Senior Data Engineer II (Data Platform)

Our vision is to give everyone the belief they can make their move. We aim to make moving simpler, by giving everyone the best place to turn to and return to for access to the tools, expertise, trust, and belief to make it happen. We’re home to the UK’s largest choice of properties and are the go-to destination for millions of people planning their next move, reading the latest industry news, or just browsing what’s on the market.

Location: London (Hybrid, 2 days per week in the office)

Reporting to: Data Engineering Manager

Help shape the future of data at Rightmove. At Rightmove, our vision is to give everyone the belief they can make their move. Millions of people use our platform every month, generating data that powers better experiences for consumers and customers across the property market. We're looking for a Senior Data Engineer II to play a leading role in shaping the data platform that underpins the UK's largest property marketplace. You'll combine deep technical expertise with strategic thinking to build scalable, reliable data infrastructure while influencing how data engineering is practised across the organisation. This is an opportunity to have genuine technical influence, working on platform capabilities that support analytics, machine learning, AI initiatives, and data-driven decision-making at scale. You will be expected to be able to drive forward the transition to AI-Assisted Data Engineering and should have solid experience in this area.

What you'll be doing:

• Lead the design and evolution of Rightmove's data platform, making key architectural decisions that support long-term scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Own the architecture, design and build of shared platform capabilities for data ingestion, transformation, orchestration, and processing across batch and real-time workloads.
• Own the integration strategy across tools such as dbt, Spark and Beam.
• Lead the implementation and adoption of data quality, observability, security, testing and deployment including creating and sharing standards.
• Partner closely with Analytics Engineers, Data Scientists, ML Engineers, and product teams to ensure platform capabilities solve real-world problems.
• Evaluate and introduce new technologies, helping the business adopt modern approaches to data engineering and AI-powered workflows, agents and automations.
• Contribute to the data platform roadmap, identifying opportunities for improvement and influencing future investment decisions.
• Take ownership of growing the team’s technical capability through mentoring, structured feedback, and leading by example, and help engineers at all levels develop.

What we're looking for:

• Significant technical leadership in data engineering or data platform engineering roles, with a track record of leading complex technical initiatives to completion without needing fully formed requirements.
• Strong architectural expertise across modern data & AI platforms, including data ingestion, processing, storage, and transformation.
• Genuinely cares for the growth and development of engineers around them, investing in mentoring, creating a culture of technical excellence, and supporting others.
• Hands-on experience transitioning to an AI-native Data Engineering landscape.
• A strong Python and SQL engineer with experience using dbt, Spark and Terraform.
• Strong experience working with GCP (or a comparable cloud platform), Infrastructure as Code, and CI/CD practices.
• Deep understanding of data storage and modelling principles, including dimensional modelling, lakehouse patterns, and the governance and operational setup of tools like dbt, and applies data security and GDPR principles in platform-level architectural decisions.
• Experience building and operating production-scale data pipelines, balancing performance, reliability, and cost efficiency.
• A collaborative leadership style, with the ability to influence technical direction, mentor others, and build alignment across teams.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

At Rightmove, we believe software and product are ultimately people problems, and everything we build aims to improve the lives of others. We see AI as a helpful way to create more space for the human side of our work, from understanding real needs to making sure we are solving the right problems in the right way. There is an expectation that you are proactive in exploring how AI can support your own workflow and productivity, and that you approach it with curiosity and an open mind.

We believe in careers that open doors and help our team develop by providing an open and inclusive work environment, offering ongoing training opportunities, and supporting charity fundraising events. And with 88% of Rightmovers saying we’re a great place to work, we’re clearly doing something right!

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, 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.