Senior Product Engineer

Arbor Education; London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 67,000; Full time

Job summary

Join Arbor Education as a Senior Product Engineer, where you will lead and develop impactful features that enhance our school management tools. This remote role requires extensive software development expertise, particularly in PHP, combined with strong leadership and collaboration skills. Experience in designing and writing APIs is essential, as well as mentoring team members to drive quality and excellence in development.

Benefits

32 days holiday (plus Bank Holidays)

Life Assurance

Private Dental Insurance with Bupa

Enhanced maternity and adoption leave

Access to mental health support and counselling

Dedicated professional development training budget

Qualifications

• Considerable experience in software development, specifically with PHP.
• Advanced understanding of software engineering principles.
• Proven experience in designing and writing APIs.

Responsibilities

• Lead the creation of detailed documentation for new feature developments.
• Drive the development and implementation of advanced tests around new features.
• Take a leadership role in code reviews and pair programming sessions.

Skills

Software Development

Problem-Solving

Team Collaboration

Leadership

API Design

Job description

Location: Remote

Salary: £60,000 - £67,000

About us

At Arbor, we’re on a mission to transform the way schools work for the better.

We believe in a future of work in schools where being challenged doesn’t mean being burnt out and overworked. Where data guides progress without overwhelming staff. And where everyone working in a school is reminded why they got into education every day.

Our MIS and school management tools are already making a difference in over 7,000 schools and trusts. Giving time and power back to staff, turning data into clear, actionable insights, and supporting happier working days.

At the heart of our brand is a recognition that the challenges schools face today aren’t just about efficiency, outputs and productivity - but about creating happier working lives for the people who drive education everyday: the staff. We want to make schools more joyful places to work, as well as learn.

About the role

We are looking for an experienced and collaborative Senior Product Engineer to join our Engineering team and help us drive the completion of high-impact features for our Arbor customers. The remit and focus of the role is to actively contribute to Arbor products, leveraging internal tools and services for optimal results. This role requires a high level of expertise, strategic thinking, and the ability to inspire a team toward excellence. It’s a broad and exciting role, so we’re looking for someone up for a challenge - if you're highly technical and a good team player, this is the role for you.

Core responsibilities

• Work closely with the Engineering Manager, Tech Lead, QA Engineer, and Product Manager to help solutionise feature requests
• Lead the creation of detailed documentation for new feature developments, incorporating diagrams for comprehensive project understanding.
• Drive the development and implementation of advanced tests around new features, ensuring the highest standards of test coverage and reliability.
• Demonstrate expertise in producing well-architected, efficient, and scalable code using industry-leading design patterns and methodologies.
• Take a leadership role in code reviews and pair programming sessions, guiding and mentoring colleagues towards excellence.
• Lead and actively participate in tech-talks, workshops, and team-based learning initiatives, ensuring knowledge is disseminated effectively across the team.

About you

• Considerable experience in software development, specifically with PHP
• Extensive and demonstrated experience with Object-Oriented languages and software development.
• Advanced understanding and application of best practices and software engineering principles, including SOLID, DRY, etc.
• Expertise in relational database technologies.
• Proactive problem-solving approach with a strategic mindset.
• Proven experience in designing and writing APIs and services within a service-oriented environment.
• Leadership qualities demonstrated through collaboration and mentorship.
• A team player, willing to muck in and help others when needed, driven personality who asks questions and actively participates in discussions
• Good written and spoken English so you can present your ideas - our HQ is based in London

Bonus skills

• Past experience with enterprise solutions and large-scale systems
• Familiarity with Scrum methodology or other agile development processes
• Experience with cloud computing
• Experience with Docker and containerization
• Familiarity with software best practices such as Refactoring, Clean Code, Domain-Driven Design, Test-Driven Development, etc.

What we offer

The chance to work alongside a team of hard-working, passionate people in a role where you’ll see the impact of your work everyday. We also offer:

• A dedicated wellbeing team who champion initiatives such as mindfulness, lunch n learns, manager training, mental health first aid training and much more!
• 32 days holiday (plus Bank Holidays). This is made up of 25 days annual leave plus 7 extra company wide days given over Easter, Summer & Christmas
• Life Assurance paid out at 3x annual salary
• Comprehensive wellness benefit provided by AIG Smart Health, which provides a 24/7 virtual GP service, Mental health support, Counselling, and personalised Health Checks
• Private Dental Insurance with Bupa
• Salary sacrifice Pension provided by Scottish Widows
• Enhanced maternity and adoption leave (20 weeks full pay) and paternity (6 weeks full pay) pay
• 5 free return to work maternity coaching sessions, helping you adapt to this new exciting time of life!
• Access to services such as Calm and Bippit (financial wellbeing coaching)
• All of our roles champion flexible working and we are happy to discuss what this means to you
• Social committees that plan team, office and company wide events to bring people together and celebrate success
• Dedicated professional development training budget (CPD courses, upskilling resources, professional memberships etc)
• Volunteer with a charity of your choice for a day each year
• Dog friendly offices!

Interview process

1. Phone screen
2. 1st stage
3. 2nd stage

We are committed to a fair and comfortable recruitment process, so if you require any reasonable adjustments during your application or interview process, please reach out to a member of the team at [e-mail].

Our commitment is also backed by our partnership with Neurodiversity Consultancy, Lexxic who provide us with training, support and advice.

Arbor Education is an equal opportunities organisation

Our goal is for Arbor to be a workplace which represents, celebrates and supports people from all backgrounds, and which gives them the tools they need to thrive - whatever their ambitions may be so we support and promote diversity and equality, and actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds.

Refer a friend

Know someone else who would be good for this role? You can refer a friend, family member or colleague, if they are offered a role with Arbor, we will say thank you with a voucher valued up to £200! Simply email: [e-mail]

Please note: We are unable to provide visa sponsorship at this time.