Software Engineer III
Pearson · London
Role: Software Engineer III (Oracle APEX)
Division: Assessment & Qualifications Delivery
Location: Rotherham, Manchester or London - Hybrid
This role aligns with positions typically advertised in the external market as Oracle APEX Developer, Oracle Developer or Oracle PL/SQL Developer.
About Pearson: At Pearson we ‘add life to a lifetime of learning’ so everyone can realise the life they imagine. We do this by creating vibrant and enriching learning experiences designed for real-life impact. Our Purpose | Add Life to a Lifetime of Learning. Pearson was founded in 1844 and has been built on our ability to grow with and adapt to a constantly evolving market. Our 20,000+ employees are dedicated to creating high-quality, digital-first, accessible and sustainable resources for lifelong learning.
About the Job
We are looking for an Oracle Engineer to join the team delivering our TOpS programme. You will design, build and support Oracle database solutions and Oracle APEX applications, and own the data pipelines that ingest, transform and validate data from multiple internal and external sources. Data quality sits at the heart of this role: the information you manage underpins operational decisions and reporting, so accuracy, traceability and reliability matter.
The role involves working closely with business SMEs, product owners, architects, QA engineers, and fellow developers, so excellent communication and analysis skills are essential. You will also be expected to explain technical designs and decisions clearly to non-technical colleagues.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, develop and maintain Oracle APEX applications, from data model through to user interface, security and deployment.
- Write and optimise high-quality SQL and PL/SQL, including packages, procedures, functions and triggers that support business applications.
- Build, schedule and monitor data pipelines (ETL/ELT) that load, transform and reconcile data between Oracle and other systems.
- Implement data validation rules, reconciliation checks and exception handling so that data issues are caught early and resolved at source.
- Tune the performance of queries, pipelines and APEX pages, using execution plans, indexing and partitioning strategies.
- Contribute to code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD and technical documentation.
- Support live services by investigating and resolving incidents and data defects.
About You
This role would suit someone with a solid background in Oracle development who has built and supported Oracle APEX applications in a commercial setting, and who has worked on data transformation or integration projects. You will be curious about data and its value, take pride in getting it right, and enjoy working on fast-moving, business-critical projects where you can contribute to design decisions.
Key Skills & Experience
Oracle Database, SQL and PL/SQL
- Strong hands-on experience with Oracle Database (19c or later).
- Expert SQL and PL/SQL, including packages, bulk processing (BULK COLLECT/FORALL), dynamic SQL, collections and robust exception handling.
- Relational data modelling and normalisation, with an understanding of dimensional/data warehouse design.
- Performance tuning using execution plans, indexing, partitioning, and Oracle diagnostic tools.
Oracle APEX
- Commercial experience designing, building and supporting Oracle APEX applications on recent releases.
- Confident use of interactive reports and grids, forms, faceted search, dynamic actions, processes, validations and shared components.
- Implementing authentication and authorisation schemes, role-based access and APEX security good practice (e.g. session state protection, preventing SQL injection and XSS).
- Building and consuming REST services using Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS) and APEX REST Data Sources.
- JavaScript, HTML and CSS for customising the APEX user interface; experience with APEX plug-ins is an advantage.
- Managing the APEX application lifecycle: exports, supporting objects, promotion between environments and source control.
Data Pipelines and Transformation
- Designing and building ETL/ELT pipelines, including staging, transformation, incremental loading and Change Data Capture (CDC) concepts.
- Scheduling and orchestration with DBMS_SCHEDULER, and loading data using external tables, SQL*Loader, Data Pump or DBMS_CLOUD.
- Integrating data from files (CSV, JSON, XML) and APIs from multiple internal and external sources.
- Implementing pipeline monitoring, logging, and alerting to identify and address issues proactively.
Data Quality
- Designing and implementing data validation rules, constraints and reconciliation checks between source and target.
- Data profiling, cleansing and de-duplication, with clear handling and reporting of rejected or exception records (e.g. DML error logging).
- Understanding of data lineage, auditability and data protection obligations (UK GDPR) when handling personal or sensitive data.
Engineering Practice
- Version control for database and APEX code using Git (Bitbucket).
- CI/CD for database change, using tools such as SQLcl, Liquibase or similar.
- Automated testing design and set-up, including PL/SQL unit testing (e.g. utPLSQL).
- Jira, Kanban boards and agile delivery methods.
- Excellent organisational, communication and planning skills; proactive and self-motivated.
Desirable Skills & Experience
- Oracle integration and data quality tools such as Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), OCI Data Integration or Oracle Enterprise Data Quality.
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) or Autonomous Database, and/or Oracle on AWS (e.g. Amazon RDS for Oracle, AWS DMS, S3).
- Awareness of recent APEX capabilities, such as APEXlang file-based development, SQL Developer for VS Code and AI-assisted features.
- Relevant Oracle certification (e.g. Oracle APEX Cloud Developer Professional or Oracle Database SQL Certified Associate).
- Python or shell scripting for automation.
- Reporting and analytics tools such as Power BI or Oracle Analytics.
- Experience in education, assessment or another regulated, high-stakes delivery environment.
- Jira and Confluence, Microsoft Teams and other Microsoft Office applications.
Job Location and Hours
The role is aligned to our Manchester, Rotherham, or London offices. Our Rotherham office is located at Junction 1 of the M18. All our roles are hybrid working; our current policy requires our team to visit their base office no more than once a week, and with the possibility of occasional business travel to other Pearson sites. Candidates must be a suitable commute from their base office as our office presence policy may change to require more frequent presence in the future.
We work a 37.5-hour week, with all our team free to flex their day around our core hours, which are Monday to Friday, 10 to 4 GMT/BST. School runs, etc. can be accommodated. Other flexible working patterns can be considered, including part-time working and non-traditional hours.
Your benefits and rewards
Here at Pearson we offer a range of benefits, which include:
- 25 days annual leave (increasing by 1 day with every year of continuous service up to 30 days)
- Private pension plan scheme where we pay in double what you contribute, up to 16% depending on your age
- Life, private medical and dental care insurance options, plus free eye tests
- Stock/share purchase options
- Maternity, paternity, and family care leave as well as flexible working policies
- An employee wellbeing assistance programme
- Cycle to work programme, volunteering days, gym membership concessions in selected office locations, along with retail and leisure discounts