Principal Full Stack Engineer - Full or Part Time

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

Job summary

A UK leading automotive marketplace is seeking a Principal Full Stack Engineer to design scalable systems and mentor teams. This hybrid role offers a salary range of £60,000 to £80,000, with additional share awards and extensive benefits. The ideal candidate will have strong Java and Spring Boot expertise, as well as experience in both back-end and front-end development. We prioritize collaboration and continuous improvement within our technology teams. Join us for a vibrant work culture and diverse environment.

Benefits

28 days holiday plus bank holidays

Comprehensive private medical cover

Pension scheme with employer contribution

Car salary sacrifice scheme

Share-save options

Access to 24/7 online GP and dentist

Qualifications

• Strong experience working across the stack.
• Comfortable with Java and Spring Boot.
• Ability to design scalable, maintainable systems.
• Knowledge of relational and document-based databases.
• Experience with event-driven architectures.
• Structured development and testing approach.

Responsibilities

• Drive system design and architecture decisions.
• Mentor team members and guide technical growth.
• Ensure delivery of high-quality solutions.

Skills

Back-end systems design

Front-end application development

Java

Spring Boot

Relational databases (SQL)

Document-based storage (MongoDB)

Event-driven architectures (Kafka)

Test-Driven Development

Mentoring teams

Job description

Principal Full Stack Engineer - Full or Part Time

Manchester

About us

You’ve probably heard of Autotrader, but do you know what we’re all about?

We’re the UK’s leading automotive marketplace, a heritage brand, and a tech darling of the stock market. We bring together vehicle buyers and sellers to give them real choices. Cars may be what we're best known for but we’re also the place for pretty much everything else on wheels, from e-bikes to caravans.

In the automotive world, change is a constant, that’s why we take our job of untangling the complex car-buying journey very seriously. At our core, we’re all about people. We go our own way while embracing diversity and celebrating our differences. We dedicate ourselves to the idea that we work better together.

Autotrader is a beautiful, surprising and vibrant place to work. We might not be for everyone, but we could be perfect for you.

About the job

We’re looking for Principal Full Stack Engineers to join us! Our technology teams combine a diverse set of technologies to meet the needs of our users, handling millions of requests a day across over 600 systems. We build these systems with industry standard frameworks and tools, such as React and Angular on the front end and Java, Spring Boot, Cloud SQL and Apache Kafka on the back end. All of this runs on our cutting edge cloud delivery platform, facilitating over 60k releases to production a year.

We’re a close-knit tech community where collaboration and knowledge sharing are at the core of what we do. Regular pair programming, code reviews, and stand-ups ensure that our engineers stay connected and aligned. As a Principal Engineer, you’ll play a visible, strategic role in driving system design and architecture decisions, mentoring team members, and helping our teams deliver high-quality solutions at scale.

You might think that "Autotrader" means we’re looking for car enthusiasts, but that’s not the case. We’re looking for people who are passionate about technology, thrive in a collaborative environment, and have a genuine curiosity about solving complex problems.

What we’re looking for:

• Strong experience working across the stack, from designing scalable back-end systems to developing responsive front-end applications
• You should be comfortable working with Java, Spring Boot and the Java ecosystem / JVM
• Ability to architect and design complex, distributed systems that are scalable, maintainable, and performant
• Strong knowledge of relational databases (SQL), along with experience working with document-based storage solutions (e.g., MongoDB)
• Experience with Kafka or other event-driven architectures
• A structured approach to development and testing (including Test-Driven Development) with a focus on continuous delivery and automation
• Proven experience leading and mentoring teams, helping others grow technically while delivering high-impact projects

During our application process, you will be asked two questions to help us learn more about you and how you align with our values. These will be used as part of our selection criteria, to determine if we progress your application further.

We’re offering a salary of £60,000 – £80,000, plus an additional 10% of your salary awarded to you in shares each year. These awarded shares will become yours in yearly instalments over the next three years, and you can choose to either sell them or keep them as shares. And you'll receive 28 days holiday, plus bank holidays and comprehensive private medical cover.

That’s not all. You'll be enrolled in our pension scheme, where our standard contributions are 7% and employee contributions are 5%. We also have comprehensive private medical cover, enhanced family leave provisions, a car salary sacrifice scheme, share-save options, and much more.

We always want to give you the support you need and help prioritise your wellbeing, that’s why we provide access to 24/7 online GP and dentist, as well as specialist support for assisted fertility, gender dysphoria, menopause, period care plans and lots more.

On top of all that, our hybrid model, Connected Working, combines the best of both worlds – office and home working. You’ll have two fixed weekly office days for team collaboration and one more of your choice to suit your work-life balance.

Additionally, we have our remote-first periods at set times during summer and winter. During these periods, you can work remotely anywhere in the UK and from certain locations abroad.

Discover more about our hiring process and explore our Engineering Blog.

Our minimum part time consideration is 22.5 hours per week.

We are committed to making Auto Trader a diverse and inclusive environment for everyone. For us to be successful, we want to attract and build a group of people where everyone is unique in their own way.