Staff Software Engineer

Team: English Language Learning (ELL)

Function: Architecture & Engineering

Role type: Staff Software Engineer / senior individual contributor

Full Remote

Pearson is the world's leading learning company, committed to helping people realise the life they imagine through learning. Within English Language Learning (ELL), we build platforms and systems that operate at global scale, where reliability, quality, and continuous modernization are critical.

We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to help shape system architecture and drive platform evolution. This role combines functional design, technical architecture, and active engineering contribution — ensuring that systems are not only well-designed, but also deliverable, scalable, and aligned across teams.

We are looking for an experienced engineer who can:

• Define and evolve functional and system architecture.

• Work across multiple teams and systems.

• Translate business needs into practical, scalable solutions.

• Stay hands-on with implementation and engineering practices.

You will contribute both within a team and across teams, supporting platform-level improvements and architectural alignment.

Architecture & Design

• Define system architecture aligned with product and business needs.

• Translate requirements into clear and scalable solutions.

• Drive architectural decisions and ensure consistency across systems.

Engineering & Delivery

• Contribute to the implementation of key services and components.

• Validate architecture through real code and technical decisions.

• Support teams with complex technical challenges and reviews.

Platform & Modernization

• Evolve existing systems towards a more modular and maintainable architecture.

• Support modernization initiatives and reduce technical complexity.

• Improve system boundaries and integration patterns.

Quality & Standards

• Promote strong engineering practices (testing, reliability, maintainability).

• Ensure architecture supports delivery stability and long-term scalability.

• Strong experience as a Senior Engineer, Principal Engineer, Lead Engineer, or Architect.

• Proven experience designing distributed systems.

• Strong expertise in Java and modern backend development practices.

• Experience with the Spring Framework or similar.

• Comfortable using AI-assisted development tools (e.g. Copilot, Cursor, or equivalent).

• Hands-on experience modernizing legacy systems or monoliths.

• Ability to balance business needs with technical design decisions.

• Strong ownership and the ability to work effectively across teams.

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