Senior Software Engineer

Please note that whilst we capture CVs as part of the application process, the initial sifting of applications occurs 'blind' and is based purely on the responses to the admin questions and sift questions. So please include sufficient detail as we won't have visibility of your CV at this stage. Please also make sure that you answer each question independently of each other, as they will be reviewed randomly, and the hiring panel will not know who the responses are from and how they relate to other questions at the initial sifting stage.

Senior Software Engineer

Remote (UK-based) | Full-time | Flexible working | Competitive salary + excellent benefits

Do your best work, for the right reasons.

We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer to help us build beautifully simple, high-impact digital products that support teachers and improve outcomes for pupils across the UK.

Oak is a fully remote, mission-driven organisation offering high levels of flexibility, autonomy, and purpose. We’re a national not-for-profit working in partnership with teachers to create the highest-quality, sequenced curriculum and lesson resources for pupils across all subjects and age groups.

Our culture has been independently recognised through:

• Flexa verified (93% overall score, including 95% for working hours and 97% for role modelling)

• Escape the City's Top 1% Employers – based on anonymous colleague reviews of culture, development, and impact

💡 About the Role

You’ll join our cross-functional Product & Engineering team to build and improve the digital platforms that teachers and pupils rely on every day. You'll work closely with product managers, designers, researchers, and curriculum specialists to develop user-facing applications using technologies like TypeScript, Next.js, GraphQL, and SQL.

This is a hands-on role with plenty of scope for technical leadership and mentoring, alongside the opportunity to shape our engineering practices and culture. You'll be part of a supportive, collaborative team that cares deeply about accessibility, usability, and delivering tools that genuinely improve learning.

🔧 What You’ll Be Doing

• Building responsive, accessible web interfaces using TypeScript and Next.js

• Designing and writing clean, well-tested code that’s easy to maintain and scale

• Acting as a go-to person for key areas of our codebase, while supporting continuous improvement

• Championing new tools or practices that improve the developer experience

• Supporting and mentoring colleagues across the team

• Taking part in our on-call rota to help keep our products reliable and available

• Collaborating with others across the organisation in multi-disciplinary squads

• Contributing to planning, retros, and the wider culture of Oak

🌱 What We’re Looking For

• Solid experience building production-level web applications with TypeScript and React/Next.js

• Experience working on cross-functional product teams in agile environments

• Understanding of automated testing and how different types (unit, integration, etc.) add value

• A thoughtful approach to accessibility and user experience

• Strong collaboration and communication skills

• Comfortable working independently in a remote setup, managing your time and relationships effectively

• A proactive, growth-oriented mindset and a desire to help others thrive

💛 Our Benefits

• 25 days annual leave, plus one extra day for each year of service (up to 28)

• Additional Oak closure days over Christmas/New Year

• 11% employer pension contribution (with no minimum employee contribution)

• A 36-hour working week, with half-days on Fridays or every other Friday off

• Fully remote working — we’ll support your home set-up and offer coworking options if preferred

• Termly in-person offsites to collaborate, connect, and have fun

• A culture that genuinely supports flexibility, autonomy, and trust

🌈 Inclusion and Belonging

We believe diverse teams build better products. We warmly welcome applicants from all backgrounds, particularly those who are underrepresented in the tech and education sectors.

We use the Applied recruitment platform to help reduce bias in our hiring process. 

📌 Key Info

• Location: Remote, but you must be based in the UK with the legal right to work here

• Sponsorship: Unfortunately, we’re unable to offer visa sponsorship at this time

• Closing date: We’ll be reviewing applications as they come in and may close the role early

If this sounds like the kind of role and team where you could do your life’s best work, we’d love to hear from you.

Next steps

You’ll answer some questions related to your day-to-day job. After the advert closes, your answers will go through our sift process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised, and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers (real humans).

If you are shortlisted, we’ll invite you to the next stage, which will consist of a remote technical interview and a technical pairing session conducted over Zoom. This will last approximately two hours.

We love giving feedback, so at the end of the application process we'll share how well you performed.

We are aiming to start interviews in mid-May 2025.

We are experiencing really good responses to our job adverts. This may lead us to close the role early, so if you are considering applying then please get your application in early to avoid missing out.

We are an equal opportunities employer.

We are committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or race, or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable.