Cambridge Spark team photo, December 2023

Why Cambridge Spark?

Cambridge Spark is an education technology company that enables corporate and government organisations to achieve their business goals by educating their workforce with critical digital transformation skills to succeed in the AI era.

We deliver unique and innovative professional education that is accelerating the digital transformation of our clients, advancing the careers of their employees, helping people get into work and closing the digital skills gap. We are in a sector that is crucial to the economy and workforce, with a lot of opportunity for change and innovation.

At the cutting edge

We are at the cutting edge of teaching applied data and digital skills, with our unique patented learning platform EDUKATE.AI offering our clients and learners a unique learning experience.

EDUKATE.AI was developed with support from Innovate UK and provides all of our learners with 24/7 immediate feedback on their work, helping accelerate the learning process and providing a sandbox environment to experiment on real-world datasets. Visit our about page to learn more.

Supporting learners from Fortune 500 brands and major organisations across four continents

Since 2016, we have supported more than 13,400 learners across four continents with nearly 400,000 pieces of code submitted for feedback on EDUKATE.AI. In that time we have grown to a team of more than 120.

We are trusted by some of the most recognisable brands in the world to educate their workforce, including Microsoft, the NHS, GSK, easyJet, the BBC and John Lewis. Our focus on applied learning to create business impact sets us apart - individual learners have reported applying their skills at work to generate recorded value of up to £40m.

View our case studies to discover some of our learners' exciting achievements and business outcomes.

Employee development at our core

Each member of the Cambridge Spark team brings their own unique strengths to play a part in this work and is proud to grow with us as we venture on this journey together. As an education business, development is core to our culture, and we actively support employees to upskill with us through our Python Academy and support on role-specific training.

We are a fast-growing business, with headcount doubling year on year, which means there is plenty of room for career progression. We actively seek to help existing employees develop in their roles and play to their strengths.

We are a remote-first company and hire across the UK - we believe that online learning provides our clients with maximum flexibility, and remote working provides that same flexibility for our team. We currently have team members across every home nation and as far afield as the Shetland Islands! For those that prefer the office, we do have a modern office at Kings Cross in London which also hosts our regular team events and socials.

“The skills I have learned during the course have now equipped me to progress on the leading key projects in data and analytics within my role in Environmental Sustainability. The course has been invaluable in deepening my understanding of good data management, controls and practices, allowing me to support effective data strategy deployment on the job”

Krithika Anil, Research Fellow, Portsmouth University

"I didn't even know how to open Python before, so for me to have come from that and wrote a script where I can reduce a day's work to under one second is a massive accomplishment to me."

Sammy Bayliss, HR Operations Manager, TeachFirst

"The skills I have learnt during the course have now equipped me to progress on to leading key projects in data and analytics within my role in Environmental Sustainability. The course has been invaluable in deepening my understanding of good data management, controls and practices, allowing me to support effective data strategy deployment on the job."

Boglarka Oxley, Sustainability Data Reporting, GSK

"I am truly honoured by the award at this years' UK IT Industry awards ceremony and a separate one awarded by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT earlier this year. Both were delivered in recognition for the value that the data science projects I pioneered added to the FCA and the UK financial ecosystem. The projects were part of the Level 7 apprenticeship in AI."

Kevin Cassar, FCA

Entrepreneurial spirit

Everyone is encouraged to take initiative and show entrepreneurial spirit which fuels innovation at Cambridge Spark. This includes identifying opportunities for improvement, taking ownership.

Team spirit

Everyone is part of building an open and transparent culture, communicating effectively to raise issues, discuss improvements and share the evidence used to make decisions.

Customer focus

Our customers are at the centre of everything we do, inspiring us to create great work. We strive to build friendly, professional and lasting relationships with them to better understand and anticipate their needs.

Gold standard

We are experts in our field and are constantly developing our technology and offering. We set the benchmark in our industry: both in what we offer customers and in how we deliver it.

We are a remote-first company, providing the software and kit to enable flexibility to work anywhere in the UK, including from home, a cafe, shared workspace or the option of our office in Central London.

We offer you one of the best private healthcare packages in the UK through Vitality, this includes a cash plan to support expenses for optical, dental, physiotherapy and multiple healthcare-related discounts.

Flexible holiday entitlement

We understand the importance of rest, relaxation, and personal time. Therefore, all employees are entitled to 25 days of holiday per year, in addition to the flexibility to substitute standard up to 5 days of UK bank holidays with alternative days that better suit their personal or cultural celebrations. This flexibility ensures that our team members can make the most of their time off in a way that's most meaningful to them.

Celebrate your birthday

Birthdays are milestones worth celebrating. To make your special day even brighter, we offer a day off on your birthday, on us. This is in addition to your standard holiday allowance, ensuring you have the opportunity to celebrate with those who matter most.

Holiday buyback scheme

We recognise the importance of achieving a harmonious balance across different aspects of life. To support this, we offer our employees the option to buy back up to an additional 10 days of holiday per year. This initiative is part of our commitment to providing flexibility and promoting well-being within our team.

We believe in the power of giving back to the community and supporting causes that are close to our hearts. To empower our employees in making a positive impact, we are proud to offer 1 day off per year dedicated to volunteering.

This benefit encourages you to step away from your daily responsibilities and contribute your time and skills to a cause you are passionate about. Whether it's helping at a local charity, participating in community clean-up efforts, or supporting educational programmes, this day is for you to make a difference in the way that means the most to you.

Understanding the importance of physical and mental well-being, we offer a pre-tax wellness allowance of up to £30 per month. This allowance gives you the flexibility to choose the best way to maintain your health and wellness.

Whether you're interested in a gym membership, fitness or yoga classes, or prefer to use wellness apps such as Calm, Headspace, or Fitbit, this allowance supports your active lifestyle and mental well-being. We encourage you to invest in what truly helps you stay active, balanced, and healthy.

All of our employees and immediate family have full access to our confidential employee assistance programme providing support 24/7.

We know the importance of supporting our employees through life's significant moments. That's why we're proud to offer enhanced maternity and paternity leave policies, designed to give you the time and financial support you need to welcome a new member into your family.

Enhanced maternity policy

Eligible employees can avail of 16 weeks of maternity leave at full pay, ensuring you have ample time to care for and bond with your newborn, without the stress of financial strain.

Enhanced paternity policy

We also offer 2 weeks of paternity leave at full pay, recognising the vital role that both parents play in the early stages of their child's life. This policy supports fathers and partners in spending precious time with their newborns and supporting the birthing parent.

Eligibility

To be eligible for these enhanced benefits, employees must have been with Cambridge Spark for at least 26 weeks by the qualifying week, which is 15 weeks before the expected week of childbirth. This policy is part of our commitment to fostering a supportive and family-friendly workplace.

As part of our dedication to fostering a culture of continuous learning, new employees are welcomed into the Cambridge Spark Python Academy. This unique opportunity allows you to upskill alongside our learners, ensuring you're always at the forefront of industry advancements.

To further support your learning journey, we are pleased to offer a CPD allowance of £250 per year. This allowance can contribute towards a range of professional development resources, including books, training courses, and conferences. Alongside your personal allowance are quarterly reflections with your line manager to ring fence time for your development and growth.

Our aim is to empower you to learn, grow, and excel in your role, contributing to your personal development and the success of our collective mission.

We offer a pension plan and will match employee contributions of up to 5%

We host annual summer and Christmas company events that bring everyone together.

We arrange team socials including everything from Cambridge College formals, pub nights to team building events.

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Our interview process

At Cambridge Spark, the interview process is a collaborative process between the hiring and Talent teams. This is an opportunity for us to ensure your skills match the requirements of the role you applied for and that you are the right culture add, as well as a great opportunity for you to decide if we are the right choice for you.

Our values as well as our ways of working are reflected in our hiring process - it is fully virtual, with a sprinkle of tech. You will be able to complete the initial screening stage in your own time, by recording your answers to our questions, without having to adapt your time to the availability of the interviewer. Further stages of the process are also fully virtual and you will get to meet some of our amazing team. These stages involve competency interview, sometimes followed by a role-specific task and a final interview, that evolves around values of gold standard, customer focus, team spirit and entrepreneurial spirit.

For management and leadership roles, there may be an additional stage to discuss your management and strategic ideas.

The process has been designed so you would get a true sense of what is it like to work here. You will get to meet your future manager, some of your future colleagues and you will also get a sense of our passion to implement technology, data and AI in our day to day to make everyone’s lives easier.

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What we're looking for

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to what we look for in new employees, as we encourage applications from all backgrounds and groups. We do live by our values and we look for candidates that share our values, mission and purpose.

Cambridge Spark is the perfect place for you if:

🎯You are mission-driven and care about digital transformation with data apprenticeships and courses that positively impact on employers and learners.

😀 You are an open, transparent and effective communicator and team player, able to work collaboratively with the Cambridge Spark team and build friendly lasting and professional relationships with our clients and learners.

🚀 You feel at home in a fast-growing, education tech scale-up where we don’t always have all the answers but strive to find them and share our ideas.

💥 You take initiative and show entrepreneurial spirit, identifying opportunities for improvement, taking ownership for implementing solutions effectively and demonstrate their feasibility.

⭐ You believe in continuous learning and personal growth, love to learn new things, and aren’t afraid to learn from success and mistakes.