Senior Software Engineer (LABs)

Please note that we are unable to offer visa sponsorship at this time, so candidates must already hold the right to work in the UK without any assistance.London (Hybrid: 3–4 days in-office)This is not Checkatrade as you know it. We’re Labs – the experimental product arm of Checkatrade. Think: early-stage startup vibes, but inside a scaled business with 6M+ customers and a brand people know. No legacy. No long backlogs. Just you, your product partner, and a greenfield problem to solve. We're on the hunt for a Senior Software Engineer who’s passionate about building from scratch – someone who wants autonomy, real impact, and the thrill of validating (or killing) ideas quickly. This isn’t for someone eyeing the fast lane to CTO or a big team. It’s for someone who wants to build. Think scrappy, agile, deeply product-minded – the kind of engineer who wants to ship new products, test rapidly, and go end-to-end. What you’ll be doing:

• Move fast in Labs mode – You’ll work in your own dedicated environment, free from the constraints of our core platform. No long deployment queues, no waiting for dependencies – just you, your product lead, and the freedom to ship at pace.
• Prove concepts quickly – Your days will often start with a problem statement or hypothesis and end with a working prototype. You’ll design, build, and launch MVPs and POCs in days, not months, so we can test and learn fast.
• Work like a start‑up inside a scale‑up – You’ll partner closely with a product entrepreneur to take ideas from rough sketches to live experiments. Some days you’ll be sketching out system architecture together, others you’ll be heads‑down coding, testing, or iterating on something you shipped yesterday.
• Experiment with new tools & approaches – You’ll have the freedom to try new frameworks, services, and AI tools, and decide what’s right for the job. You’ll push the limits of how we build, inspiring other teams by the tools and techniques you bring into the business.
• Own the full build – From backend to frontend to deployment, you’ll be responsible for your product’s technical direction. You’ll architect for speed today but keep scalability in mind so proven ideas can move into production.
• Shape the way Labs works – You won’t just be building products – you’ll be shaping our approach. Your decisions, tools, and working style will influence how innovation happens across the company.

About you:

• You’ve built early-stage or greenfield products – maybe in a startup, scaleup, or innovation lab.
• You’re comfortable working independently, and enjoy making architectural and technical decisions yourself.
• You’re passionate about proof of concepts coming to life, balancing speed and quality
• You’ve likely worked across the stack (Node/TypeScript/React preferred, but we’re flexible).
• You love partnering with product, asking "why?", and pushing for real outcomes.
• You’re not chasing a management track – you want to stay close to the code, close to the customer, and proud of what you ship.

Why Labs @ Checkatrade?

• Startup-style build culture, backed by a trusted household brand
• Full autonomy to own and ship new ideas
• A chance to work on new revenue streams and build from scratch
• A supportive, fast-moving, highly collaborative environment
• Data, users, and budget – no need to beg for tools or access

Tech we often use (but not a must):

• Node.js, TypeScript, React
• Firebase, PostgreSQL, GraphQL
• Vercel, GitHub Actions, Looker
• Experimentation tooling, CMSs, AI APIs, and more…

This is a rare opportunity to be the engineer on a new product team. No handoffs, no endless planning cycles – just focused, meaningful, hands-on engineering. Take it from one of our current engineers: “No two days look the same in Labs – one day I’m building an MVP from scratch using Next.js and Firebase, the next I’m pairing with our product lead to design an experiment or jumping on calls with real users to test assumptions. I get to own the tech end-to-end, choose the right tools for the job, and move at startup speed – but with the support and reach of a trusted brand behind me. It’s the most autonomy I’ve had in any role – and the most fun I’ve had shipping.” — Senior Engineer, Labs @ CheckatradeAbout Us We’re Checkatrade – the UK’s leading platform for finding a tradesperson. With more than 50,000 trades listed and over 6 million reviews, we help homeowners get jobs done right and help tradespeople grow their business. We’re growing fast, with big plans to become the go-to brand for home improvements. If you care about great work, take pride in the details, and want to make an impact, you’ll fit right in.