Senior Software Engineer – Platform & Modernization
English Language Learning (ELL) – Assessments Technology
Department: English Language Learning (ELL)
Job family: Software Engineering
Contract: Full‑time (FTE)
Location: Hybrid / Full Remote (Spain or Poland)
ABOUT PEARSON AND ELL
Pearson is the world's leading learning company, committed to helping people realise the life they imagine through learning. Within Pearson, the English Language Learning (ELL) organisation builds platforms and products that support language learning and language proficiency assessment at global scale. This role sits within ELL Technology, in teams responsible for secure, reliable, and scalable assessment systems, where engineering quality, operational stability, and long-term sustainability are critical.
ROLE SUMMARY
We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to help modernize and strengthen core assessment technology within ELL. This role is designed for an engineer who is comfortable working across legacy and modern systems, raising engineering maturity, and enabling multiple teams through shared platform improvements. This is not a single-team, feature-only role. You will have a home squad, while also contributing to cross-team enablement, modernization initiatives, and engineering best practices that scale across ELL.
WHAT YOU WILL DO
1. Modernization of critical backend services
Design, implement, and evolve Java / Spring-based services
Reduce long-term technical risk by improving maintainability, modularity, and clarity of ownership
Apply incremental modernization techniques that allow teams to continue delivering while architecture evolves
2. Platform and cross-team enablement
Contribute to shared platform capabilities used by multiple ELL squads (e.g. release safety patterns, feature-flagging approaches, service integration standards)
Act as a technical partner for teams adopting new responsibilities or inheriting complex systems
Help make platform improvements visible, measurable, and repeatable across teams
3. Quality and testing maturity
Treat unit testing as a first-class responsibility, ensuring new and changed code is well covered and reliable
Improve testing practices across the test pyramid (unit, integration, contract), collaborating with QA/QE and SRE partners where needed
Support teams in building sustainable quality habits that improve release confidence and reduce incidents
4. Trunk-based delivery and engineering discipline
Work in a trunk-based development model, with short-lived branches, frequent integration, and a main branch that is always releasable
Use feature flags and automated tests to enable safe, continuous delivery
Contribute to code reviews and CI pipelines that protect trunk stability and quality
5. AI-assisted engineering
Use Pearson-approved AI development tools (e.g. GitHub Copilot Business and, where approved and funded, Cursor-style IDEs) to improve productivity, code comprehension, refactoring, and test creation
Apply strong engineering judgment: review AI-generated output critically, add appropriate tests, and ensure security and quality standards are met
Act as a role model for responsible AI usage in software development
6. Operational excellence
Contribute to systems with real customers and real reliability expectations
Support sustainable operations by addressing root causes, not just symptoms
Collaborate effectively with product, QA, and SRE stakeholders in an environment with defined operational processes and SLAs
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
Must-have
Strong backend engineering experience, including Java and Spring (or equivalent Java frameworks)
Solid software engineering fundamentals: API design, clean code, CI/CD awareness, observability basics
Comfortable with modern "vibe coding" practices — collaborating with AI coding assistants
Trunk-based development experience or mindset: short-lived branches, continuous integration, trunk always in a releasable state
Strong unit-testing discipline: writing deterministic unit tests, integrating them into CI pipelines, and treating unit tests as part of "done"
Ability to collaborate across teams and influence technical direction pragmatically
Strongly preferred
Front-end development experience (e.g. React/Angular applications)
Experience implementing or operating feature flag solutions to support safe delivery
Experience improving automation testing strategy beyond a single codebase (patterns, standards, enablement)
Familiarity with cloud-hosted, distributed systems and reliability concerns
Experience mentoring engineers and improving team-level engineering practices
WAYS OF WORKING / MINDSET
Comfortable operating in ambiguity and evolving architectures
Outcome-driven: balances ideal solutions with real-world constraints
Quality-focused without being dogmatic
Communicates trade-offs clearly and constructively
WHY JOIN PEARSON ELL
Work on global, mission-critical assessment technology where reliability, security, and scale truly matter
High autonomy and visibility: your work will influence multiple teams and long-term platform direction
Strong collaboration culture across Engineering, QA/QE, Product, and SRE
Opportunity to apply modern engineering practices — including responsible AI-assisted development
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Who we are:
At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to help people realize the life they imagine through learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. We are the world's lifelong learning company. For us, learning isn't just what we do. It's who we are. To learn more: We are Pearson.
Pearson is an Equal Opportunity Employer and a member of E-Verify. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit and business need. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status or any other group protected by law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.
If you are an individual with a disability and are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our career site as a result of your disability, you may request reasonable accommodations by emailing [email protected].
Job: Engineering
Job Family: TECHNOLOGY
Organization: English Language Learning
Schedule: FULL_TIME
Workplace Type: Remote
Req ID: 23922
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