Principal/Staff Engineer (Core Product)

Location: Remote within the United Kingdom

Company

hirify.global develops MIS and school management tools used by more than 12,000 schools and trusts to improve data-driven operations and working lives in education.

What you will do

• Own target architectures, technical strategies, and roadmaps for the core product suite.
• Provide hands-on architectural guidance for feature delivery, technical debt reduction, and architecture improvements.
• Translate product vision into engineering deliverables while aligning commercial and technical goals.
• Lead the shift to AI-first engineering by architecting new SDLC foundations and promoting modern engineering approaches.
• Mentor Technical Leads and Senior Engineers and contribute to technical communities of practice.
• Lead architectural reviews and ensure designs meet quality, reliability, security, and compliance standards.

Requirements

• Extensive experience delivering outcomes and leading across large, complex product suites in a scaling environment.
• Broad knowledge of software architecture, system design, scalable integration patterns, and monolithic and distributed architectures.
• Experience influencing technical and non-technical stakeholders across distributed, cross-functional teams.
• Deep experience guiding architectural design, de-risking complex initiatives through MVP and 0-to-1 thinking, and adopting frameworks.
• Understanding of how AI-first engineering changes the SDLC, supported by practical examples.
• Practical knowledge of PHP, Node, React, Python, MySQL, AWS, or equivalent technologies.

Culture & Benefits

• Flexible working and a collaborative, outcome-focused engineering culture.
• 32 days of holiday plus bank holidays and company-wide days.
• Life assurance at three times annual salary, private dental insurance, and a salary sacrifice pension.
• Wellness support including virtual GP access, mental health support, counselling, and health checks.
• Enhanced maternity, adoption, and paternity leave, plus return-to-work maternity coaching.
• Professional development budget, wellbeing services, charitable volunteering time, and company events.

Hiring process

• Phone screen.
• First-stage interview.
• Second-stage interview.