The Challenge: Creating Future-Ready EdTech Jobs & Careers
Like many fast-growing digital businesses, Twinkl faced the reality of a legacy PHP platform struggling to keep pace with their ambition. To stay ahead, they needed to transform, and quickly.
The goal?
Migrate from a PHP monolith to a modern cloud-native stack: TypeScript, Node.js, React, AWS.
Build two new product engineering squads from scratch.
Do it rapidly, using specialist local talent who could hit the ground running.
Twinkl needed a recruitment partner who understood the journey, not just CVs on a desk, but a talent strategy that could drive a transformation.
The Solution: Building EdTech Careers Through a True Partnership
Led by Rekiel and the rest of the engineering team, we integrated ourselves within Twinkl’s hiring strategy. Beyond just taking a job spec like other recruiters might do, we sat with Engineering Managers, explored Twinkl’s product roadmap, and mapped out exactly what the new teams needed and the types of personalities that would match Twinkl's culture.
Engineers with real-world experience modernising legacy systems.
Developers comfortable balancing old and new, PHP support AND greenfield Node.js builds. Local candidates that match up with Twinkl’s culture and mission in the EdTech space.
Engineers motivated to take ownership and mentor others as the brand scales.
The Results: Building Careers and Impact in EdTech
In record time, we helped Twinkl build two high-performing product engineering squads ready to lead the next chapter of their tech evolution.
Roles Delivered:
Junior → Principal Frontend Engineers (TypeScript | React | AWS)
Junior → Principal Backend Engineers (Node.js | TypeScript | Terraform | AWS)
Specialist DBA Engineers
✅ Rapid Scale-Up: Multiple hires made within weeks, not months. ✅ Zero Wasted Time: High CV-to-hire ratio, low interview drop-offs. ✅ Cultural Fit: Teams aligned with Twinkl’s mission and values.
Why It Worked:
MRJ’s Secret Sauce
✨ Deep EdTech & SaaS DNA We know what great looks like for modern, scalable product teams.
✨ Local Talent Network Access to the best UK engineers with modern JavaScript and cloud-native skills.
✨ Strategic Partnership We become an extension of your team - shaping, challenging, and delivering results.
📈 Want to Build Your Own Twinkl-Style Success Story?
Whether you’re modernising your stack, scaling product teams, or transforming legacy tech, our team can help you reach your hiring goal so you can focus on what matters.
👉 Contact Us Today Ready to build your future-ready engineering teams? Let’s talk.
👉 Explore Our Services [Our Process] | [Talent-as-a-Service] | [Executive Search]
MRJ Recruitment - Your Partner for Building High-Performing SaaS & EdTech Teams.
I've been lucky enough to work with Rekiel on a couple of occasions, most recently during efforts to grow the team at Twinkl. We were looking to hire several important roles as part of this initiative, we had particular requirements for each and we needed to fill the roles quickly.
Rekiel took the time to understand what we were trying to achieve, worked with us to refine the skillsets needed, helped us understand the current state of the market, and quickly started to build a pipeline of strong candidates. Rekiel understood our long term strategy, and was able to communicate this clearly to candidates - this really helped ensure that candidates were enthusiastic and a strong fit for the roles were were recruiting for. He also worked with us to communicate feedback, and iterate on the process where needed.
Overall, we were able to interview and fill multiple roles with great candidates - it's been great to work with Rekiel to achieve this and wouldn't hesitate to do so again
Nathan BremmerEngineering Manager
