Software Engineer (Quality)

This role is well suited to a Software Engineer with a strong quality background, bringing quality expertise alongside solid software engineering skills.

Home. There’s no place like it.

And there’s no feeling like helping people create the joy of feeling truly at home. At Dunelm, that’s what we do. We’re the UK’s number one choice for homewares because we make home life lovelier for our customers. And we’ve crafted a workplace that feels just as welcoming - where you can bring your ideas, be yourself, and feel right at home.

Work your way, together

We’re a hybrid business, which means you’ll have flexibility alongside time together with your team. In this role, you can expect 1 day every two weeks in our Leicester or London office helping you stay connected, collaborate and do your best work for our customers.

Our Engineering Department plays a crucial role in driving our company’s growth, and we are committed to providing our team with the latest tools, technologies, and techniques to help them excel and take us to new heights. With our continuous growth, we are seeking talented and ambitious individuals to join our dynamic team and contribute their unique ideas and perspectives. We are an ever-expanding team where every voice counts!

If you love working with the latest technologies such as Node.js, AWS Lambda, Typescript & React, then we are the home for you. Our focus is on delivering top-quality software, and we value individuals who have expertise in frontend, backend and test development. Your role will be to contribute to the evolution of our digital platform, helping deliver high-quality solutions that improve the experience for our customers and colleagues. You will balance your passion for delivering exceptional online service and solutions for our customers with the precision needed to create robust code, automated tests, and seamless functionality. Working collaboratively with your team, you will take pride in delivering high-quality software.

• Engage in hands-on design and development as part of a cross-functional, self-organising team, using collaborative techniques such as pair programming and shared problem solving.
• Actively participate in Agile ceremonies, including sprint planning, backlog refinement, estimation, and retrospectives, contributing to continuous improvement of team ways of working.
• Collaborate closely with Product Managers, Delivery Leads, UX, Tech Leads, and fellow engineers to understand business problems and deliver solutions that meet both user and commercial needs.
• Think about quality from the start; understanding user impact, edge cases, failure scenarios, and designing software with reliability and maintainability in mind.
• Build software with security in mind from the outset, applying secure-by-design principles, identifying potential risks, and following security standards throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Write and maintain meaningful automated unit, integration, and API tests as part of normal development.
• Take part in code reviews, offering constructive feedback and sharing knowledge to improve overall code quality, consistency, security, and maintainability across the team.
• Embrace and promote a DevOps culture, contributing to and improving CI/CD pipelines, and taking shared ownership of software from development through to production.
• Contribute to shaping the technical direction of your team, and where appropriate influence wider engineering practices, standards, and technology choices.
• Proactively identify and solve problems, driving technical solutions rather than waiting for direction, and helping the team navigate ambiguity.
• Stay up to date with industry trends, tools, and practices, applying relevant learnings to keep our software and ways of working current and competitive.
• Identify and help address performance, scalability, and reliability concerns, contributing to discussions and initiatives that improve the resilience of our systems over time., Meet John, our Chief Tech and Innovation Officer, who shares insights into the exciting things happening in tech, why Dunelm is his happy place, and his unique route into the tech world.

Work your way

We want our colleagues to feel at home wherever they work, so that they are comfortable and can be their best selves. In addition, we want everyone to feel connected to the business, our strategy and the teams they work with.

Where hybrid working is applicable, colleagues need to strike the right balance to fulfil both of these important factors. You will find the right mix of being at home, in the office & out in the business, bearing in mind business needs, job role and level of responsibility.

Wellbeing is more than just a buzzword here

From our Wellbeing Buddies and Mental Health First Aid training to our progressive parental leave, menopause policies and Colleague Support Fund, we’re committed to supporting our colleagues in every area - and at every stage - of their lives. Through our partnership with the Retail Trust, everyone at Dunelm has free access to a 24/7 Virtual GP, as well as therapy and counselling, plus information, guidance and advice in all areas of financial, emotional and physical wellbeing.

Look in our toy box

Of course, you should never judge a business by its tech stack. But take a peek at the range of technologies our engineers and developers are currently playing with.

Dazzling design

At Dunelm, we love every aspect of the design process. We’re continually researching new developments in packaging, materials and production methods, tapping into new data insights and keeping track of changing lifestyle trends. We’re hugely collaborative in the way we work. Together, the teams here have a direct impact on our success, creating amazing products that drive sales and delight our customers, as well as providing direction for our wide and varied range of brands. Please accept Functional Cookies to view this content Please accept Functional Cookies to view this content

Keep on growing

Join us on the tech side and you’ll have access to a huge array of learning and development opportunities, including a variety of internally created workshops and externally accredited courses. We also have a substantial tech-specific budget to fund e-Learning licenses, conference visits, resources, and qualifications, plus dedicated mentors, well-being buddies and a wide range of network groups to support you as you progress. Housewarming & Settling In where you can find out more about the wider business, our culture, behaviours, networks and wellbeing support Thrive, our learning and skills platform which gives you a blended, bite-sized, social learning experience with learning relevant to your role Our Enterprise Leadership Programme designed specifically for our strong growth potential Heads of Department to help them reach the next level in their career Our INSPIRE Programme designed for our strong growth potential senior managers across the business to enhance their leadership capability Our EXPLORE Programme designed to prepare our next generation of Line Managers Personal Effectiveness workshops and self-led learning, also delivered through Thrive Apprenticeships opportunities relevant to your role - from level 2 (equivalent to GCSE) through to Level 7 (equivalent to Masters) Colleague Development Fund to support colleagues in accessing external training relevant to your role Coaching and mentoring opportunities to support you in your current role and help you prepare for the next Self-awareness tools to help you understand what really matters to you, and where your own talents and ambitions lie Progress conversations that reflect on how you’re doing and define your focus areas for the coming months Career conversations that explore what you want from your career, in light of your current capabilities, potential and future aspirations

• Experience with some or all of our core technologies, such as Node.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, React, AWS (including Lambda), GraphQL, Flow, and Jest, Vitest or similar.
• Strong proficiency in both Functional and Object-Oriented programming paradigms, with the ability to choose the right approach for the problem.
• Solid understanding of modern software architecture principles, including designing and consuming RESTful APIs and working within distributed systems.
• Experience developing in Linux or macOS environments.
• Competency in CI/CD practices and deploying changes safely to production.
• Ability to create and maintain automated tests as part of normal development workflows.
• Comfortable working in Agile environments, with the ability to adapt quickly to change and evolving priorities.
• A strong interest in continuous learning, keeping up to date with emerging technologies, tools, and engineering practices.
• Good understanding of performance, accessibility, and user experience considerations, and how these influence the technical decisions.
• Proactive and responsible use of AI-assisted development tools to accelerate delivery, improve code quality, and enhance documentation, while maintaining high standards for security, maintainability, and correctness.

Quality

• Sets a strong quality standard through everyday engineering practices, coaches others through code reviews and pairing, and positively influences how teams think about quality.
• Designs and implements robust automated test strategies (unit, integration, API, contract) and helps others improve the effectiveness and reliability of their tests.
• Leads by example in writing clean, testable, and observable code-championing good design decisions that reduce risk and improve long-term maintainability.
• Takes responsibility beyond code, ensuring quality throughout CI/CD pipelines, releases, monitoring, and post-release validation and helps teams do the same.
• Explains quality concepts in a practical, approachable way, supports engineers at different skill levels, and helps build shared understanding and ownership of quality across the team.
• Strong software engineering skills, including the ability to design, write, and maintain automated tests and supporting code that meet the same quality, readability, and maintainability standards as production application code., * Demonstrated ability to work effectively across both frontend and backend codebases, contributing confidently at multiple layers of the stack.
• Experience designing and building end-to-end features, from user-facing interfaces through to backend services and APIs.
• Strong understanding of how frontend and backend architectural decisions impact each other, including performance, security, and developer experience.
• Comfortable context-switching between disciplines, while still applying strong engineering standards, testing practices, and clean code principles.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across disciplines, helping bridge gaps between frontend, backend, and quality perspectives.

Along with competitive salaries, we offer a range of other great benefits to recognise the unique contribution you bring.

Salary Advance so you can access up to 50% of the money you’ve earned during the month, rather than having to wait until pay day

Instant discounts with a range of other companies to help you stretch your budget

Pension contributions to help you save for your retirement

ShareSave scheme that enables you to save monthly and buy Dunelm shares at a discounted rate, building up your investments for a rainy day

Continuous training and coaching to ensure you feel confident in your current role and ready for any new challenges

Access to wellbeing support as and when you need it, including an online GP for you and your immediate family

Colleague networks that give everyone a voice and create an environment where we all feel at home

Outstanding development opportunities and all the support you need to grow your career the way you want

33 days annual holiday plus your birthday off to celebrate, and another day when you move home, so you can get settled in

Generous discounts on all our own products, in-store and online to help you make your house a home

Cycle to work scheme to help you keep your fitness up and your travel costs down

Charity day off (paid, of course) so you can volunteer for a charity that matters to you

Today, Dunelm is a leader in the £11bn UK homewares market. With over 200 stores across the country and a successful online operation - dunelm.com - we offer over 60,000 products across a broad range of categories. But where did it all begin?