Description Role: Advanced Specialist Software Engineer(.NET/React/Azure/AWS) Division: Assessment & Qualifications Delivery Location: Rotherham, Manchester or Oxford, UK About Pearson Our purpose: At Pearson we ‘add life to a lifetime of learning’ so everyone can realise the life they imagine. We do this by creating vibrant and enriching learning experiences designed for real-life impact. Our Purpose | Add Life to a Lifetime of Learning Our company: Pearson was founded in 1844 and has been built on our ability to grow with and adapt to a constantly evolving market. Our 20,000 employees are dedicated to creating the high-quality, digital-first, accessible and sustainable resources for lifelong learning. Diversity: At Pearson we value the power of an inclusive culture and a strong sense of belonging. We promote a culture where differences are embraced as strengths and opportunities are equal and accessible. Flexible working: Pearson is committed to hybrid working practices and has adopted flexible remote and virtual working. Where possible our employees can choose to manage their attendance to the office more flexibly. About UK Assessment & Qualifications We are responsible for the delivery of nearly 4 million examination results per annum, including A-Level, GCSE, BTEC and T-levels for students in UK and International centres. Our in-house systems process every learner from registration to marking and certification, in a highly regulated business. We currently operate a hybrid estate of predominantly bespoke systems, with an ongoing strategic transformation programme to migrate from on-prem to cloud based, cost effective, scalable and resilient services. About the job As a Advanced Specialist Software Engineers at this tier are recognized for deep technical expertise and are trusted to design, implement, and optimize the most complex modules of critical business applications or back-end infrastructure. They independently drive the technical direction of high-stakes projects, provide authoritative guidance during architecture reviews, and collaborate with product owners to align solutions with business strategy. These engineers act as subject-matter mentors, reviewing the work of peers, and are frequently sought for advice during performance tuning or incident investigations. Their decisions exert measurable influence over team priorities and software design choices, but they remain focused on technical and mentoring rather than people leadership. They hold accountability for the resilience and scalability of systems that underpin essential revenue streams or user-facing platforms, and are relied upon to avert technical risks before they escalate. About you We’d expect that you can demonstrate delivery of several business-critical projects as a full-stack developer, developing solutions that provide real benefit to users, and working in an Agile project delivery environment using Scrum. High performance at this tier is evidenced by the successful delivery of technically challenging features, production deployments with negligible downtime, and measurable improvements in application scalability or response times. The engineer’s code consistently passes critical peer and architectural reviews, and their work is accompanied by comprehensive, maintainable documentation. Incidents related to areas they own are resolved rapidly and without recurrence, and they are frequently cited as enablers of major business projects through their technical input and mentorship. Key Responsibilities Develop and maintain backend services and APIs using .NET, ensuring reliability, scalability, and security. Build and support user interfaces with React, integrating seamlessly with backend systems. Leverage AWS, Azure, Terraform, and Docker to deliver cloud-native, containerized solutions. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate business requirements into practical technical solutions. Analyse and optimize application performance, proactively identifying and resolving issues to ensure reliability and scalability. Contribute to software quality through thorough testing, code reviews, and lifecycle management. Driving technical direction for complex projects Mentoring peers and reviewing code Optimizing critical business applications Delivering challenging features and smooth deployments Improving scalability and resolving incidents quickly Championing best practices and fostering a learning environment Key Skills & Experience Deep technical expertise in software design, API management, DevOps, and cloud computing Driving technical direction for complex project Building backend services and Web APIs utilising C# with .NET Experience with React and modern JavaScript frameworks. Hands-on experience with AWS, Azure, Terraform, and Docker. Strong understanding of software design principles and system integration. Proactively recommend improvements and shepherd features from backlog refinement through to release. Problem-solving mindset with a focus on delivering practical, innovative solutions. Commitment to continuous learning and adaptability in a fast-paced environment. Applying development methodologies like TDD, CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code Mentoring more junior members of the team in overall software development Working with product owner and business analyst to refine and estimate requirements Working with the project managers, product owners and operation team to ensure application are successfully delivered to production Providing production support Persisting data using relational (SQL) and/or document databases Designing highly performant systems Understand modern application architectures and how they can be applied, like Microservice / Service Oriented Architectures Providing overall software architecture guidance in terms of best practice when it comes to development Desirable Skills, Qualifications & Experience Microsoft certifications (e.g., Azure Developer Associate, Solutions Architect Expert). Experience developing shared libraries or reusable components is a plus. Familiarity with backend integration, cloud platforms, dockers and containerization. Jenkins NodeJS Job Location and Hours The role is aligned to our Manchester, Rotherham, or Oxford offices. Our Rotherham office is located at Junction 1 of the M18. We work a 37.5-hour week, with all our team free to flex their day around our core hours, which are Monday to Friday, 10 to 4 GMT/BST. School runs, etc can be accommodated. Other flexible working patterns can be considered, including part-time working and non-traditional hours. We actively encourage our staff to participate in at least 40 hours of training a year and offer relevant training and certification as part of this role. Your benefits and rewards: Here at Pearson we offer a range of benefits, which include: 25 Days annual leave (increasing by 1 day with every year of continuous service up to 30 days) Private Pension plan scheme where we pay in double what you contribute, up to 16% depending on your age Life, private medical and dental care insurance options, plus free eye tests Stock/share purchase options Maternity, paternity, and family care leave as well as flexible working policies An employee wellbeing assistance programme Cycle to work program, volunteering days, gym membership concessions in selected office locations, along with retail and leisure discounts