Front-End Technical Lead

About Arbor Education: At Arbor Education, we are on a meaningful mission to transform the way schools operate for the absolute better. We believe in a future where being challenged in education does not mean being overworked or burnt out, where data guides academic progress without overwhelming staff, and where everyone inside a school is reminded why they got into education every day. Our market-leading Management Information Systems (MIS) and school management software tools are already making a profound difference in over 12,000 schools and multi-academy trusts. By turning dense administrative data into clear, actionable insights, Arbor gives valuable time and power back to educators—supporting happier, more joyful working and learning environments across the country.

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly autonomous, systems-fluent, and engineering-proficient Front-End Technical Lead to join our elite core Engineering team under a permanent, full-time remote configuration based within the United Kingdom. In this high-leverage client-side leadership seat, you will take absolute ownership of software architecture decisions and provide cross-functional mentorship across our front-end product verticals. Shifting completely away from routine non-regulated administrative data transcription loops, entry-level website styling adjustments, or basic copy editing, you will run an active high-scale modular UI engineering, client-side caching, and data-flow orchestration laboratory. Partnering directly with distributed Tech Leads, Product Managers, and Creative Design studios, you will act as a driving force to deliver technically excellent web interfaces. This position requires a software engineering authority with extensive experience building complex single-page applications fluidly natively using React and TypeScript primitives, driving advanced QE testing habits, and architecting scalable components that align rigidly with an organization’s unified Design System.

Key Responsibilities

• Front-End System Architecture Governance: Lead, define, and execute the architectural vision and code design patterns for Arbor’s enterprise-level client applications natively utilizing React best practices.
• Cross-Functional UX Harmonization: Collaborate closely with embedded Design and Product management stakeholders to ensure all new interface components align cleanly with the organization’s overarching Design System and UX strategies.
• Complex Solution Engineering: Take an absolute leadership role in solutionizing intricate user feature requests, resolving client-side caching limits, and managing data fetching loops between client states and backend servers.
• Strategic Technical Documentation: Author, maintain, and enforce detailed, strategic documentation for newly introduced interface models, emphasizing macro architectural impacts and code scalability.
• Advanced QE Practice Instrumentation: Direct and drive the usage of advanced automated testing methodologies, ensuring development teams maintain excellent test coverage metrics and client runtime reliability.
• Engineering Best Practice Mentorship: Serve as an exemplary role model for writing well-architected, clean, and highly maintainable front-end code adhering strictly to SOLID and DRY engineering principles.
• High-Scale Collaboration: Work hand-in-hand alongside regional Tech Leads to build a highly collaborative engineering culture, actively participating in tech-discovery sessions and asking foundational architecture questions.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• A minimum of 6–8+ years of proven, successful professional history operating inside a Senior Front-End Developer, User Interface Architect, Lead JavaScript Engineer, Front-End Tech Lead, or closely matching high-scale software capacity.
• Expert Frontend Ecosystem Command: Thorough production-grade engineering mastery operating within React, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, and modern CSS layout engines.
• Advanced operational fluency navigating front-end build pipelines, task runners, asset bundling configurations, and web compiler tools.
• Demonstrated technical capability managing state machines, complex APIs, data orchestration, and asynchronous communication models.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication strengths in English, with an established history translating detailed software engineering challenges into scannable paths for non-technical company stakeholders.
• Location Context: Position operates under remote guidelines open exclusively to qualified front-end engineering leaders residing permanently within the United Kingdom.

Preferred Strategic Indicators (Nice to Have)

• Prior background or direct development literacy configuring backend components using PHP frameworks or related server-side enterprise technologies.
• Grounded understanding of digital accessibility standards, specifically applying WCAG guidelines to client-side color contrast and screen-reader accessibility controls.
• Experience utilizing Docker containerization ecosystems, managing deployments inside cloud computing environments, and operating within agile Scrum methodologies.

What We Offer

• Top-Tier UK Engineering Remuneration Grid: A competitive annual base salary structure of £75,000 - £85,000, supplemented by dedicated professional development training budgets for CPD courses or memberships.
• 100% remote workspace infrastructure autonomy anywhere inside the United Kingdom, built within a highly supportive, flexible virtual family.
• Direct Venture-Scale Educational Impact: Elite professional growth milestones achieved by commanding the primary client-side architectures relied upon by over 12,000 schools and trusts daily.
• Outstanding vacation package containing 32 days of holiday per year (inclusive of 25 days annual leave plus 7 extra company-wide days over Easter, Summer, and Christmas) plus standard Bank Holidays.
• Comprehensive health and wellness preservation benefits, featuring Private Dental Insurance with Bupa, Life Assurance paid out at 3x annual salary, salary sacrifice pension options with Scottish Widows, 20 weeks full-pay enhanced maternity leave, and access to AIG Smart Health’s 24/7 virtual GP services.