Principal Mobile Apps Platform Engineer
Autotrader, Manchester
The role
As a Principal Software Engineer, you will play a key role in evolving the in-app experience for the UK’s #1 car buying app. The Autotrader app has been downloaded over 23 million times and consistently serves over 3 million monthly users, maintaining leading ratings of 4.8/5 on the App Store and 4.7/5 on Google Play. While our core focus remains on the consumer experience, our mobile apps team are currently instrumental in transitioning Autotrader into a platform where consumers can buy vehicles entirely online.
We’ve evolved beyond traditional native development approaches by adopting a Server-driven UI architecture. Our team has developed a custom client-side framework that dynamically renders data, context, and layout configurations served up from a federated backend REST API. In this role, you will provide technical leadership for this platform, driving architectural scalability, performance, and long-term maintainability across our mobile applications.
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 for one of the UK's most used digital products.