The Role:
The Head of Engineering is accountable for leading and directing the Engineering function to deliver high‑quality, scalable and secure internal platforms, products and technology capabilities that meet business needs.
The role closely with Architecture & Design and Change teams translating enterprise architecture and change priorities into robust engineering outcomes, owning engineering standards, delivery controls and performance across the full lifecycle. The Head of Engineering ensures consistent, compliant and efficient delivery across internal teams and third‑party suppliers, while embedding a culture of continuous improvement, automation and accountability.
Responsibilities will include:
Leadership & Governance
- Provide strategic leadership to the Engineering function, ensuring structure, capability and ways of working are aligned to business and Technology strategy.
- Establish and embed engineering standards, design principles and delivery controls across all squads and suppliers.
- Ensure engineering delivery complies with internal governance, policy, security and regulatory/audit expectations.
- Set clear accountability, performance expectations and career progression frameworks across the function.
- Foster a culture of transparency, ownership, continuous improvement and delivery excellence.
- Monitor, report and act on engineering performance, delivery health and risk.
Engineering Delivery
- Own end‑to‑end engineering delivery across design, build, test and release.
- Maintain a transparent view of demand, delivery roadmap, capacity and dependencies.
- Ensure engineering outcomes align to the wider Technology & Data strategy and architectural direction.
- Work closely with Architecture & Design, Change, Operations and business stakeholders to translate requirements into high‑quality solutions.
- Allocate engineering resources in line with business priorities, resolving contention and delivery risks.
- Oversee technical delivery quality, ensuring solutions are scalable, resilient and fit for purpose.
- Promote modern engineering practices, automation and reuse to improve delivery speed and reliability.
- Ensure critical platforms and products achieve agreed availability and performance targets.
Stakeholder & Supplier Management
- Act as a senior technology partner to the business, clearly communicating progress, risks and trade‑offs.
- Manage and govern third‑party engineering partners to ensure consistent standards, value for money and delivery outcomes.
- Collaborate across Technology leadership to ensure joined‑up planning, prioritisation and execution.
Skills and Experience
- Significant experience leading large‑scale engineering or technology delivery functions in complex, multi‑stakeholder environments.
- Strong knowledge of the full Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and modern delivery methodologies.
- Proven experience embedding engineering standards, controls and governance at scale.
- Excellent people leadership skills, with experience building high‑performing teams and developing talent.
- Strong stakeholder management and the ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to non‑technical audiences.
- Experience managing delivery in hybrid or outsourced environments.
- Demonstrable track record of driving continuous improvement and delivery optimisation.
- Experience within regulated industries (e.g. insurance or financial services).
- Knowledge of data platforms, data engineering or analytics delivery environments.
- Experience working closely with enterprise architecture and change portfolios.
