[Hiring] Staff Software Engineer @Pearson

Role Description

Pearson's PSG-CP (Pearson Software Group - Content Platform) team is looking for a forward deployed engineer who shows up where the work is happening, listens to a problem that nobody has fully written down yet, and leaves with software that addresses it. Not a deck, not a spec, not a Jira epic - running software.

You sit closer to the customer than a typical engineer and closer to the code than a typical solutions architect. The job is to compress the distance between "we need something that does X" and "here, try this."

You will embed directly with our most strategic internal lines of business to drive AI adoption and ship working software against real problems. You will operate autonomously, thrive under ambiguity, and represent PSG-CP at the highest level inside the business. This is a significant responsibility — you'll play a key role in how AI shows up across Pearson.

What you'd actually be doing

• Going where the problem is: Work directly with internal stakeholders to understand their pain points, workflows, and technical landscape to design and build systems end to end.
• Conducting real discovery: Sit with users, observe their work, ask questions, and translate insights into buildable solutions.
• Building during the conversation: Provide working software quickly for user feedback.
• Working from messy inputs: Turn various forms of input into coherent solutions without requiring users to clean them up first.
• Shipping production AI applications: Build real applications on top of frontier LLMs, agents, and other systems that run in production.
• Iterating fast across many engagements: Adapt to shifting requirements and deliver new versions quickly.
• Owning the full stack: Manage frontend, backend, data, integrations, deployment, and observability.
• Codifying what works: Share successful patterns with platform and engineering teams to improve future engagements.
• Owning the relationship over time: Maintain close relationships with stakeholders throughout the engagement lifecycle.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of full-stack engineering experience, with meaningful time spent shipping production systems end to end.
• Strong CS fundamentals: Data structures, algorithms, system design.
• Frontend depth: Modern React, TypeScript, component architecture, state management.
• Backend depth: Node.JS, Java, Python; API design, data modeling, auth, error handling.
• Production LLM experience: Advanced prompt engineering, agent development, evaluation frameworks.
• Fluency with AI-assisted development tools and agentic coding.
• Data fluency: Comfortable with databases and Python data tooling.
• Cloud and deployment fluency: AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Integration experience: Building systems that interact with third-party APIs and legacy databases.
• High agency: Navigate ambiguity in complex organizations.
• High cooperation, low ego: Work across team lines effectively.
• Strong communication skills: Engage with both executives and engineers.
• Currency on what's changing: Stay updated on LLM capabilities and AI product stacks.
• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent.

Compensation

Compensation at Pearson is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and specific location. The full-time salary range is between $150,000 - $180,000. This position is eligible to participate in an annual incentive program.

Application Information

Applications will be accepted through 30th September 2026. This window may be extended depending on business needs.