Principal Full-Stack Engineer — Architect & Mentor

Autotrader; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary + equity

Private medical cover

Pension scheme

28 days holiday

Car salary sacrifice

Share save options

Hybrid work model

Remote-friendly UK

Job summary

Autotrader is seeking a Principal Full Stack Engineer to shape system design and architecture, mentoring teams and delivering scalable, high-quality solutions across front-end and back-end stacks. The role leverages Java, Spring Boot, React/Angular, and cloud platforms to support millions of user requests and thousands of deployments.

You'll work in a hybrid, UK-wide environment with a strong focus on collaboration, automation, and continuous delivery.

Qualifications

• Experience across the stack from backend to frontend.
• Proficient with the Java ecosystem / JVM.
• Ability to architect scalable distributed systems.
• Experience building RESTful APIs and web services.
• Strong knowledge of SQL and MongoDB.
• Experience with Kafka or similar event-driven architectures.
• Structured development and testing with a focus on continuous delivery.
• Proven experience leading and mentoring teams.

Responsibilities

• Drive system design and architecture decisions for scalable platforms.
• Mentor and grow engineering teams to deliver high-quality solutions.
• Collaborate across squads to ensure reliable, performant services.
• Lead code reviews, pair programming and design discussions.
• Ensure robust test coverage and automation across pipelines.

Job description

Autotrader is seeking a Principal Full Stack Engineer to shape system design and architecture, mentoring teams and delivering scalable, high-quality solutions across front-end and back-end stacks. The role leverages Java, Spring Boot, React/Angular, and cloud platforms to support millions of user requests and thousands of deployments.

You'll work in a hybrid, UK-wide environment with a strong focus on collaboration, automation, and continuous delivery.