Engineering Operations Manager

At Arbor, we’re on a mission to transform the way schools work for the better.

We believe in a future of work in schools where being challenged doesn’t mean being burnt out and overworked. Where data guides progress without overwhelming staff, and where everyone working in a school is reminded why they got into education every day.

Our School Management Tools are already making a difference in over 9,000 schools and trusts. Giving time and power back to staff, turning data into clear, actionable insights, and supporting happier working days.

At the heart of our brand is a recognition that the challenges schools face today aren’t just about efficiency, outputs and productivity - but about creating happier working lives for the people who drive education everyday: the staff. We want to make schools more joyful places to work, as well as learn.

We are looking for a highly strategic and experienced Engineering Operations Manager to help bring operational excellence, data-driven insights, and consistency across Arbor’s growing engineering organisation.

This role will act as the operational backbone of our engineering function, responsible for tooling governance, access management, engineering metrics, and process coordination. You’ll ensure engineers have the right tools, data, and support to work efficiently, securely, and consistently across our platform and product teams.

You will collaborate closely with Engineering Leadership, Platform, and DevSecOps to align systems, automate workflows, and deliver high-quality reporting and operational support to enable better decision-making.

Core responsibilities

Tooling Administration & Governance

• Manage and maintain key engineering tools (e.g. GitHub, Atlassian suite, Snyk, LaunchDarkly, CI/CD platforms), ensuring consistent configuration and access across teams.
• Administer onboarding/offboarding processes for engineers, ensuring consistent identity and permissions across systems (SSO, SCIM, role-based access).
• Maintain an up-to-date inventory of engineering tools, licences, and integrations.

Metrics, Reporting & Data Operations

• Develop and maintain dashboards that provide visibility into engineering productivity, velocity, and quality (e.g. DORA metrics, AI adoption, release cadence).
• Partner with the Head of Developer Productivity to track progress against key metrics and report outcomes to leadership.
• Aggregate and analyse data from multiple systems (e.g. GitHub, Jira, CI/CD, Snowflake) to drive decision-making and continuous improvement.
• Own data hygiene and consistency across tooling integrations to ensure reporting accuracy.

Process & Operational Enablement

• Working with Engineering Leadership, coordinate engineering-wide processes (e.g. team onboarding, tool provisioning, change management, and incident response reviews).
• Maintain and publish operational documentation, playbooks, and checklists for internal tools and workflows.
• Support engineering managers in alignment of ways-of-working (WoW) across teams to ensure consistent, predictable delivery practices.
• Collaborate with Finance and Procurement to track and forecast tool costs and licence utilisation.

Engineering Leadership Support & Operations Coordination

• Partner with the VP Engineering and other senior leaders to deliver monthly operational reports, including key metrics, resourcing updates, and productivity insights.
• Coordinate weekly engineering updates to ensure visibility of progress, blockers, and key initiatives across teams.
• Support the organisation of engineering offsites, all-hands, and quarterly reviews, ensuring alignment on goals and strategic priorities.
• Act as a key liaison between leadership, People, and Finance functions to maintain accurate organisational data and facilitate communication across the department.
• Contribute to the planning and execution of key engineering initiatives, tracking milestones and dependencies.

We’re looking for a highly independent and strategic product leader who can navigate complex domains and stakeholder landscapes with confidence and clarity. In addition, we'd love to see:

• Strong background in engineering or technical operations, ideally within a SaaS or software engineering environment.
• Experience administering developer toolchains (GitHub, Jira, CI/CD, Snyk, or equivalent).
• Demonstrable ability to manage access, identity, and configuration governance across systems.
• Data literacy: experience collecting, analysing, and reporting on engineering metrics using SQL, BI tools (e.g. Looker, Grafana, or Snowflake).
• Proven ability to prepare concise operational reports and dashboards for senior stakeholders.
• Experience defining and maintaining operational processes and documentation.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail; able to manage multiple operational initiatives simultaneously.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with experience working across engineering, IT, and business functions.

Bonus skills

• Experience in fast-scaling or multi-product SaaS environments.
• Familiarity with automation and scripting (Python, PowerShell, Bash) for provisioning or data extraction.
• Understanding of AI productivity tooling and how it integrates into engineering metrics.
• Prior experience coordinating department-wide events, communications, or operations reviews.
• Background in EdTech or public sector technology environments.

The chance to work alongside a team of hard-working, passionate people in a role where you’ll see the impact of your work everyday. We also offer:

• A dedicated wellbeing team who champion initiatives such as mindfulness, lunch n learns, manager training, mental health first aid training and much more!
• 32 days holiday (plus Bank Holidays). This is made up of 25 days annual leave plus 7 extra company wide days given over Easter, Summer & Christmas
• Life Assurance paid out at 3x annual salary
• Comprehensive wellness benefit provided by AIG Smart Health, which provides a 24/7 virtual GP service, Mental health support, Counselling, and personalised Health Checks 
• Private Dental Insurance with Bupa 
• Salary sacrifice Pension provided by Scottish Widows
• Enhanced maternity and adoption leave (20 weeks full pay) and paternity (6 weeks full pay) pay
• 5 free return to work maternity coaching sessions, helping you adapt to this new exciting time of life!
• Access to services such as Calm and Bippit (financial wellbeing coaching) 
• All of our roles champion flexible working and we are happy to discuss what this means to you
• Social committees that plan team, office and company wide events to bring people together and celebrate success
• Dedicated professional development training budget (CPD courses, upskilling resources, professional memberships etc)
• Volunteer with a charity of your choice for a day each year

1. Phone screen
2. 1st stage interview
3. 2nd stage with presentation

We are committed to a fair and comfortable recruitment process, so if you require any reasonable adjustments during your application or interview process, please reach out to a member of the team at [email protected].

Our commitment is also backed by our partnership with Neurodiversity Consultancy, Lexxic who provide us with training, support and advice. 

Our goal is for Arbor to be a workplace which represents, celebrates and supports people from all backgrounds, and which gives them the tools they need to thrive - whatever their ambitions may be so we support and promote diversity and equality, and actively  encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. 

Know someone else who would be good for this role? You can refer a friend, family member or colleague, if they are offered a role with Arbor, we will say thank you with a voucher valued up to £200! Simply email: [email protected] 

Please note: We are unable to provide visa sponsorship at this time.