Senior Product Engineer (Python)

Job Description

Location: Remote

Salary: £55,000 - £60,000

About us

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. 

About the role

We are looking for an experienced and collaborative Senior Product Engineer (Python) to join our AI team and help us build access to AI features via robust, secure, and scalable APIs and services. The remit and focus of the role is to support teams’ uptake of AI features, and continue to develop the AI platform to support their needs. It’s a broad and exciting role, so we’re looking for someone up for a challenge - if you’re a passionate and enthusiastic Engineer, this is the role for you.

Core responsibilities

• Collaborate with the Head of AI and Principal Product Engineer to deliver a new platform for embedding Generative AI into Arbor products and internal processes and workflows
• Support feature teams and internal teams in the implementation of features utilising the AI framework, ensuring issues such as scalability, wait time, and hallucinations are accounted for
• Actively research and evaluate new Python libraries, AI models, and development techniques, and share findings with the team
• Participate in prototype-orientated approach to evaluating AI use cases 
• Produce well-architected, tested and efficient code using established design patterns and methodologies, contributing to the overall system's scalability and performance
• Take a leadership role in code reviews and pair programming sessions, guiding and mentoring colleagues towards excellence
• Participate in tech talks and team-based learning, sharing knowledge and best practices within the team

Requirements

About you

• Extensive experience with Object-Oriented Python and proven expertise in software development
• Solid understanding of software engineering principles, such as SOLID, DRY, etc.
• Experience infrastructure-as-code in a cloud environment, ideally with Terraform
• Experience and demonstrable enthusiasm for leveraging proprietary and open-source LLMs to build systems
• Familiarity with function calling and tool use in agentic workflows
• Data expertise including relational database technologies and data warehousing
• Continued positive and proactive approach to problem-solving
• A team player, willing to muck in and help others when needed, a driven personality who asks questions and actively participates in discussions
• Good written and spoken English so you can present your ideas - our HQ is based in London

Bonus skills

• Experience with architecting enterprise solutions and large-scale systems
• Knowledge of AI-related development tooling such as LangFuse
• Experience with Vector DB’s such as PineCone
• Familiarity with Scrum methodology or other agile development processes
• Experience with cloud computing
• Experience with Docker and containerisation
• Familiarity with software best practices such as Refactoring, Clean Code, Domain-Driven Design, Test-Driven Development, etc.
• Exposure to PHP

Benefits

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
• 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!

Interview process

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 careers@arbor-education.com.

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: careers@arbor-education.com 

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