Senior Platform Software Engineer - R&D Automation

Engg; Greater London; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lessons allowance for learning

L&D budget

Equity

Leave allowance

Job summary

Preply is seeking an experienced engineer to join the R&D Automation team to design and implement AI-powered agents and workflows. You will build scalable Python-based agents, create reusable capabilities, and integrate with our engineering ecosystem to automate complex tasks across disciplines.

You will prototype rapidly, validate ideas, and scale successful approaches, balancing AI value with essential human judgement while collaborating with product, design and data teams to drive adoption

Qualifications

• Extensive experience (~8 years) designing and building complex backend software systems.
• Strong software engineering skills with production experience using Python.
• Hands-on experience building AI agents, agentic workflows or platforms.
• Strong understanding of modern agentic AI patterns, including context management, tool use, orchestration and evaluation/verification.
• Experience integrating AI systems with APIs, MCPs, internal tools, codebases and other engineering systems.
• Experience taking new technical ideas from experimentation or proof of concept into robust, scalable solutions.
• A strong experimentation mindset: comfortable with ambiguity, iterating quickly and using data and feedback to determine what works.
• Good understanding of distributed systems and backend architecture for reliable AI-powered systems.
• Strong product thinking, with the ability to understand user workflows and connect technical solutions to measurable outcomes.
• Strong communication skills. Minimum C1 English level.

Responsibilities

• Design and build AI agents and the harness that power them using Python.
• Build reusable agent capabilities, tools and integrations that connect AI systems with our engineering ecosystem and internal knowledge.
• Develop agentic workflows across Engineering, Product, Design and Data, including coding, testing and code review, and across the broader software development lifecycle.
• Experiment rapidly with new AI capabilities, taking ideas from proof of concept through validation and scalable adoption.
• Design effective context, orchestration and verification mechanisms for reliable agentic workflows.
• Measure how agents are used and the value they create, using data and feedback to continuously improve them.
• Make thoughtful decisions about where AI can add value, where human judgment remains essential, and how the two should work together.
• Collaborate closely with engineers, designers, product, and data teams across Preply to understand their workflows, drive adoption and identify new opportunities for automation.

Skills

Python

Backend systems

AI agents

Distributed systems

APIs integration

Code review

Experimentation mindset

Data-driven

Strong communication

Product thinking

Job description

WE POWER PEOPLE’S PROGRESS. At Preply, we’re all about creating life-changing learning experiences. We help people discover the magic of the perfect tutor, craft a personalised learning journey, and stay motivated to keep growing. Our approach is human-led, tech-enabled - and it’s creating real impact. We’ve just reached unicorn status with a $150M Series D, accelerating our vision to transform education through human-led, AI-enhanced learning. Today, 100,000+ tutors teach 90+ languages to learners in 180 countries - and we’re only getting started. As a category-defining company, we’re shaping what the future of learning looks like at global scale. Every Preply lesson sparks change, fuels ambition, and drives progress that matters. Joining Preply means helping define the future of education at global scale, and building something that truly matters for millions of people, every day.

MEET THE TEAM!

The Platform Tribe builds and operates the platform that Preply engineers develop and deploy on, and that millions of learners and tutors rely on every day. Our platform handles over 20bln requests per month, and we combine software engineering, distributed systems and cloud infrastructure to keep it reliable at scale while making it faster and easier for engineering teams to build on top of it.

As part of the R&D Automation team, you’ll focus on:

• Agentic software development: building AI agents that automate and augment workflows across the entire software development lifecycle.
• AI platforms and capabilities: creating reusable foundations, tools and integrations that allow agents to interact effectively with our codebases, engineering systems and internal knowledge.
• Experimentation at speed: rapidly prototyping new approaches, measuring their effectiveness and scaling the ones that create meaningful value.
• Safe and reliable automation: designing the right verification, context and human-in-the-loop mechanisms so agentic workflows can be adopted with confidence.

We work in small teams with significant ownership, so you’ll have a real say in architecture, technical decisions and how our platform evolves. We have diverse technical challenges that will allow you to develop your skills across the stack - sometimes we write about them in our Engineering Blog https://medium.com/preply-engineering! Please, also visit our Tech Radar https://tech-radar.preply.com/?_ga=2.72086362.855941533.1670530539-1369760810.1670530539 and our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@Preplyengineering-ie3bb to learn more about the technologies we use at Preply!

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING:

• Design and build AI agents and the harness that power them using Python.
• Build reusable agent capabilities, tools and integrations that connect AI systems with our engineering ecosystem and internal knowledge.
• Develop agentic workflows across Engineering, Product, Design and Data, including coding, testing and code review, and across the broader software development lifecycle.
• Experiment rapidly with new AI capabilities, taking ideas from proof of concept through validation and scalable adoption.
• Design effective context, orchestration and verification mechanisms for reliable agentic workflows.
• Measure how agents are used and the value they create, using data and feedback to continuously improve them.
• Make thoughtful decisions about where AI can add value, where human judgment remains essential, and how the two should work together.
• Collaborate closely with engineers, designers, product, and data teams across Preply to understand their workflows, drive adoption and identify new opportunities for automation.

WHAT YOU NEED TO SUCCEED:

• Extensive experience (~8 years) designing and building complex backend software systems.
• Strong software engineering skills with production experience using Python.
• Hands-on experience building AI agents, agentic workflows or platforms that enable others to build and use AI-powered capabilities.
• Strong understanding of modern agentic AI patterns, including context management, tool use, orchestration and evaluation/verification.
• Experience integrating AI systems with APIs, MCPs, internal tools, codebases and other engineering systems.
• Experience taking new technical ideas from experimentation or proof of concept into robust, scalable solutions.
• A strong experimentation mindset: comfortable working with ambiguity, iterating quickly and using data and feedback to determine what works.
• Good understanding of distributed systems and the backend architecture required to operate AI-powered systems reliably.
• Strong product thinking, with the ability to understand user workflows and connect technical solutions to measurable outcomes.
• Strong communication skills. Minimum C1 English level.

WHY YOU’LL LOVE IT AT PREPLY:

• Open, collaborative, dynamic and diverse culture.
• Generous monthly allowance for lessons on Preply.com http://preply.com/ .
• Learning & Development budget, including time off for your self-development.
• Competitive financial package with equity, and leave allowance.
• Opportunity to shape the lives of learners and tutors from over 175 countries through language learning and teaching.

OUR PRINCIPLES

• Care to change the world
• We are passionate about our work and care deeply about its impact to be life changing.
• We do it for learners - For both Preply and tutors, learners are why we do what we do. Every day we focus on empowering tutors to deliver an exceptional learning experience.
• Keep perfecting - To create an outstanding customer experience, we focus on simplicity, smoothness, and enjoyment, continually perfecting it as every detail matters.
• Now is the time - In a fast-paced world, it matters how quickly we act. Now is the time to make