At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and build high-traffic distributed systems while collaborating with diverse teams.
- Company: Join Preply, a unicorn Ed-Tech company transforming education globally.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive pay, equity, learning budgets, and generous lesson allowances.
- Other info: Dynamic culture focused on collaboration, growth, and diversity.
- Why this job: Shape the future of learning and make a real impact on millions.
- Qualifications: 8+ years in software engineering, strong coding skills, and cloud experience.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
We power people’s progress. At Preply, we’re all about creating life-changing learning experiences. We help people discover the magic of the perfect tutor, craft a personalised learning journey, and stay motivated to keep growing. Our approach is human-led, tech-enabled - and it’s creating real impact. We’ve just reached unicorn status with a $150M Series D, accelerating our vision to transform education through human-led, AI-enhanced learning. Today, 100,000+ tutors teach 90+ languages to learners in 180 countries - and we’re only getting started. As a category-defining company, we’re shaping what the future of learning looks like at global scale.
Every Preply lesson sparks change, fuels ambition, and drives progress that matters. Joining Preply means helping define the future of education at global scale, and building something that truly matters for millions of people, every day.
The SRE team unites infrastructure, engineering and business to ensure great synergy that helps Preply succeed. Our main focuses are:
- Top in the industry uptime record and latency.
- Invest in Platform’s scalability.
- Develop core services & tooling powering our Platform.
- Running infrastructure in a cost effective way.
We work in small teams, thus you will be able to influence system design and contribute a lot in the company's growth. We promote self-direction to work on meaningful projects, while we also strive to create an environment that provides the support and mentorship needed to learn and grow.
We’ve reached 90%+ adoption of AI coding tools across engineering, and we’re now moving towards more autonomous, AI-Augmented development at scale. At Preply, engineers have direct access to the best tools available, with the freedom to use them fully and experiment as they build.
We have diverse technical challenges that will allow you to develop your skills across the stack.
What you’ll be doing
- The Software Platform Engineer at Preply combines software engineering practices with cloud infrastructure, distributed systems patterns, storage systems and observability to deliver on a wide range of projects - ranging from tooling to core Platform services which serve production traffic.
- Own the availability and performance of mission-critical services and build automation to prevent problems recurrence.
- Improve the system’s scalability, observability, and alerting.
- Build tooling to improve our platform and accelerate the overall software development.
- Practice sustainable incident response and blameless postmortems.
- Collaborate with product teams to help them tackle technical issues and design new systems.
- Strengthen credibility with the quality of the team's technical execution.
- Follow the best FinOps practices.
- Participate in on-call rotation across the team.
What you need to succeed
- Extensive experience (~8 years) in designing, building, maintaining and troubleshooting high traffic distributed systems.
- Proficient software engineering skills. Strong coding experience in one or more programming languages (preferably Python).
- Experience with at least one major public cloud, its services and infrastructure (preferably AWS).
- Experience in implementing observability and alerting.
- Willingness to participate on paid on-call rotations.
- Business-orientation and data-driven approach.
- Nice to have: knowledge of modern web frameworks; SQL and relational DBs.
- Strong communication skills. Minimum B2 English level.
Why you’ll love it at Preply
- Open, collaborative, dynamic and diverse culture.
- Generous monthly allowance for lessons on Preply.com.
- Learning & Development budget, including time off for your self-development.
- Competitive financial package with equity, and leave allowance.
- Opportunity to shape the lives of learners and tutors from over 175 countries through language learning and teaching.
Our Principles
- Care to change the world - We are passionate about our work and care deeply about its impact to be life changing.
- We do it for learners - For both Preply and tutors, learners are why we do what we do. Every day we focus on empowering tutors to deliver an exceptional learning experience.
- Keep perfecting - To create an outstanding customer experience, we focus on simplicity, smoothness, and enjoyment, continually perfecting it as every detail matters.
- Now is the time - In a fast-paced world, it matters how quickly we act. Now is the time to make great things happen.
- Disciplined execution - What makes us disciplined is the excellence in our execution. We set clear goals, focus on what matters, and utilize our resources efficiently.
- Dive deep - We leverage business acumen and curiosity to investigate disparities between numbers and stories, unlocking meaningful insights to guide our decisions.
- Growth mindset - We proactively seek growth opportunities and believe today's best performance becomes tomorrow's starting point. We humbly embrace feedback and learn from setbacks.
- Raise the bar - We raise our performance standards continuously, alongside each new hire and promotion. We build diverse and high-performing teams that can make a real difference.
- Challenge, disagree and commit - We value open and candid communication, even when we don’t fully agree. We speak our minds, challenge when necessary, and fully commit to decisions once made.
- One Preply - We prioritize collaboration, inclusion, and the success of our team over personal ambitions. Together, we support and celebrate each other's progress.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Preply.com is committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of diverse backgrounds can thrive. We believe that the presence of different opinions and viewpoints is a key ingredient for our success as a multicultural Ed-Tech company. That means that Preply will consider all applications for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or veteran status.
Senior Platform Software Engineer Location: London employer: Preply
At Preply, we pride ourselves on being an excellent employer that fosters creativity and innovation in a collaborative work environment. Our commitment to employee growth is reflected in our supportive culture, where team members are encouraged to explore new ideas and develop their skills. Located in a vibrant city, we offer unique advantages such as flexible working arrangements and a focus on work-life balance, making it a rewarding place for those looking to make a meaningful impact in user engagement.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Platform Software Engineer Location: London
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Preply or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Preply.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Preply.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Preply that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Senior Platform Software Engineer Location: London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Preply.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Preply and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Preply
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Preply uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.