Software Engineer

About Us

Renaissance® is a global leader in education technology. We help schools and school groups in the UK and around the world with educational assessments, practice and intervention solutions, and data analytics. Renaissance now incorporates GL Assessment (known internationally as GL Education), too – a leading provider of educational assessments.

Together, our assessments offer the ideal starting point to help teachers understand their students’ strengths and pinpoint areas of need. Our teaching and learning tools then provide effective next steps, with online literacy and maths solutions that meet students exactly where we are.

Worldwide, we support over 18 million students, operating in over 100 countries.

Do you want to help millions of students worldwide reach their potential?

At Renaissance, we build technology that accelerates learning for millions of students globally - regardless of ability, background, or circumstance. Our assessment platform helps teachers make data-driven decisions that change lives.

We're a tech-for-good company where people come first. We believe great software comes from great teams, and we're looking for Software Engineers who want to combine technical craft with meaningful impact.

The Role

You'll work on high-scale global EdTech systems (Azure, .NET, Angular) that process assessment data for millions of students worldwide, and join a collaborative agile team with autonomy, high engineering standards, and a focus on continuous improvement.

What makes this different:

• Craft matters - We value clean code, a quality mindset, and engineering excellence
• Trust and support - Teams make technical decisions collaboratively with mentorship when you need it
• Real impact - Your work helps teachers make better decisions for their students
• Help build our AI-first future - We're early in the process of adopting agentic SDLC, you'll help define how we integrate AI into our workflows

What You'll Do:

• Design, build, and maintain features across the full stack (Azure, .NET APIs, Angular frontend, SQL databases)
• Make or contribute to architectural and technical decisions within your domain
• Write clean, tested, maintainable code that solves real problems
• Participate in and improve our engineering practices (code review, testing strategies, CI/CD pipelines)
• Experiment with AI tools to help build towards our adoption of agentic workflows
• Work closely with product, design, quality assurance, and other engineering teams to deliver valuable outcomes for teachers and students
• Break down ambiguous problems, propose ideas, and help bring them to completion

What we'd love to see includes:

• Technical Experience
• Some previous professional software development experience
• Full-stack experience and skills in C#/.NET, TypeScript/JavaScript, and SQL (you don’t need to be an expert in all three)
• Experience with modern web frameworks (Angular, React, or similar)
• Understanding of system design, REST APIs, databases, and cloud platforms (Azure preferred)
• Understanding of testing approaches (e.g. unit, integration, end-to-end) and familiarity with CI/CD pipelines
• Engineering Mindset
• You value quality and craft - testing, clean code, and thoughtful design matter to you
• You're curious about AI tooling (GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, etc.)
• You can work effectively both independently and collaboratively
• You understand trade-offs - when to optimize, when to ship, when to refactor
• You care about accessibility, performance, security, and maintainability - and apply them in practice
• You communicate technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences
• Nice to Have Experience (But Not Essential)
• Azure (App Services, Static Web Apps, Storage Accounts, Azure SQL)
• Angular (we'll support you to learn if you're coming from another framework)
• AI-assisted development tools
• EdTech, SaaS, or mission-driven tech background
• WCAG accessibility standards

Additional information:

This role is based from our office in Houghton le Spring on a hybrid basis - the team come together a couple of times a week.

Please note:

We are unable to offer sponsorship for this position, applicants must have full rights to work in the UK and be able to work in our office location.

The closing date for applications will be Thursday 8th October however we will be reviewing applications continually during this time.

• People-First Culture
• Collaborative autonomy
• 🗣️ - Teams make decisions together and have freedom to innovate
• Engineering excellence
• 🏆 - We invest in quality, testing, and continuous improvement
• Growth and learning
• 📖 - Access to training, mentorship, and time to experiment with new tools
• Inclusive and supportive
• 🌈 - We value diverse perspective, psychological safety, and work-life balance
• Modern Tech Stack

🔧

• Azure, .NET 8+, Angular 21, SQL Server
• Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
• Early adoption of agentic SDLC - help shape how we work
• Continuous modernisation of our stack and practice
• Work/life balance

Hybrid working

• 🏢🏠 (Houghton-le-Spring office as a base with pool/ping pong table 🎱, dart board 🎯, and arcade machine 🕹️)
• Flexible arrangements
• 🔄 - We're open to discussing what works for your life (including family responsibilities)
• Generous leave policies

🏖️ – 22 days annual leave with the opportunity to purchase more, 3 days company leave over Christmas period 🎄, an extra day off during your birthday month 🎂, reduced hours (half day Fridays) during Summer and Winter holiday periods conditional on company performance ☀️❄️

We have an ongoing commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and have taken strides to become a more welcoming and inclusive workplace, including the introduction of our DEI Matters Network which is owned and driven by our staff.

We are an equal opportunities employer. We encourage and welcome applications from all underrepresented groups, as we believe and strive for community representation within our organisation.

If you have a disability and would prefer to apply in a different format or would like us to make reasonable adjustments to enable you to apply or attend any interview, please contact us and we will talk this through with you.

All your information will be kept confidential according to GDPR guidelines. Please note that we can only consider applicants who already hold a full work permit.

This role is subject to DBS and background checks.