At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead a dynamic team to build and maintain innovative backend services.
- Company: Join Purplebricks, a forward-thinking estate agency revolutionising property transactions.
- Benefits: Enjoy flexible working, career growth, and a supportive team culture.
- Other info: Be part of a vibrant team that values trust, honesty, and continuous improvement.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in a tech-driven environment while developing your skills.
- Qualifications: Strong C# and .NET experience, with a passion for mentoring and collaboration.
The predicted salary is between 70000 - 90000 £ per year.
At Purplebricks, we’re flipping the script on the property game using smart tech, fresh ideas, and a serious focus on people to make buying and selling homes smoother, faster, and actually enjoyable. We’re all about keeping things real. Real support. Real flexibility. Real opportunities. We know success doesn’t come from standing still and neither do we. If you're hungry to grow, driven to succeed, and ready to be rewarded for it, this could be the start of something big. We’re big fans of promoting from within, so your first role here might just be the first step in a much bigger journey.
You'll be leading one of our three product squads — a multi-skilled team usually consisting of Back End, Front-End, QA, UX Designers, Content Creators, and a Product Manager, supported by other leads and Staff Engineers. When it comes to culture - we really try to build cohesive, high performing teams that pull together. Each squad feels a real sense of ownership over their work. Building an environment based on trust and honesty is really important to us, enabling squads and individuals to grow and develop.
As a lead backend engineer, your time will be split between coaching other backend developers within the team, steering our backend architecture and providing oversight on the back end tasks for our backlog items - delivering some independently and some through coaching others. As we work in multidisciplinary squads, ideally you will also be able to support others doing Front End, QA, DevOps (etc) work to make sure we hit our sprint goals.
Your new development will be done within a Microservices architecture, but you will also be contributing to our legacy systems while we are in the transition period. Our stack runs on Azure — including Front Door, App Services, Application Insights, and App Configuration — with SQL Server and Cosmos DB for data and Azure Service Bus for messaging between services. Outside of squad work you will be part of the Back End Chapter. We hold Chapter meetings to talk about tech and ways of working. We work democratically to evolve our stack and make constant improvements.
Required Skills/Experience
- Strong C# development experience
- Experience with both .NET Core and .NET Web API
- Experience of building Microservices in .NET Core
- Experience using Message Based Architectures
- Experience using both SQL & NoSQL technologies
- Experience of API design
- Cloud development/architecture (Azure)
- Experience working in an Agile environment (Scrum/Kanban)
- Knowledge and experience of Unit Testing (xUnit, nUnit)
- Familiarity with modern UI frameworks and tooling (React, React Native, npm)
- Experience integrating AI/LLM capabilities into back-end services (e.g. OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, or similar APIs)
Desired Skills/Experience
- Experience of TDD practices
- DevOps (CI/CD, Pipelines, Infrastructure-as-Code)
- Experience managing a team of developers
- Exposure to Agentic AI patterns (tool use, orchestration frameworks, MCP, or similar)
- Experience working with Azure DevOps build and release pipelines
Core Values
- An excellent communicator and relationship builder
- Confident in providing technical guidance and mentoring to mid-level and junior developers
- Enjoys bringing clarity to situations then helping others to take ownership
- Role-models curiosity, open-mindedness, honesty, and transparency
- Advocacy for great engineering practices around the Digital & Technology team
- Actively keeps up to date with modern tools, frameworks, and industry trends — and brings new thinking back to the team
What Will You Be Accountable For?
You will be part of a Product focused Technical squad, where the squad is responsible for building, delivering and maintaining fantastic software. This means you will be involved in all stages of your lifecycle from the initial discovery, through planning, build, release and monitoring. You'll be part of all the usual Agile ceremonies and as a team, you will be delivering great new functionality over two-week sprints.
Leading the design, delivery and ongoing health of the backend services owned by your squad — from technical direction and architectural decisions through to hands-on coding, code review, and production support. You'll be accountable for the quality, performance, and security of what your squad ships, for coaching and growing the backend engineers around you, and for contributing to the wider backend architecture and standards through the Back End Chapter.
What Success Looks Like
- Your squad ships valuable, well-tested backend changes predictably every sprint
- Backend services are reliable, performant, and observable in production
- Engineers on your team are visibly growing — taking on harder problems with less guidance over time
- Technical decisions are well-reasoned, documented, and aligned with the wider architecture
- You're a trusted voice in the Back End Chapter, shaping standards and ways of working
- Cross-discipline collaboration is smooth — QA, Front-End, and Product feel well-supported by backend
How Will We Measure Success
- Sprint delivery predictability and throughput across the squad
- Production reliability — uptime, incident frequency, and mean time to recovery for owned services
- Code quality signals — defect escape rate, test coverage on changed code, and review turnaround
- Deployment frequency and lead time for backend changes
- Progression of the engineers you coach, evidenced through performance reviews and scope of work taken on
- Contribution to the Back End Chapter — standards, tooling, and shared improvements adopted by other squads
Lead Backend/FullStack Engineer employer: All About us
At Purplebricks, we pride ourselves on being an innovative and supportive employer that values real flexibility and growth opportunities for our employees. Our collaborative work culture fosters high-performing teams where every member feels a sense of ownership and is encouraged to develop their skills, making it an ideal environment for those looking to advance their careers in technology. With a focus on promoting from within and a commitment to continuous improvement, joining us as a Lead Backend Engineer means embarking on a rewarding journey in a dynamic and forward-thinking company.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Lead Backend/FullStack Engineer
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at All About us or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to All About us.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like All About us.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like All About us that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Lead Backend/FullStack Engineer
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at All About us.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at All About us and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at All About us
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If All About us uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
