Senior Cloud-Native Backend Engineer

Pearson; Annapolis (MD); Remote; USD 125,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

Pearson seeks an experienced Senior Software Engineer to own and drive architecture, design, and delivery of scalable backend systems. You will lead cross-functional initiatives, operate production services, and ensure reliability in a cloud-native, AWS-rich environment.

You will mentor teams across onshore and offshore locations, define standards, and advance modernization while delivering new capabilities. Strong ownership and clear communication are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in Computer Science, Software Engineering, IT, or related discipline. A master’s degree is a plus.
• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience with significant backend design, development, and operation.
• Experience as a technical lead or senior engineer for complex cross-functional software initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture, design, implementation, testing, deployment, operationalization, and production support of complex software systems.
• Build scalable backend services, distributed systems, and event-driven applications on AWS.
• Own major engineering initiatives from discovery through delivery and production rollout.
• Balance new features with modernization, debt reduction, and reliability improvements.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance across onshore and offshore teams.
• Produce clear architecture decisions, runbooks, and engineering standards.

Skills

Backend design

Distributed systems

AWS cloud

API design

Leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Master’s degree (optional)

Tools

AWS Lambda

Amazon ECS/EKS

API Gateway

DynamoDB

RDS/Aurora

Job description

Pearson seeks an experienced Senior Software Engineer to own and drive architecture, design, and delivery of scalable backend systems. You will lead cross-functional initiatives, operate production services, and ensure reliability in a cloud-native, AWS-rich environment.

You will mentor teams across onshore and offshore locations, define standards, and advance modernization while delivering new capabilities. Strong ownership and clear communication are essential.