We are looking for an experienced and visionary Staff Engineer to join our Engineering team and help us drive architectural alignment, technical consistency, and engineering excellence across multiple teams. The remit and focus of the role is to lead the architecture and technical strategy for the Ecosystem area, encompassing Arbor Workflows, API, and Group MIS. You will define the technical vision and target architecture for the Ecosystem area, working with Technical Leads, Product Directors, and Engineering Leadership to translate long-term business objectives into robust, scalable, and maintainable solutions. It’s a broad and exciting role, so we’re looking for someone up for a challenge - if you’re a collaborative and a highly technical candidate, this is the role for you.

Core responsibilities

Architecture & Technical Vision

Define and maintain the target architecture and technical strategy for the Ecosystem area (Workflows, API, and Group MIS). collaborating with Technical Leads and engineers.
Ensure alignment between product strategy, engineering goals, and architectural design.
Drive improvements in system scalability, performance, security, and observability.
Partner with Technical Leads to design and implement consistent frameworks, templates, and development patterns.
Lead architectural reviews and ensure all designs meet Arbor’s quality, reliability, and compliance standards.

Technical Delivery & Enablement

Provide hands-on technical guidance across teams to support delivery of new features, frameworks, and infrastructure improvements.
Work with Engineering Managers and Technical Leads to identify and address sources of technical debt.
Contribute to tooling and framework development that accelerates delivery and improves maintainability.
Collaborate with the Platform and DevOps teams to ensure reliable CI/CD pipelines and efficient infrastructure usage.
Promote the use of metrics (DORA and SPACE) to improve technical outcomes and delivery efficiency.
Ensure code quality and support improvements in design and implementation of new features, and remediation of technical debt

Collaboration & Strategy Alignment

Work closely with Product Directors to understand product vision and translate it into long-term technology roadmaps.
Collaborate with other Staff Engineers, Principal Engineers, and Architects to shape Arbor’s broader technology strategy and target architecture.
Partner with the Portfolio team to identify dependencies, manage risks, and report progress against strategic goals.
Represent the Ecosystem area within cross-functional working groups, including ATLAS (the Technical Leads chapter) and Staff/Principal engineering forums.

Mentorship & Culture

Mentor and coach Technical Leads and senior engineers to improve architectural thinking and design capability.
Support Engineering Managers in developing technical career paths and building engineering maturity.
Contribute to a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement across teams.
Advocate for standardisation, reuse, and sustainable engineering practices across the organisation.
Act as a role model for technical leadership — approachable, pragmatic, and focused on outcomes.

Accountability

Accountable for delivering a clear architectural roadmap that supports the Ecosystem’s product strategy.
Responsible for measurable improvements in change failure rate, velocity, and technical debt reduction.
Lead initiatives that align team-level execution with Arbor’s long-term architectural vision and engineering principles.

About you

Extensive experience designing and delivering complex distributed or API-based systems, ideally in a SaaS environment.
Deep understanding of software architecture, system design, and scalable integration patterns.
Strong experience with PHP, Node, TypeScript, AWS, MySQL, SQS, and API Gateways (e.g. Kong) or equivalent technologies.
Demonstrable track record of implementing performance, observability, and security improvements.
Experience guiding multiple teams in technical design, code quality, and framework adoption.
Skilled in using engineering metrics (DORA, SPACE) to identify and drive measurable improvements.
Excellent communication and influencing skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
Proven ability to mentor engineers and drive alignment across distributed, cross-functional teams.
Experience working in agile delivery environments (Scrum or Kanban) with CI/CD practices.
A team player, willing to muck in and help others when needed, a driven personality who asks questions and actively participates in discussions
Expertise in various relational database technologies
Familiarity with software best practices such as Refactoring, Clean Code, Domain-Driven Design, Test-Driven Development, etc.

Bonus skills

Experience leading or contributing to enterprise-scale API strategies and platform modernisation initiatives.
Exposure to AI integration, automation, or intelligent tooling within software delivery.
Knowledge of microservices and event-driven architecture design.
Experience contributing to or leading technical communities of practice (e.g. chapters, guilds, architecture councils).
Familiarity with education technology or other regulated SaaS domains.
Experience with containerisation (Docker) and microservice orchestration.
Understanding of Domain-Driven Design (DDD) and API lifecycle management.