Senior Platform Engineer, Arbor Education
£80-90k
PHP
AWS
Docker
Kubernetes
Python
Java
Go
Terraform
C++
Prometheus
Datadog
Senior and Expert level
Remote from UK
We helps schools transform the way they work using data
Posted today
We helps schools transform the way they work using data
201-500 employees
B2BEnterpriseEducationProductivityBusiness IntelligenceSaaSData Analysis
Posted today
£80-90k
PHP
AWS
Docker
Kubernetes
Python
Java
Go
Terraform
C++
Prometheus
Datadog
Senior and Expert level
Remote from UK
201-500 employees
B2BEnterpriseEducationProductivityBusiness IntelligenceSaaSData Analysis
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
- Experience: Considerable professional experience in Platform Engineering on complex, scalable systems
- Cloud Systems: Strong hands-on expertise with AWS and distributed cloud architectures
- Platform Scale: Experience operating platforms serving high request volumes in production with traffic of at least 6,000 req’s/sec. A deep understanding of enterprise deployment and maintenance processes such as blue-green deployments
- Infrastructure as Code: Proficiency with Terraform and configuration management tools
- Scripting: Strong skills in Python, Go, or a similar language for automation and tooling
- Programming: Significant experience working in Java, C++/#, PHP, or another language; preferably in a sizable Object Oriented codebase
- Observability: Hands-on experience with monitoring and observability platforms (e.g., DataDog, Prometheus, or equivalent), and incident/problem management practices
- System Design: Solid understanding of distributed systems, microservices, and resilience patterns
- Containerisation: Hands-on experience with containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, ECS)
- CI/CD: Practical experience with building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines for automated deployments
- Mentorship: Experience supporting and mentoring fellow engineers through code review, pairing, and feedback
- AI and Productivity: Experience using agentic AI, or an interest in increasing productivity with new tooling including agentic AI
Desirable
- Experience with chaos engineering and reliability testing
- Knowledge of security best practices and compliance frameworks
- Contributions to open-source projects or the software community
- Experience running ECS at scale
- Experience working with (agentic and generative) AI to increase productivity
What the job involves
- We are looking for an experienced and collaborative Senior Platform Engineer to join our Engineering team and help us take strong ownership of platform components and contribute to the design of robust, scalable, and secure systems
- The remit and focus of the role is to work alongside the Platform Tech Lead and Engineering Manager to deliver high-quality engineering work, support fellow engineers, and help embed a culture of reliability and operational 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
- Architectural Contribution: Contribute to system design and architecture decisions, working with the Tech Lead to balance trade-offs between speed, scalability, maintainability, and security
- Reliability and Performance: Take ownership of services from design through to production, ensuring they are observable and meet agreed Service Level Objectives (SLOs). Identify and deliver improvements in platform reliability, performance, and efficiency
- Automation: Take an automation first approach to improving automation across infrastructure and operations to reduce toil and increase the team's velocity
- Technical Standards: Apply and uphold coding standards, write well-tested and reusable code, and engage with the architecture community to share best practices. Enable AI agents to act as force multipliers within our codebase. Ensure services meet production readiness standards
- Planning and Delivery: Provide accurate estimates and feasibility input on technical work. Deliver work iteratively, contribute to release planning, and participate in post-release reviews. Raise dependencies within planned work
- Mentorship: Support and mentor fellow engineers through code review, pairing, and constructive feedback. Share knowledge generously across the team
- Incident Response: Participate in on-call rotations and incident response. Lead investigations, contribute to post-mortems, and drive follow-up improvements
- Collaboration: Work closely with Product Managers, Engineering Managers, the Tech Lead, and other engineers to align technical delivery with product strategy. Communicate technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
Application process
- Phone screen
- 1st stage
- 2nd stage
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: $14.1m
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
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously Analyst at Ledbury Research for 3 years and Venture Manager at Therefore Ventures for 1 year
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
Share this job
View 10 more jobs at Arbor Education