, and your work will directly power experiences used by millions every day.

This senior cross-domain role is ideal for someone who wants to drive impact across multiple teams, deepen our architectural thinking, and help us raise the bar on technical execution, product delivery, and long-term platform health. We are particularly looking for someone with deep specialist knowledge in Elastic, able to guide how we evolve our search and discovery capabilities for the next stage of our growth.

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. If you’re already working across team boundaries, influencing technical decisions, mentoring engineers, and thinking beyond the local scope, this could be the next step for you.

✍️Head to ourtech blog to find out more about our engineering culture!

• 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 us grow our internal technical community, supporting better knowledge sharing and cross-domain learning.

• Is already operating across multiple teams or domains and has a strong sense of the wider technical estate.
• Brings deep experience designing and delivering complex systems with significant business or user impact.
• Communicates clearly, adapts to the audience, and helps bring people on 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.
• Knows how to move between high-level architecture and hands‑on technical problem solving as needed.
• Is trusted by peers and stakeholders alike, known for their 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.

At…