Senior Software Engineer I - Backend (Java)

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

Reports to: Engineering Manager - Customer Tooling

About the role

At Rightmove, we’re on a mission to make home moving easier and simpler for everyone. Every month, millions of people spend over a billion minutes on our platform, with more than 140 million visits across our website and apps. Behind that experience is a team of passionate engineers building the tools and services that power how we operate.

We’re looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to help shape and deliver innovative solutions for our customers. You'll develop and build out a unique part of the platform, offering self-serving products that help our customers manage their portfolios and navigate the platform seamlessly.

Our teams are autonomous and cross-functional, combining design, product, engineering and testing expertise. You’ll collaborate closely with others to deliver high-quality, reliable solutions that support millions of users, thousands of agents, and hundreds of Rightmovers. You’ll play a key role in defining scalable, maintainable, and high-performance solutions to both business and technical challenges.

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

What you'll be doing

Designing and building new features and enhancements using Java 17+, Spring Boot, Elasticsearch, Kafka, Gradle, Hibernate, Couchbase, SQL, and Docker.

Collaborating with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to shape solutions and align on priorities.

Taking ownership of key technical decisions and delivering projects end-to-end.

Balancing new feature development with technical debt, making thoughtful, pragmatic trade-offs.

Writing high-quality, secure, and extensible code that supports both current needs and future growth.

Communicating effectively with stakeholders and third parties to ensure solutions meet business objectives.

Championing new and emerging technologies that add value and align with our roadmap.

Mentoring and supporting junior engineers, helping to build a culture of growth, ownership, and continuous improvement.

We're looking for someone who

Brings strong commercial experience with Java 17+, Spring Boot, and Kafka.

Has successfully led complex projects, including coordinating work across multiple engineers.

Is highly collaborative, organised, and solution-focused in their approach.

Has a deep understanding of TDD practices and pipeline optimisation, including left-shifting.

Can balance technical priorities with business OKRs through pragmatic decision-making.

Is passionate about performance, scalability, and understanding user behaviour.

Proactively introduces new ideas, technologies, and ways of working to improve team outcomes.

Is committed to sharing knowledge, fostering team ownership, and contributing to a psychologically safe and inclusive environment.