Build slow. Support for ten years. Publish the number.
Ardent is 23 people in a depot and office in central Manchester, and a few crew vans on the road. We’re hiring engineers, an operations lead, and a junior brand designer.
What this company is, and is not.
We make hardware. Real, heavy, IP66-rated hardware that sits in the rain on a B-road in Cumbria. We also write the firmware, build the dashboards, and answer the support calls when a contractor’s unit won’t commission at 06:00.
It’s a slow company by SaaS standards. We ship a major firmware release twice a year. We tell customers when something is wrong before they ask. We are not trying to grow at any cost.
If that sounds boring, it probably is. If it sounds like the only kind of company that should be trusted with infrastructure on a public road, you might want to talk to us.
We’re an EOT-owned company, registered in the UK, with a single office and depot in central Manchester. We don’t have a Bay Area entity and we’re not raising. We sell to councils, contractors, and TfL.
OPEN ROLES · 5UPDATED 24 APR 2026
02 · How hiring works here
Email + work
Send what we ask for. We read everything. No coverletters required.
30-min call
Either a yes or a clear no. We don’t ghost.
Paid work sample
Eight hours of paid work, scoped tightly. We pay £600.
On-site half-day
Meet the team, walk the depot. We give you a decision in 48 hours.
03 · Working here, in plain numbers
EOT-owned
Profit share to all employees, no equity gymnastics. Distributions paid in March.
30 days holiday + bank
Plus a closed week between Christmas and New Year. We mean it — the depot shuts.
£3k/yr development
Books, courses, conferences, kit. Spent on what you choose, not what we approve.
Hybrid, not remote
2–3 days in office per week depending on role. Field roles are on-site by nature.
Pension at 8% from us
Workplace pension, employer contribution above statutory minimum.
Plain compensation
Pay bands published. No negotiation theatre. Annual review against the public band.