Head of Platform Engineering Full Time

Knewin

Location: Remote (Candidates will need to be UK Based)

Salary: £90,000 – £100,000
About us

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

You’ve probably seen the headlines. Heavy workloads, constant change, admin pressure on teachers and staff at every level sometimes it feels like this is just part and parcel of school life today. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

We passionately believe that there’s a better way to work. And it starts by giving everyone the right tools and technology for the job.

We’re building a platform and products we believe in – as well as a strong, diverse team of experienced specialists, ex-teachers and Edtech engineers passionate about making a difference to the sector.

Ultimately, we’re here to help make our schools and trusts stress a little less, and focus on what matters most – improving the lives of teachers and outcomes of students everywhere.

About the role

We are looking for an experienced and dynamic Head of Platform Engineering to lead our Platform team and help us shape the technical foundation of our platform and influence the architectural direction of our systems. The remit and focus of the role is to lead a team of talented Platform Engineers, while contributing your hands-on expertise to ensuring that our platform is scalable, secure, and reliable. It’s a broad and exciting role, so we’re looking for someone up for a challenge – if you’re a collaborative and ambitious Engineer, this is the role for you.

Core responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of four platform and DevOps engineers, providing guidance, mentorship, and support.

• Foster a collaborative and innovative team culture, encouraging continuous learning and professional development

• Influence and contribute to the overall technical architecture of Arbor Education’s platform.

• Work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure alignment with organisational goals and objectives.

• Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies, providing strategic insights to drive technological advancements.

• Engage in approximately 50% hands-on technical work, leveraging your expertise in PHP, Terraform, and AWS to contribute directly to platform development.

• Collaborate with the engineering team to design, implement, and maintain robust and scalable solutions.

• Collaborate with product managers, UX/UI designers, and other stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions.

• Work closely with other engineering leaders to ensure seamless integration and coordination across teams.

About you
We’re looking for an experienced and creative Head of Platform Engineering. Beyond that, we’d love to see:

• Proven experience as a hands-on technical leader in a platform engineering role.

• Strong proficiency in PHP and hands-on experience with Terraform and AWS.

• Demonstrated experience in managing and leading engineering teams.

• Solid understanding of software architecture principles and best practices.

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence decisions and convey technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Advocate of 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

• Enhanced maternity and adoption leave (20 weeks full pay) and paternity (6 weeks full pay) pay

• Private Dental Insurance

• 5 free return to work maternity coaching sessions, helping you adapt to this new exciting time of life!

• Access to services such as Calm, Bippit (financial wellbeing coaching) and Health Assured (Employee assistance programme)

• 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

Phone screen

1st stage

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 .

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:

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