Staff Engineer (Ecosystem)

Location: Remote

Salary: £90,000 - £105,000

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. 

We are looking for an experienced and visionary Staff Engineer to join our Engineering team and help us drive architectural alignment, technical consistency, and engineering excellence across multiple teams. The remit and focus of the role is to lead the architecture and technical strategy for the Ecosystem area, encompassing Arbor Workflows, API, and Group MIS. You will define the technical vision and target architecture for the Ecosystem area, working with Technical Leads, Product Directors, and Engineering Leadership to translate long-term business objectives into robust, scalable, and maintainable solutions. It’s a broad and exciting role, so we’re looking for someone up for a challenge - if you’re a collaborative and a highly technical candidate, this is the role for you.

Core responsibilities

• Architecture & Technical Vision
• Define and maintain the target architecture and technical strategy for the Ecosystem area (Workflows, API, and Group MIS). collaborating with Technical Leads and engineers.
• Ensure alignment between product strategy, engineering goals, and architectural design.
• Drive improvements in system scalability, performance, security, and observability.
• Partner with Technical Leads to design and implement consistent frameworks, templates, and development patterns.
• Lead architectural reviews and ensure all designs meet Arbor’s quality, reliability, and compliance standards.
• Technical Delivery & Enablement
• Provide hands-on technical guidance across teams to support delivery of new features, frameworks, and infrastructure improvements.
• Work with Engineering Managers and Technical Leads to identify and address sources of technical debt.
• Contribute to tooling and framework development that accelerates delivery and improves maintainability.
• Collaborate with the Platform and DevOps teams to ensure reliable CI/CD pipelines and efficient infrastructure usage.
• Promote the use of metrics (DORA and SPACE) to improve technical outcomes and delivery efficiency.
• Ensure code quality and support improvements in design and implementation of new features, and remediation of technical debt
• Collaboration & Strategy Alignment
• Work closely with Product Directors to understand product vision and translate it into long-term technology roadmaps.
• Collaborate with other Staff Engineers, Principal Engineers, and Architects to shape Arbor’s broader technology strategy and target architecture.
• Partner with the Portfolio team to identify dependencies, manage risks, and report progress against strategic goals.
• Represent the Ecosystem area within cross-functional working groups, including ATLAS (the Technical Leads chapter) and Staff/Principal engineering forums.
• Mentorship & Culture
• Mentor and coach Technical Leads and senior engineers to improve architectural thinking and design capability.
• Support Engineering Managers in developing technical career paths and building engineering maturity.
• Contribute to a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement across teams.
• Advocate for standardisation, reuse, and sustainable engineering practices across the organisation.
• Act as a role model for technical leadership — approachable, pragmatic, and focused on outcomes.
• Accountability
• Accountable for delivering a clear architectural roadmap that supports the Ecosystem’s product strategy.
• Responsible for measurable improvements in change failure rate, velocity, and technical debt reduction.
• Lead initiatives that align team-level execution with Arbor’s long-term architectural vision and engineering principles.

• Extensive experience designing and delivering complex distributed or API-based systems, ideally in a SaaS environment.
• Deep understanding of software architecture, system design, and scalable integration patterns.
• Strong experience with PHP, Node, TypeScript, AWS, MySQL, SQS, and API Gateways (e.g. Kong) or equivalent technologies.
• Demonstrable track record of implementing performance, observability, and security improvements.
• Experience guiding multiple teams in technical design, code quality, and framework adoption.
• Skilled in using engineering metrics (DORA, SPACE) to identify and drive measurable improvements.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers and drive alignment across distributed, cross-functional teams.
• Experience working in agile delivery environments (Scrum or Kanban) with CI/CD practices.
• A team player, willing to muck in and help others when needed, a driven personality who asks questions and actively participates in discussions
• Expertise in various relational database technologies
• Familiarity with software best practices such as Refactoring, Clean Code, Domain-Driven Design, Test-Driven Development, etc.

Bonus skills

• Experience leading or contributing to enterprise-scale API strategies and platform modernisation initiatives.
• Exposure to AI integration, automation, or intelligent tooling within software delivery.
• Knowledge of microservices and event-driven architecture design.
• Experience contributing to or leading technical communities of practice (e.g. chapters, guilds, architecture councils).
• Familiarity with education technology or other regulated SaaS domains.
• Experience with containerisation (Docker) and microservice orchestration.
• Understanding of Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and API lifecycle management.

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!

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 [email protected].

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

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. 

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: [email protected] 

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