Head of Engineering - Zoopla

Hybrid Working Pattern - 2 days per week from Tower Bridge office

Zoopla is one of the UK’s most instantly recognisable property brands. In fact, we’re known and loved by over 91% of the nation (and we’re working hard on the other 9%). Our mission is to help the nation make better home decisions - by connecting everyone to their home and giving them personalised insights to help with moving, managing or financing. Over 50 million people visit Zoopla every month to access exclusive data and information on every UK property, search over 500,000 homes for sale and rent, find the best agents and secure the latest mortgage deals.

We’re a growing, dynamic team that embraces innovation and isn’t afraid to push the boundaries. We’re only just starting our journey to redefine the digital property landscape, with much more to explore and achieve. Join us, and transform the way the nation makes home decisions.

The consumer portal experience at Zoopla is a unique opportunity to work on creating a high performance website and other services. If you enjoy being in a commercially driven organisation, core web vitals, developer experience, apis, pipelines, personalisation at the edge, or creating delightful UIs with the latest CSS, we have something for you.

Key responsibilities

Leadership & Team Management:

• Lead a team of ~25 engineers, including Engineering Managers, fostering a high-performance, commercially driven engineering culture that emphasises proactivity, resilience, and collaboration.
• Continuously assess team structure and ways of working to optimise efficiency and team performance.
• Instil a sense of ownership within the team, promoting accountability for key metrics and focus on delivering value to the business.
• Lead the engineering team in building products to delight users, while also paying attention to building products that are stable, scalable, secure, observable, and performant.

Strategic Alignment & Collaboration:

• Collaborate closely with the VP of Engineering, Head of Engineering counterpart, and product management to guide Zoopla’s technical direction and align engineering efforts with business goals.
• Translate Zoopla’s overarching strategy into tangible goals and day-to-day tasks for the engineering teams, ensuring engineers understand how their contributions directly support Zoopla’s objectives.
• Work with product management to ensure teams deliver quality products at pace and are aligned with business goals, maintaining transparency around progress, roadblocks, and performance metrics.

Technology & Innovation:

• Lead initiatives to update legacy technology and integrate new solutions that balance innovation with practicality, ensuring timely and effective delivery of modernisation projects.
• Evaluate new tools, frameworks, and technologies for potential adoption to improve software development processes.
• Maintain an active, hands-on approach to technology while managing and leading teams.

Performance & Metrics:

• Define and monitor key performance metrics such as code quality, bug resolution time, and customer satisfaction, ensuring alignment with KPIs, financial goals, and delivery timelines.
• Actively monitor the performance of engineering projects, ensuring alignment with Zoopla’s goals and instilling accountability within the team.

Product & User Focus:

• Prioritise user feedback and collaborate with product management leadership to deliver features and improvements that meet user needs and expectations.
• Ensure technology decisions support broader business goals and drive overall strategy and growth objectives.

Experience and skills required:

• Experience in leading and developing resilient and commercially-driven engineering teams, with a strong focus on execution and delivery of technical solutions.
• Robust and outcome-oriented mindset and commercial understanding that balances engineering and business values.
• Adept at managing relationships with senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams, ensuring alignment on technical goals and initiatives.
• Exemplary people leadership skills that foster proactivity, resilience, and collaboration.
• Ability to respond to changes without missing a beat, and lead your teams through change initiatives with the ability to bring others along the journey.
• Demonstrated experience in hiring and developing high-performing engineering teams, ensuring alignment with desired culture and direction of travel.
• Champion a culture of radical candour and constructive feedback.

• Experience in leading and developing resilient and commercially-driven engineering teams, with a strong focus on execution and delivery of technical solutions.

• Robust and outcome-oriented mindset and commercial understanding that balances engineering and business values.
• Adept at managing relationships with senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams, ensuring alignment on technical goals and initiatives.
• Exemplary people leadership skills that foster proactivity, resilience, and collaboration.
• Ability to respond to changes without missing a beat, and lead your teams through change initiatives with the ability to bring others along the journey.
• Demonstrated experience in hiring and developing high-performing engineering teams, ensuring alignment with desired culture and direction of travel.
• Champion a culture of radical candour and constructive feedback.

• Everyday Flex - greater flexibility over where and when you work

• 25 days annual leave + extra days for years of service
• Day off for volunteering & Digital detox day
• Festive Closure - business closed for period between Christmas and New Year
• Cycle to work and electric car schemes
• Free Calm App membership
• Enhanced Parental leave
• Fertility Treatment Financial Support
• Group Income Protection and private medical insurance
• Gym on-site in London – or membership in regional offices
• 7.5% pension contribution by the company
• Discretionary annual bonus up to 15% of base salary
• Talent referral bonus up to £5k