VP of Engineering – Platform & Architecture (London Area)

VP of Engineering – Platform & Architecture

Location: London (Hybrid)

Industry: Global FinTech | SaaS

Type: Permanent

Salary: £170k – £190k base + Equity

Exclusively retained by DATAHEAD

Shape the Future of FinTech Infrastructure. Lead the Platform That Powers Global Decision-Making.

A high-growth, globally respected fintech is entering a pivotal new chapter. Having achieved significant enterprise traction with its patented platform across leading financial institutions, it is now transforming its delivery model to multi-tenant SaaS and expanding into new, highly regulated sectors.

As part of this evolution, the company has created a newly established Vice President of Engineering – Platform & Architecture role. This is a strategic and technically accomplished leadership position, responsible for defining, building, and scaling the core platform underpinning mission-critical decisions across the financial ecosystem.

This is a rare opportunity to join a well-funded, IP-rich company with ambitious product, platform, and market goals – and to help shape the future of financial infrastructure from the ground up.

About the Role

Reporting directly to the CTO and working alongside the Product & Experience team, this role owns all things platform, architecture, and cloud infrastructure. It’s not just about managing engineers – it’s about influencing product direction, guiding enterprise architecture, shaping the company’s SaaS maturity, and being the technical face to some of the world’s most demanding financial institutions.

You’ll lead a globally distributed engineering team while defining the architectural vision that enables innovation, scale, and compliance across a fast-evolving product roadmap.

What You’ll Own

• Lead a team of 20 engineers focused on backend systems, DevOps, and cloud platform engineering
• Architect scalable, robust, and production-ready SaaS infrastructure in a highly regulated space
• Own the evolution of cloud strategy (AWS), DevOps maturity, containerisation, and SDLC automation
• Guide solution design in client-specific technical engagements, POCs, and product prototyping
• Collaborate with Product, Finance, and GTM teams to align engineering with business strategy
• Implement metrics-driven engineering delivery, developer experience (DevX), and performance
• Drive architectural reviews and future-state roadmaps to support scale and security
• Coach and mentor engineers – from rising developers to senior contributors
• Champion engineering excellence, process efficiency, and innovation at the core

You’ll Need

• Solid background in software engineering, including number of years in senior leadership
• Proven success leading engineering orgs building enterprise SaaS platforms
• Experience owning cloud infrastructure (ideally AWS), DevOps, CI/CD, and observability tooling
• Strong architectural skills across platform engineering, backend systems, and API design
• Deep familiarity with agile delivery, testing frameworks, SDLC best practices
• Hands-on knowledge of containers, Docker/Kubernetes, and cloud-native services
• Bonus: Experience with functional programming (e.g., Clojure), fintech or regulatory domains
• Excellent stakeholder communication and the gravitas to lead client-facing conversations
• A strategic mindset with a “builder” attitude — able to assess, plan, execute, and lead change

What You’ll Get

• Competitive compensation + meaningful equity in a scaling fintech
• Work closely with a world-class leadership team on globally impactful tech
• Hybrid flexibility with high-impact moments of in-person collaboration
• Comprehensive health benefits and wellness support
• A chance to reshape how financial institutions make decisions at scale

This Search Is Exclusively Managed by DATAHEAD

DATAHEAD is a specialist search firm at the intersection of data, engineering, and innovation. We’ve been exclusively retained to lead this critical hire and will be managing the entire process confidentially on behalf of our client.

If you’re a technical leader ready to define and deliver future-proof infrastructure at the core of regulatory decision-making – we want to hear from you.