Technical Lead, Arbor Education
Mobile Apps
£80-85k
More information about location
We helps schools transform the way they work using data
Job no longer available
We helps schools transform the way they work using data
101-200 employees
Job no longer available
£80-85k
More information about location
101-200 employees
Company mission
Arbor's mission to transform the way schools work for the better, and it starts by giving everyone the right tools and technology for the job.
Role
Who you are
- Significant professional experience building, shipping, and maintaining complex mobile applications using React Native
- Experience with enterprise-scale or high-availability app and systems
- Proven experience taking a mobile application from initial concept through to a successful launch on the App Store and/or Google Play
- Strong grounding in engineering principles and design patterns (e.g. SOLID, DRY)
- Deep experience designing, consuming, and collaborating on RESTful APIs, with a strong understanding of mobile-centric API requirements
- Working knowledge of AWS, including services relevant to mobile application backends
- Familiarity with observability practices (monitoring, metrics, alerting) and Root Cause Analysis
- Understanding of secure coding and compliance requirements
- Experience with mentoring engineers, and a passion for fostering a collaborative, high-performing team culture
- Ability to communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Agile facilitation (Scrum/Kanban) and continuous improvement
Desirable
- Native mobile development experience (Swift/Kotlin) for building bridges or performance-critical components
- Hands-on experience setting up CI/CD pipelines for React Native applications (e.g., using tools like Fastlane, Bitrise, or GitHub Actions)
- Knowledge of the PHP ecosystem, to better facilitate backend collaboration
What the job involves
- We are looking for an experienced and collaborative Technical Lead (Mobile Apps) to join our Engineering team and help us define the technical vision, architecture, and standards that will shape our mobile app development for years to come
- The remit and focus of the role is to mentor and coach engineers, embed a culture of quality, and help the team make sound technical decisions that deliver real value to customers
- Working closely with Engineering Managers, Product Managers, and other disciplines, this role provides the technical leadership and judgement needed to guide delivery and support the long-term growth of both people and technology
- It’s a broad and exciting role, so we’re looking for someone up for a challenge - if you’re highly technical and an effective communicator, this is the role for you
- Design, build, and own mobile application architecture, selecting appropriate libraries and tools to ensure our products are robust, scalable, and secure
- Lead by example by writing clean, high-quality, and well-tested React Native code
- Establish and document coding standards, and incorporate the organisation’s automated testing frameworks to enable a quality-first culture
- Work closely with Product Managers, Engineering Managers, QA, Designers, and other Engineers and Tech Leads to align technical direction with product strategy and the organisation’s API strategy
- Work actively with the architecture community (ATLAS) to define processes, drive technology adoption, and share best practices across teams
- Play a role in hiring, onboarding, and mentoring, where required
- Ensure non-functional requirements like performance, reliability, and security are addressed in all solution designs
- Champion accountability by ensuring systems are observable and meet agreed Service Level Objectives (SLOs). Lead Root Cause Analysis when issues occur
- Lead estimation and feasibility assessments, making sure plans are realistic and aligned with team skills and capacity
- Establish a proactive strategy for managing technical debt from the outset to ensure long-term product health and maintainability
- Contribute to structured release planning, ensuring phased rollouts deliver value early (MVP-first), and support post-release reviews
Application process
- Phone screen
- 1st stage interview
- 2nd stage with presentation
Our take
Arbor helps schools transform the way they work, saving teachers time and improving student outcomes.
The mess and stress of data and admin is a major source of unhappiness in our schools. 60% of a teacher's time is spent on admin-related work, 53% agree that it contributes to stress and it's only getting worse every year. Arbor is tackling this by building hassle-free school technology. The company has two products, a Management Information System to automate school workflows, saving teachers time, and benchmarking analytics to identify areas of concern and reduce time to intervention.
With a team of diverse and experienced individuals, including former teachers and education specialists, the company stands poised to enact meaningful change within the sector, Its mission is clear: to assist schools in prioritising what matters most - enhancing the well-being of teachers and fostering positive student outcomes worldwide.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)
Apr 2020
$4m
EARLY VC
Dec 2018
$2.4m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $13.9m
Company benefits
- Aside from 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.
- At Arbor we're passionate about learning, and to support this we have a dedicated training budget for all teams.
- Dedicated Mental Health First Aiders and Wellbeing Champions with ongoing support and learning around mental health.
- Depending on your role we can also offer you flexible working - just mention it in your interview and we'll let you know what your options are
- We have regular team socials where we spend dedicated time together. This year we've had BBQs, been to theatre shows, gone white water rafting, and more!
- Half-day summer Fridays Plus, we shut the office for a day at Easter and over Christmas so you get some extra time off then too!
- 25 days holiday (excl. bank holidays)
- EAP - Choice of comprehensive 24/7 support services with UK and Ireland's most trusted health and wellbeing network.
- We're all about making an impact! So everyone who joins us gets 1 day a year to volunteer for a charity or cause of their choice
Company values
- Own what you do - We act like owners, embrace responsibility and own the outcomes of our work - both good and bad!
- Everyday's a school day - Education and technology have changed more in the last 10 years than in the last 100. We need to embrace change and continually challenge ourselves to grow and stay ahead
- Make an impact - We take pride in being part of a movement to improve how schools work, so we're always thinking about how we can make a difference
- No-one can whistle a symphony - ...it takes an orchestra! We work together as a team to help each other, our partners and our customers to achieve their full potential
Company HQ
London, UK
Articles
Leadership
James Weatherill
(CEO)Previously Analyst at Ledbury Research for 3 years and Venture Manager at Therefore Ventures for 1 year
People progressing
Joined as Marketing Executive, being promoted to Marketing Manager after 1 year
Ulrik joined Arbor 10 years ago as a junior developer and has moved through the ranks to Principle Engineer and our longest serving engineer. A great representation of career progression at Arbor!
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Arbor Education
Ben Ainger (Talent Acquisition Lead)
- At Arbor, our mission is to transform the ways schools work. That means we serve a broad and diverse professional community - from teachers to SLT to Support Staff - and an equally diverse student and parent community. We want to make sure we build the best products for our schools, and we passionately believe that starts with building a workforce as diverse as the communities we serve
- As of today we know we’re not there yet, but we’re committed to doing the work to improve. We want Arbor to be a workplace which represents, celebrates and supports people from all backgrounds, and which gives them the tools they need to thrive
- Our focus over the past few months has been on understanding where we need to improve, and on making sure that everyone at Arbor has had the chance to share their views. So far, we’ve established a Diversity and Inclusion Committee, surveyed our team, hosted training and workshops, and reviewed our recruitment process. We know we’ve still got big work to do, but we’re actively working on it. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on how we’re doing
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