Acorn PLMS Software Developer (Full Stack) Recruitment 2026: Apply Online

Acorn PLMS is on a mission to transform the corporate learning experience. Our cutting-edge Performance Learning Management System (PLMS) software is powered by AI and designed to ensure that what people learn directly contributes to their exceptional performance in business. Corporate performance and learning needs a revolution, and Acorn PLMS is the antidote. We are the only solution that guides learners step by step to master the specific capabilities required for their roles, ultimately accelerating organisational performance.

We are seeking a talented Software Developer (Full Stack) to join our dynamic team. This is an in-office role, and we are open to individuals based in Sydney or Canberra, Australia.

Role Overview

You will join our full-stack team building the Acorn platform end-to-end. This includes working on APIs, data and services, as well as the interfaces that our learners, managers, and administrators use daily. You will take scoped features from requirements through to release with minimal supervision, working across whatever part of the stack the work calls for. While our pods currently have a backend focus, we are particularly interested in developers who gravitate towards the front end. There is meaningful interface work available, and experienced engineers are on hand to provide guidance.

The 5 Key Capabilities for This Role

At Acorn, we use our own software to align on capabilities and growth. The 5 key capabilities for this role, with the expected ‘Proficient’ level, are:

• Software design and implementation: Design, build, and evolve maintainable software to meet user and business needs, delivering reliable, secure, and high-performance outcomes. At the proficient stage, you turn scoped requirements into robust, standards-based software, write tested code, review peers’ code, document decisions, release increments, and use metrics to improve performance and reliability.
• Quality engineering and testing: Define, engineer, and validate software quality end to end to prevent defects and deliver reliable releases. At the proficient stage, you own quality end-to-end for your features, set acceptance criteria, automate tests, focus on highest-risk areas, and triage defects with QA.
• Task ownership and agile delivery: Own, plan, and iteratively deliver scoped work, aligning stakeholders and managing dependencies and risks. At the proficient stage, you own work from analysis to release, plan and estimate, deliver testable increments, clarify criteria, flag risks, and meet the Definition of Done.
• Collaboration and stakeholder communication: Align, communicate, and negotiate with stakeholders to clarify priorities, manage risks, and make effective trade-offs. At the proficient stage, you work with product, design, QA, and operations, clarify requirements, share status, raise risks with options, and negotiate in-scope trade-offs.
• Operational awareness and security: Anticipate and manage operational and security risks to deliver resilient, compliant services. At the proficient stage, you ship secure, instrumented code, follow change/release/incident processes, manage secrets, monitor and triage, and keep runbooks updated.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and maintain features across the full stack, from scoped requirements through to release, owning your work from analysis to production.
• Pick up the front-end share of your pod’s work with enthusiasm — turning designs into clean, reusable, well-tested components.
• Help lift the front-end quality bar in your pod, sharing what you’re building and applying interface standards consistently.
• Write and automate tests at the unit, integration, and end-to-end levels, setting clear acceptance criteria for features.
• Apply accessibility, responsiveness, and cross-browser standards consistently in interface work.
• Work day-to-day with Product, Design, QA, and operations to clarify requirements, share progress, and flag risks early.
• Review peers’ code and participate in team code reviews, documenting implementation decisions.
• Ship secure, instrumented code, follow change and incident processes, and help triage and fix defects.
• Use performance and reliability metrics to improve existing work.
• Contribute to improvements in team tooling and ways of working, and support Associate Developers.

Required Experience

• Commercial experience building and maintaining production web applications across the stack.
• Confident working knowledge of modern JavaScript/TypeScript, a component-based framework, and at least one server-side language, plus solid CSS, semantic HTML, and relational data fundamentals.
• Experience delivering scoped features independently, including clarifying requirements and estimating your own work.
• Comfort with automated testing, Git-based team workflows, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Ability to work directly with Product, Design, and QA, communicating progress and raising risks clearly and early.
• A strong interest in front-end development, including accessibility, interaction detail, and interface performance.
• Sound judgment about when to solve problems independently and when to seek guidance.
• An appetite to continuously learn and improve your craft.

AI Fluency

At Acorn, we use AI across everything we do. We are excited about what AI makes possible in software engineering and want someone who shares this enthusiasm. In this role, this means:

• Using AI coding assistants to accelerate scaffolding, refactoring, test generation, and understanding unfamiliar code.
• Leveraging AI to speed up debugging, code review preparation, and documentation updates.
• Using AI to rapidly turn designs and requirements into working prototypes for quicker testing.

We are not looking for theoretical knowledge; we want to see what you have actually built and the results you have achieved with AI.

Why Join Acorn PLMS?

• Your work will be visible and impactful, used by over 3 million learners globally.
• Gain breadth by working across the entire stack.
• Benefit from a deliberate path into front-end depth with experienced mentorship.
• We encourage experimentation with AI tools to enhance your work.
• Utilize our own product for clear development and growth paths.

We are an office-first company, fostering collaboration through daily interactions. Candidates must have full working rights in Australia; visa sponsorship is not provided.

At Acorn PLMS, we are on a mission to transform the corporate learning experience. Our cutting-edge Performance Learning Management System (PLMS) software is powered by AI and designed to ensure that what people learn directly contributes to their exceptional performance in business. Corporate performance and learning needs a revolution, and Acorn PLMS is the antidote. We are the only solution that guides learners step by step to master the specific capabilities required for their roles, ultimately accelerating organisational performance.