Software Engineer jobs in United Kingdom

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

Reports to: Engineering Manager

We’re 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 monthly. To support this scale, we’re looking for Software Engineers with the curiosity, expertise and drive to build reliable, high‑performance systems that sit at the heart of Rightmove’s search experience.

This position is part of a team responsible for the shared search foundations used across the company. The team builds the capabilities, tools and services that other product teams rely on, helping them deliver fast, relevant and consistent search experiences to millions of users. It’s an ideal role for engineers who enjoy solving complex technical challenges that affect multiple teams or the entire organisation.

• Designing and developing new features and platform capabilities using Java 17+, Spring Boot, Elasticsearch, Kafka, Gradle, Hibernate, Couchbase, SQL, and Docker.
• Owning end-to-end delivery of technical solutions, from shaping requirements through to deployment and monitoring.
• Improving and scaling our Elasticsearch-based search systems, including index design, query optimisation, relevance tuning and operational best practices.
• Collaborating closely with other search and product teams to ensure the platform meets their functional, performance and reliability needs.
• Balancing product delivery with technical debt reduction and system sustainability, making well-reasoned trade-offs.
• Producing high-quality, secure, maintainable code with a long-term mindset.
Influencing architectural decisions and advocating for technologies and approaches that advance our search capabilities.
• Mentoring engineers across the team and contributing to a culture of ownership, growth and continuous improvement.

• Has extensive commercial experience with Java 17+, Spring Boot and Elasticsearch, including schema design, scaling and performance optimisation.
• Has contributed to or led complex technical initiatives involving engineers or teams.
• Shows strong problem-solving skills and an ability to balance technical depth with business impact.
• Demonstrates deep understanding of TDD, CI/CD and modern engineering practices, including pipeline optimisation and left-shifting quality.
• Is passionate about building performant, observable and resilient distributed systems.
• Communicates clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proactively introduces improvements and champions engineering excellence across the team.
• Invests in mentoring, knowledge sharing and fostering a psychologically safe, collaborative environment.

• 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 and holiday buy schemes.
• Hybrid working pattern with 2 days in the office.
• Contributory stakeholder pension.
• Life assurance at 4× your basic salary to a spouse, family member or other nominated person.
• Competitive compensation package.
• Paid leave for maternity, paternity, adoption & fertility.
• Travel Loans, Bike to Work scheme, Rental Deposit Loan.
• Charitable contributions through Payroll Giving and donation matching.
• Access deals and discounts on travel, electronics, fashion, gym memberships, cinema and more.

Rightmove will never discriminate based on age, disability, sex, race, religion or belief, gender reassignment, marriage / civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity or sexual orientation. At Rightmove, we believe that a diverse and inclusive workforce leads to better innovation, productivity and overall success. We are committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all employees, regardless of their background or identity, to develop and promote a diverse culture that reflects the communities we serve.