Company details

London, UK

HEADCOUNT

1000-2999

ORG TYPE

Corporate

SECTOR

Retail & Consumer

WEBSITE

https://www.autotrader.co.uk

About the company

Auto Trader runs one of the UK’s largest digital marketplaces for buying and selling cars, working with consumers, retailers, manufacturers and finance providers. Auto Trader makes money through retailer subscriptions and advertising products, plus data and insight services that help partners price, stock and market vehicles. Auto Trader also operates adjacent services such as vehicle finance and leasing journeys through partnerships. Auto Trader Group plc is a public company listed in London.

Locations and presence

Auto Trader is Manchester-centred, with most early-career roles based from the Manchester office, and additional UK presence including London and Hemel Hempstead. Auto Trader uses a hybrid model called Connected Working with a minimum of three days a week in the office, plus set “remote-first” periods in summer and winter where eligible colleagues can work remotely for a defined time.

Palpable Score

76.5

/ 100

Auto Trader is a strong early-career employer because Auto Trader runs structured graduate and apprenticeship academies with clear annual intake windows and a mapped recruitment journey. The learning and support story is unusually specific for a UK-listed company, with a two-year academy structure and a defined “foundation” start. The main limiter is outcomes visibility: there are credible progression pathways, but Auto Trader does not publish early-career conversion, retention, or promotion benchmarks.

Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

16.2

/ 20

The company runs a dedicated Early Careers Academy that covers both graduate and apprenticeship programmes across software engineering, sales and data, with the programme designed as a two-year cohort journey.
Auto Trader publishes clear intake timing, with apprentice vacancies typically advertised in February and graduate roles typically opening in September for an October start the following year.
The company concentrates most early-career roles in Manchester, which keeps access strong but less geographically spread for candidates outside that hub.

Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

15.1

/ 20

The company lays out an early-careers hiring flow with named stages, including a short online strengths-style test, a first-stage Teams interview, an in-office assessment, and a final-stage leadership conversation about values and culture.
Auto Trader states candidates get an assessment guide before each stage and offers reasonable adjustments, which helps candidates plan and reduces surprise-factor bias.
The company’s engineering assessment-day write-up includes a built-in feedback conversation after pair programming, including for candidates who do not progress, but this feedback expectation is not presented as a universal policy across every early-career pathway.

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Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

16.0

/ 20

The company starts early-career hires with an Academy Foundation designed to teach company context, culture, products and customers, before graduates and apprentices fully settle into their roles.
Auto Trader describes “Great Start” workshops in the opening weeks to help new graduates build relationships, learn how teams work, and gain confidence before owning day-to-day responsibilities.
The company positions both the graduate academy and apprenticeships as structured work plus development over two years, but public detail is thinner on mentorship and onboarding for junior hires outside the academy routes.

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Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

16.3

/ 20

The company’s graduate roles have been advertised publicly with starting pay in the £26,000–£28,000 range, alongside core benefits like private medical cover and pension.
Auto Trader states a package that includes employer pension contributions up to 7% and an all-employee share award that adds 10% of salary in shares, vesting over three years.
The company has published apprentice pay examples such as £24,570 and frames apprenticeships as permanent roles, but pay ranges are still not consistently visible across every listing channel and job family.

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Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

12.9

/ 20

The company links at least one apprenticeship pathway to a clear next-step outcome, stating that completion can lead into Professional Software Developer roles after the two-year programme.
Auto Trader has mixed public employee sentiment on major review platforms, including a mid-range overall rating and only a modest majority recommending Auto Trader as a workplace.
The company does not publish early-career cohort outcomes such as apprenticeship completion-to-role rates, graduate academy promotion timelines, or first-two-year retention, which limits confidence about typical progression speed.

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