Job Description

Head of Engineering

This is not a “keep the lights on” Head of Engineering role.

This is a build-the-engine-while-we-scale-it role.

An established, nationally significant organisation is investing heavily in its digital customer experience and they need someone who can define how engineering operates, not just manage what already exists.

The strategy is forming.
The ambition is clear.
Now the question is: who shapes the engineering reality behind it?

The Role

You will lead a multi-disciplinary engineering function (circa 30 engineers, including leaders) responsible for customer-facing digital platforms.

Your mandate is not just delivery.

It is to:

• Define and evolve the engineering strategy

• Modernise and rationalise elements of the tech stack where required

• Establish engineering standards, governance and architectural guardrails

• Lift capability across teams and leaders

• Balance speed, security and reliability

• Partner deeply with Product, Architecture and executive stakeholders
  Turn digital ambition into scalable, sustainable systems
  
  

This role sits at the intersection of strategy and execution. You’ll need to zoom out to define direction and zoom in when things need momentum.

 

The Tech Environment

The environment includes modern cloud-based infrastructure, API-driven architectures, and customer-facing web and mobile platforms.

There is a mix of legacy considerations and modern engineering practices so experience operating in environments where modernisation is happening in parallel to live delivery will matter.

 

You don’t need to be the deepest hands-on technologist in the room but you do need strong architectural judgement and a clear point of view on:

• DevOps and CI/CD maturity

• Platform and system design at scale

• Secure-by-design principles

• Observability and reliability engineering

• Build vs buy decision-making
  
  

Industry Alignment That Helps

You will likely have operated in environments where:

• Regulatory, compliance or risk considerations are real (not theoretical)

• Data sensitivity and security are non-negotiable

• Systems must be reliable and available at scale

• Multiple stakeholders influence technology decisions
  
  

This could include financial services, healthcare, insurance, critical infrastructure, government, or other complex enterprise environments. What matters more than the label is your ability to balance innovation with accountability.

 

The Context

The organisation is at a genuine inflection point.

Digital expectations are rising.
Competitive pressure is real.
The business is investing accordingly.

The engineering group is passionate and capable but earlier in its maturity journey than its potential suggests.This role is about building clarity, confidence and capability.

 

What This Role Really Requires

You have:

• Have led leaders before (not just engineers)

• Have shaped engineering strategy in complex, multi-stakeholder environments

• Understand governance without hiding behind it

• Can make hard technology trade-offs without needing perfect information

• Know how to build culture without slogans

• Care about outcomes more than architecture diagrams
  
  

Why This Role Is Interesting

• High autonomy

• Executive visibility

• Genuine influence on multi-year digital direction
  A real opportunity to shape capability at scale

This is a career-defining role for the right person.