Overview

Location: Remote

Salary: £100,000 - £120,000

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 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 or productivity, but about creating happier working lives for the people who drive education every day: 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 forward-thinking Principal DevEx Engineer (Developer Experience) to join our Engineering team. You will help us design, implement, and own metrics-driven approaches to productivity; drive process and tooling improvements; and introduce an Internal Developer Platform (IDP) to enable engineers to deliver value quickly, consistently, and with high quality. The remit is to define and lead the strategy to improve engineering productivity, developer experience, and adoption of AI-powered tooling across Arbor's product and platform teams. This is a broad, exciting role, so we're looking for someone highly technical and collaborative.

Responsibilities

• AI Tooling & Process Integration
  • Lead the adoption of AI-powered developer tools and embed AI-assisted workflows into engineering processes, collaborating with Engineering Managers and Tech Leads
  • Identify, pilot, and scale AI tooling to improve productivity, velocity, and code quality across teams
• Productivity Metrics & Continuous Improvement
  • Define and implement productivity metrics; develop dashboards and regular reporting for leadership and teams
  • Design and execute strategies to systematically improve developer productivity and flow
  • Identify sources of developer waste and remove bottlenecks through automation, better tooling, and process re-engineering
• Developer Experience & Internal Platform
  • Own the strategy and implementation of our Internal Developer Platform (IDP), likely Atlassian Compass, to provide self-service tooling, templates, and documentation for engineers
  • Develop and maintain a service catalogue within the IDP in partnership with the platform team
  • Build and maintain templates, frameworks, and tools for rapid, consistent bootstrapping of new services and components
  • Utilise the Atlassian platform to provide joined up developer experiences
• Collaboration & Leadership
  • Partner closely with Platform Engineering to deliver foundational changes, before growing an autonomous DevX function
  • Advocate for a culture of continuous improvement, sharing best practices internally and externally
  • Over time, hire and lead a small team of Developer Experience (DevX) specialists
• Accountability
  • Be accountable for delivering a 12-month roadmap focused on measurable productivity gains through AI tooling adoption and platform improvements

Requirements

• Significant experience leading developer productivity, Developer Experience (DevX), or Platform Engineering initiatives in a SaaS environment
• Proven expertise with Internal Developer Platforms (e.g., Atlassian Compass, Backstage, or similar) and experience implementing/operating IDPs at scale
• Deep familiarity with developer productivity metrics (DORA, SPACE, custom frameworks) and using them to drive change
• Demonstrable track record of introducing and scaling AI-assisted tooling within engineering workflows
• Experience designing and delivering templates, developer tooling, and service catalogues
• Strong technical background in software engineering (hands-on coding experience required)
• Proven ability to influence and lead cross-functional teams without direct authority
• SQL/BI experience (ideally with platforms like Snowflake) to query metrics and data

Bonus skills

• Prior experience in EdTech or other regulated SaaS environments
• Experience leading or managing small technical teams
• Familiarity with modern DevOps, CI/CD, and cloud-native patterns (AWS preferred)
• Track record of driving change in organisations scaling from legacy processes to modern DevEx platforms

Benefits

What we 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, including 24/7 virtual GP, 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
• Access to Calm and Bippit (financial wellbeing coaching)
• Flexible working arrangements
• Social committees for team, office and company-wide events
• Dedicated professional development budget
• Volunteer with a charity of your choice for a day each year
• Dog friendly offices

Interview process

• Phone screen
• 1st stage
• 2nd stage

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

Equal opportunity

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. We promote diversity and equality and actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds.