Advanced Specialist, Software Engineer
Job Title: Advanced Specialist, Software Engineer Career Architecture Role: Software Engineer Career Architecture Tier: IC25 (Advanced Specialist) Job Summary: As an Advanced Specialist Software Engineer, you drive the technical direction of high-impact projects, designing and optimizing complex software solutions that power Pearson’s core platforms. You act as a subject-matter mentor, championing best practices, code quality, and the adoption of emerging technologies (including AI) to deliver resilient, scalable, and customer-focused systems. This is a purely individual contributor role with no direct reports. Key Responsibilities: Design and build robust solutions across new and existing software domains, applying best practices (SOLID, Clean Code, DDD, BDD) to ensure maintainability and scalability. Guide and coach team colleagues in technical matters, providing authoritative input during architecture and design decisions. Lead code reviews, promote knowledge sharing, and drive improvements in code quality, technical debt, and delivery metrics. Proactively adopt and promote AI tools and automation to improve team efficiency and problem-solving. Collaborate with product and QA teams to understand customer needs, balancing trade-offs and technical debt to deliver optimal solutions. Stay current with emerging technologies and industry trends, applying them to enhance the product landscape. Ensure comprehensive documentation and up-to-date collaboration artifacts (e.g., JIRA tickets, technical docs). Required Skills and Competencies: Deep expertise in the software development lifecycle, Agile methodologies, and AI tools for development, testing, and observability. Strong knowledge of Java, React, Kotlin, and object-oriented design principles. Proven experience with Java frameworks (Spring, Spring Boot), version control (Git), build tools (Maven, Gradle), and observability tools (e.g., New Relic). Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), microservices architecture, and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes). Familiarity with DevOps practices, CI/CD (especially GitHub), and database technologies (e.g., MongoDB). Excellent problem-solving, analytical, communication, and collaboration skills. Ability to work independently and as part of a team. Qualifications (Education & Experience): 6+ years of relevant professional experience in software development, with a track record of increasing technical responsibility and accomplishments. Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).