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Rightmove

Senior Software Engineer I (Backend)

Hybrid

London, United kingdom

Senior

Full Time

10-03-2026

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Skills

Leadership Java Go SQL Docker Decision-making Training Agile Spring Hibernate Spring Boot Gradle Kafka Microservices

Job Specifications

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.

Role: Senior Backend Engineer I (Java)

Location: London (Hybrid - 2 days in the London Office)

Reports to: Engineering Manager

The role

We are on a mission to make home moving easier and simpler. Home movers across the UK spend more than a billion minutes on Rightmove each month and our website and apps receive over 140 million visits per month. To support our mission, we need software engineers with vision and passion to deliver innovative and exciting solutions for our internal users, working on in house applications and microservices integrated with third party applications that underpin how Rightmove operates.

At Rightmove we work in autonomous cross-functional teams using Agile processes. Each team owns a part of the Rightmove experience made up of design, product, engineering and testing specialists. You will collaborate to ensure we deliver quality solutions that satisfy millions of users, thousands of agents and hundreds of passionate Rightmovers. You will be responsible for defining solutions to business and technical problems in a way which ensures maintainability, scalability and high-performance standards.

To find out more about our tools, tech and people, head to our tech blog.

What you'll be doing

Develop new features and improvements using Java 17+, Spring Boot, Elasticsearch, Kafka, Gradle, Hibernate, Couchbase, SQL, and Docker.
Collaborate cross-functionally with internal teams and stakeholders to align on goals and requirements.
Take ownership of key technical decisions and end-to-end project delivery.
Balance feature development with technical debt, making thoughtful trade-offs based on timing and impact.
Ensure high-quality, secure, and extensible code that meets current and future needs.
Communicate effectively with stakeholders and third parties to align technical solutions with business objectives.
Advocate for emerging technologies that drive value and align with the company roadmap.
Mentor junior engineers and help foster a culture of growth, ownership, and continuous improvement.

We're looking for someone who

Extensive commercial experience with Java 17+, Spring Boot, and Kafka.
Proven leadership on complex projects, including task assignment across multiple engineers.
Strong collaboration, coordination, and solution-oriented mindset.
Deep understanding of TDD practices and pipeline optimisation, including left-shifting.
Skilled in balancing technical and business OKRs through pragmatic decision-making.
Passionate about application performance and user behaviour insights.
Proactive in introducing new technologies and improving team practices.
Committed to knowledge sharing, fostering team ownership, and creating a psychologically safe environment.

About Rightmove

Our vision is to give everyone the belief that 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.

Despite This Growth, We’ve Remained a Friendly, Supportive Place To Work, With Employee #1 Still Working Here! We’ve Done This By Placing The Rightmove Hows At The Heart Of Everything We Do. These Are The Essential Values That Reflect Our Culture, And Include

We create value…by delivering results and building trust with partners and consumers.
We think bigger…by acting with curiosity and setting bold aspirations.
We care deeply…by being real, having fun, and valuing diversity.
We move together…by being one team - internally collaborative, externally competitive.
We make a difference…by focusing on delivering measurable impact.

We believe in careers that open doors and help our team develop by providing an open and inclusive work environment, offering ongoing training opportunities, and supporting charity fundraising events. And with 88% of Rightmovers saying we’re a great place to work, we’re clearly doing something right!

If all of this has caught your eye, you may well be a Rightmover in the making......

People are the foundation of Rightmove - We’ll help you build a career on it.

What We Offer

Cash plan for dental, optical and physio treatments.
Private Medical Insurance, Pension and Life Insurance, Employee Assistance Plan.
27 days holiday plus two (paid) volunteering days a year to give back, and holiday buy schemes.
Hybrid working patte

About the Company

Since launching in March 2000, we have remained the market leader and the go to place for people looking for their next home to buy or place to rent. To make all those home hunters happy we’ve invested in our tech and our website, we’re constantly looking to try new things with an aim to help make home moving easier. Home movers across the UK spend more than a billion minutes on Rightmove each month. Our website and apps receive over 150M views per month, making us one of the most top visited sites in the UK! Helping our ... Know more