At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead innovative software architecture and engineering teams to deliver cutting-edge AI solutions.
- Company: Equinix, a leader in digital infrastructure, values bold ideas and human connection.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, inclusive culture, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Join a persistent team focused on evolving product capabilities and driving innovation.
- Why this job: Shape the future of AI-first engineering and make a real impact in a dynamic environment.
- Qualifications: 12+ years in software engineering with leadership experience and strong architectural judgment.
The predicted salary is between 100000 - 130000 £ per year.
Who are we? Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company®, shortening the path to connectivity to enable the innovations that enrich our work, life and planet. A place where bold ideas are welcomed, human connection is valued, and everyone has the opportunity to shape their future. Help us challenge assumptions, uncover bias, and remove barriers—because progress starts with fresh ideas. You’ll find belonging, purpose, and a team that welcomes you—because when you feel valued, you’re empowered to do your best work.
Job Summary: Equinix Incubation builds the systems that support the software delivery lifecycle end to end, with humans directing the work and owning every critical gate. This role owns the product, the roadmap, and the engineering team behind that capability. You will lead the engineering pods building the orchestration layer, persona consoles, agent capabilities, dashboards, and enterprise integrations, carrying the roadmap from first MVP through live adoption and organization-wide scale. This is a player-coach leadership role for someone who can connect product vision, architectural direction, executive alignment, and team-building into one coherent delivery strategy.
Responsibilities
- Own the Product and the Roadmap: Define and drive the delivery-engine roadmap across orchestrator, agent fleet, consoles, dashboards, and enterprise integrations, sequenced for measurable value.
- Make the build-measure-learn loop real: ship in sprints, pilot with live delivery teams, and let adoption and telemetry reshape the plan.
- Own trade-off decisions across scope, quality, cost, and speed, and defend them with data in front of senior leadership.
- Build and Lead the Pods: Hire, grow, and retain a small, exceptional team of agent engineers, platform engineers, and delivery talent across the UK and India.
- Run lean pods where agents do the routine work and people do the judgment work; model that way of working yourself.
- Set a high and supportive performance bar through clear expectations, direct feedback, strong coaching, and meaningful career growth.
- Prove the Value: Own the value story: cycle time, throughput, quality, adoption, and realized business value, instrumented and reported clearly.
- Keep the economics honest: agent cost, platform cost, and capacity unlocked, treated as first-class engineering metrics.
- Turn pilot wins into an expansion case that finance and function leaders believe.
- Set the Operating Standard: Establish how agent-first engineering is done: evals as release gates, human-in-the-loop approvals, and responsible AI governance in partnership with InfoSec, architecture, and enterprise AI governance teams.
- Represent the platform in architecture and governance forums, and keep the roadmap aligned with enterprise platform and data strategy.
- Share patterns, standards, and playbooks so other teams can adopt what your team proves.
What Success Looks Like
- The delivery engine is in daily use by live delivery teams, with measurable cycle-time and quality gains that stand up to finance scrutiny.
- You have built a team with a hiring record, retention, and performance bar that reflect the ambition of the mandate.
- Executives trust your roadmap because what you commit to ships, and what ships gets measured.
- The operating standards your team sets are being adopted beyond your immediate organization.
Qualifications
- Required: 12+ years in software engineering, including 5+ years leading engineering teams or engineering-led products.
- A record of shipping and scaling platforms or products in an enterprise, from first release through adoption.
- Hands-on fluency with modern AI: LLM-powered applications, agentic systems, and what it takes to make them production-grade.
- Strong architectural judgment across APIs, event-driven systems, cloud platforms, and enterprise integration.
- Proven hiring and talent development record, including building distributed teams.
- Executive-grade communication: you can carry a room of senior stakeholders with a clear, honest narrative.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience delivering AI or automation platforms into regulated or security-conscious enterprises.
- Experience with agent frameworks and protocols such as MCP or A2A, and with eval-driven quality practices.
- Experience running product operating models: roadmaps, funding cases, value realization.
- Background in developer platforms, SDLC tooling, or engineering productivity.
Core Competencies
- Product & Technical Leadership: Roadmap ownership; architectural judgment; trade-off decision-making; systems thinking.
- People Leadership: Hiring and talent development; lean pod design; coaching; distributed team leadership.
- AI-First Operating Model: Agent-first ways of working; evals and governance; human-in-the-loop design; value instrumentation.
- Executive Influence: Narrative and communication; stakeholder alignment; funding and value cases; calm under scrutiny.
Why This Role
Incubation is a durable capability, not a project team: the team persists, and the product focus evolves. Agentic delivery is the first product; future incubation opportunities will follow. In this role, you will define how AI-first engineering works at Equinix and build the team that proves it. Few Director roles offer this combination of product ownership, architectural influence, executive visibility, and team-building scope.
Equinix is committed to ensuring that our employment process is open to all individuals, including those with a disability. If you are a qualified candidate and need assistance or an accommodation, please let us know by completing this form. Equinix is an Equal Employment Opportunity and, in the U.S., an Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to unlawful consideration of race, color, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, place of birth, citizenship, sex, pregnancy / childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or domestic partnership status, age, veteran or military status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, political / organizational affiliation, status as a victim or family member of a victim of crime or abuse, or any other status protected by applicable law.
Director, Product Software Architecture and Eng in London employer: Equinix
Equinix is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work culture that fosters innovation and collaboration. With a strong commitment to employee growth, the company provides competitive benefits, including comprehensive health insurance, retirement plans, and opportunities for bonuses and equity. Located in a vibrant tech hub, Equinix empowers its employees to lead transformative marketing strategies that shape the future of digital infrastructure, making it a rewarding place for those seeking meaningful impact in their careers.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Director, Product Software Architecture and Eng in London
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Equinix or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Equinix.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Equinix.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Equinix that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Director, Product Software Architecture and Eng in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Equinix.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Equinix and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Equinix
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Equinix uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.