Senior Software Engineer

OUR MISSION

Carwow Group is driven by a passion for getting people into cars. But not just any car, the right car. That’s why we are building the go-to destination for car-changing. Designed to reach drivers everywhere with our trail-blazing portfolio of personality rich automotive brands; Carwow, Auto Express, evo, Driving Electric and Car Buyer.

What started as a simple reviews site, is now one of the largest online car-changing destinations in Europe - over 10m customers have used Carwow to help them buy and sell cars since its inception. Last year we grew over 50% with nearly £3bn worth of cars bought on site, while £1.8bn of cars were listed for sale through our Sell My Car service. 

In 2024 we went big and acquired Autovia, doubling our audience overnight. Together we now have one of the biggest YouTube channels in the world with over 1.1 billion annual views, sell 1.2 million print copies of our magazines and have an annual web content reach over 350million.

ENGINEERING @ CARWOW

As a team our mission is to create a technology driven company where we are empowered to use our skills to solve difficult problems and scale the product.

To achieve this, we are looking to hire software developers that are passionate about developing simple solutions for complex problems. Successful candidates will work with our team in a full-stack position.

Our tech stack is primarily Ruby on Rails using PostgreSQL, all hosted on Heroku. On the frontend, we use HAML and SASS and are using Hotwire to enhance our user experiences and we keep up-to-date with the latest stable versions of everything to ensure we can make use of the latest features where appropriate. We use Terraform to manage our infrastructure and encourage teams to be involved in how we deploy and run our code in Production.

You'll be supported by one of our Engineering Managers who are there to help you with your career progression and ensure that the team you are on are working as well as they can - continuously improving!

We have a career progression framework that means you know what is expected of you and how you can progress through our career ladder and your EM will work with you to make sure you are happy, fulfilled, and doing the best work you can be doing.

THE ROLE

Senior engineers at Carwow work on cross-functional product teams of product managers, engineers, designers and data analysts. You will work closely with a Product Manager and a Tech Lead on deciding what features to build for customers, break down and build features with the team, review code, mentor engineers, ensure operational excellence, and share knowledge broadly across the engineering organisation.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• We love solving real-world problems!

• We work quickly, releasing code into production multiple times daily. You’ll see your code go live continuously.

• You’d be part of a growing team building a platform that will help define the future of car buying.

• We’re a curious bunch driven by a common goal of "How can we make it better?

• We work hard to ensure our people have the right level of autonomy, support and sense of purpose to really flourish in their careers.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

Time spent in software engineering roles is of course important, but we prioritise attitude, aptitude, and the kind of impact you’ve had over years' experience. Ideally you’ll have:

• Have worked as a software engineer with Ruby on Rails. Exposure to Hotwire/Turbo and Sass on the front end is a plus

• Comfortable working with frontend as well as backend technologies

• Experience with (some of) the following: TDD, Kafka, Git, JS, Heroku

• Have worked in a metrics-driven team and care about the outcomes of your work.

• Are self-driven and take responsibility for product outcomes, doing whatever’s necessary to make things happen,

• Have designed backend systems and APIs to a high standard of security, reliability and operability OR have experience building end-end websites

• Enjoy working in distributed teams and working cross-functionally with Product managers, designers, user researchers and other developers,

• Write code to be maintained – with good documentation, tests, and structure.

• Are keen to learn continuously, share knowledge, communicate effectively and build a product in close collaboration with others.

You’re not expected to be an expert in all of these technologies and tools, we are happy to support your learning journey. If you’re unsure about any of the above, please apply.

INTERVIEW PROCESS

• Talent Screen

• Hiring Manager and Culture Interview

• Architecture Interview

• Pairing Interview

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU

• Competitive comp package

• Fully remote working role, with offices in London, Munich, Madrid, and Porto that you can work from

• 4-5 trips to the London office per year for social and team bonding events

• Matched pension contributions for a peaceful retirement

• Share options - when we thrive, so do you!

• Vitality Private Healthcare, for peace of mind, plus eyecare vouchers

• Life Assurance for (even more) peace of mind

• Monthly coaching sessions with Spill - our mental wellbeing partner

• Enhanced holiday package, plus Bank Holidays 

• 28 days annual leave

• 1 day for your wedding

• 1 day off when you move house - because moving is hard enough without work!

• For your third year anniversary, get 30 days of annual leave per year

• For your tenth year anniversary, get 35 days of annual leave per year 

• Option to buy 3 extra days of holiday per year  

• Work from abroad for a month

• Inclusive parental, partner and shared parental leave, fertility treatment and pregnancy loss policies

• Bubble childcare support and discounted nanny fees for little ones

• The latest tech (Macbook or Surface) to power your gif-sending talents

• Up to £500/€550 home office allowance for that massage chair you’ve been talking about

• Generous learning and development budget to help you master your craft

• Regular social events: tech lunches, coffee with the exec sessions, lunch 8 learns, book clubs, social events/anything else you pester us for

• Refer a friend, get paid. Repeat for infinite money

Diversity and inclusion is an integral part of our culture. We know that diverse teams are strong teams, so we welcome those with alternative identities, backgrounds, and experiences to apply for this position. We make recruiting decisions based on experience, skills and potential, so all our applicants are treated fairly and equally.