• Permanent role based in either Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane
• Shape the architecture of high‑impact platforms that underpin trust, growth, and customer outcomes at scale.
• Lead and influence across multiple squads, combining deep technical work with strategic impact and mentorship

We're REA
With bold and ambitious goals, REA Group is changing the way the world experiences property. No matter where you're at on your property journey, we're here to help with every step – whether that's finding or financing your next home.

Our people are the key to our success. At the heart of everything we do, is a thriving culture centred around high performance and care. We are purpose driven and collaborative, which drives innovation and our ability to make a real impact. As such, we’re proud to have been named in Australia’s “Top 5” Best Workplaces two years in a row, as well as being recognised as a Best Workplace for Women.

Where the team fits in

Customer Enablement sits at the heart of how REA supports its sales, customer success and operations teams to deliver great outcomes at scale.

As a Principal Engineer, you’ll provide technical leadership across our Fraud & Moderation and Sales Platform domains, shaping platforms that are critical to trust, growth and operational excellence. You’ll lead solution design for a greenfield Fraud & Moderation platform, while also influencing the evolution of our core Sales Platforms to ensure they’re scalable, resilient and aligned to REA’s technology strategy.

What the role is all about

• Active participation in the definition of a clear technology strategy for your area through collaboration with Architects, Directors of Engineering, and Engineering Managers.
• Partner with Engineering Managers to ensure that technical solutions are delivered in alignment with the strategy.
• Develop and drive actionable plans to improve the health of systems in your area.
• Promote exploration of emerging technologies and innovative practices to maintain REA’s technology strength.
• Design high-quality, user-centric, cross-squad solutions in collaboration with diverse stakeholders.
• Foster a vibrant and connected internal technology community through engagement and contributions to knowledge-sharing.
• Impactful external engagement and sharing of expertise to build recognition of REA as a technology though leader.
• Foster our next generation of technology leaders through coaching and mentoring experienced engineers across your area.

Who we’re looking for

We’re looking for a Principal Engineer who brings deep technical leadership and a strong architectural mindset to complex, multi-squad environments. You have a proven track record of setting long-term system architecture direction, guiding engineering teams through scale and change, and balancing strategic thinking with hands-on technical engagement.

You thrive in cloud-native, microservices-based ecosystems and are comfortable shaping platforms that need to be resilient, secure, and built for growth. You enjoy mentoring engineers, raising the bar for technical excellence, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and pragmatic decision-making.

A core part of this role is aligning technical strategy with product vision across multiple squads and leadership layers. You’re adept at working closely with product, delivery, and business stakeholders to ensure clarity of direction, strong execution, and outcomes that matter. You’re equally comfortable diving into technical detail to solve complex operational challenges as you are contributing to product discovery and validating solutions early to reduce risk.

Clear communication and collaboration are central to how you work. You can translate complex technical concepts for diverse audiences and influence effectively across both technical and non-technical domains.

What You’ll Bring

• Extensive experience providing technical leadership and architectural guidance in large-scale, distributed systems
• Strong expertise in cloud technologies and microservices-based architectures
• Proven ability to mentor and develop experienced engineers
• Experience aligning technical and product strategies across multiple squads
• A collaborative, pragmatic approach to problem solving and delivery
• Core: Kotlin, TypeScript, JavaScript, AWS
• Desirable (not mandatory): Experience with Salesforce or another modern CRM platform

The REA experience

The physical, mental, emotional and financial health of our people is something we’ll never stop caring about. This is a place to learn and grow.

Some of our Perks & Benefits include:

• A hybrid and flexible approach to working
• Flexible leave options including, birthday leave and purchase additional leave
• Flexible parental leave offering for primary and secondary carers
• Our Because We Care program offers employees volunteering leave, community grants, matched payroll giving and our Community Café donates 100% of revenue to charity
• Hackdays so you can bring your big ideas to life

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We are committed to providing a working environment that embraces and values diversity, equity and inclusion. We believe teams with diverse ideas and experiences are more creative, more effective and fuel disruptive thinking. If you've got the skills, dedication and enthusiasm to learn but don't necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch.

Join our Talent Neighbourhood

Keen to be part of REA but didn't find a perfect match with this opportunity? Perhaps the timing isn't right? You should join our Talent Neighbourhood!

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