Director of Engineering in Belfast

A LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT US! Foods Connected is an award-winning cloud-based software platform that helps retailers and food companies across the world manage their supply chain, quality control and trading and planning management. Our software solutions are currently utilised by 10 of the largest food retailers in the world. As a team, we provide tools that help our customers manage their processes in a fast and efficient way and provide real-time visibility and reporting on what is happening in their business.

At Foods Connected, we recognise that our employees are our most important asset and we value creating a great working environment to ensure our team enjoy coming into the office every day working together and solving problems for our customers. Whether we are in the middle of a fast and intense development sprint, on a Teams call discussing our project statuses or enjoying a game of ping-pong or pool in the office, it is important to us that our employees are happy and delivering the best possible result for our customers. We’re always keen to welcome talented individuals to join our expanding team. So if you’re driven, with a passion for developing simple software solutions, creating great user experiences, designing scalable solutions for real business challenges and ensuring customer happiness then we’re looking for you!

Foods Connected has built a mature, functionality-rich platform over the last 10 years, used by some of the largest food retail and food manufacturing companies in the world. We are a PE-backed company operating across the UK, Australia, and North America, and engineering sits at the centre of our growth strategy. Our engineering organisation is evolving. We are moving toward smaller, more autonomous engineering teams with greater ownership of outcomes, supported by AI-augmented development practices and modern tooling. This transition is underway but not complete, and the Director of Engineering will play a central role in making it real.

The Director of Engineering is a senior leadership role that sits between the CTO and the engineering teams. The CTO remains accountable for overall technology vision and alignment with product and commercial strategy. The Director of Engineering is accountable for translating that vision into consistent execution, scalable systems, and high-performing teams. You will partner closely with the CTO on technical strategy and organisational direction, and work downward through senior Technical Leads and the Engineering Manager to ensure teams are delivering with quality, pace, and genuine ownership. You will have organisational oversight of an engineering department of 50+ people spanning Graduate to Principal level.

This role owns the operational rhythm of engineering, technical standards and consistency, and the day-to-day engineering leadership that enables the CTO to focus on innovation, product direction, and commercial strategy. You will have decision-making authority over engineering practices, team structure, and technical standards, and will be expected to make calls and own the outcomes. As a member of the Engineering Division Leadership Team, you will collaborate with the Director of Data and the Director of Infrastructure and Security to ensure cohesive execution across the technology organisation.

This is a PE-backed environment where engineering decisions carry commercial weight. The platform carries technical debt alongside production systems that enterprise customers depend on daily. There is an ongoing modernisation effort, legacy components that require pragmatic decisions, and teams adapting to a new operating model with greater autonomy and AI-augmented practices. You will need to balance architecture evolution with feature delivery, bring people through change, and represent engineering reality clearly when timelines, cost, and risk come under pressure.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Strategic Leadership and Engineering Evolution (35%)
  • Partner with the CTO to define and execute long-term engineering strategy aligned with company objectives and the product roadmap.
  • Act as a core member of the Engineering Division Leadership Team alongside the Director of Data and Director of Infrastructure and Security.
  • Drive the evolution of engineering practices, including the effective adoption of AI-augmented development to improve quality, throughput, and developer experience.
  • Shape how engineering teams are structured and operate, moving toward greater autonomy and ownership while maintaining alignment and shared standards.
  • Build strong working relationships with Product, Customer Success, and other cross-functional leaders.
  • Own engineering talent strategy including recruitment, retention, succession planning, and career development.
  • Represent engineering in executive forums and board-level discussions, providing clear and honest visibility into progress, risks, and trade-offs.
  • Communicate engineering strategy, priorities, and constraints clearly across senior leadership and delivery teams.
• Technical Direction and Architecture (30%)
  • Own the execution of the technical direction for the platform, ensuring architectural decisions support scalability, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
  • Work with the CTO to ensure technical direction remains aligned with product and commercial strategy.
  • Drive pragmatic decisions on modernisation, refactoring, and legacy investment, balancing risk, cost, and customer impact.
  • Own and enforce technical standards across teams, ensuring consistency without unnecessary centralisation.
  • Work closely with senior Technical Leads to ensure high-quality, consistent architectural and design decisions.
  • Lead or sponsor critical technical design reviews and guide teams through complex engineering challenges.
  • Define expectations for AI-augmented development, including tooling standards, acceptable use, and how quality and productivity gains are measured.
  • Stay current with relevant emerging technologies and evaluate their practical application to Foods Connected’s platforms.
  • Be technically credible by engaging meaningfully in architectural discussions and challenging proposals where needed, without being a day-to-day code contributor.
• Enabling Delivery and Operational Excellence (35%)
  • Work through the Engineering Manager and senior Technical Leads to ensure teams have the clarity, support, and tooling required to deliver effectively.
  • Own the operational rhythm of engineering, including planning cadence, delivery coordination, and cross-team alignment.
  • Set clear expectations for delivery quality and pace while supporting teams as they build greater autonomy.
  • Drive process improvements that reduce friction and overhead rather than adding bureaucracy.
  • Balance concurrent priorities across feature delivery, platform evolution, and technical debt reduction.
  • Act as the senior escalation point for delivery, quality, and technical risk issues.
  • Coordinate closely with the Director of Data and Director of Infrastructure and Security to ensure integrated execution across the Engineering Division.
  • Manage stakeholder and customer expectations regarding technical capabilities, timelines, and trade-offs.

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS:

To perform this job successfully, the Director of Engineering should have experience with:

Minimum Qualifications

• Significant experience in a senior engineering leadership role with responsibility for large, complex teams.
• Proven track record evolving mature platforms in production environments with real users and real technical debt.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through technical influence rather than positional authority.
• Experience operating in a PE-backed, investor-backed, or high-growth environment.
• Experience working alongside a technically involved CTO is beneficial.

Technical Skills

• Deep understanding of modern software development practices and delivery models.
• Strong background in C#, .NET, JavaScript, React, SQL Server, Azure, and Kubernetes.
• Experience with cloud platforms, distributed systems, and modern DevOps practices.
• Working knowledge of AI-augmented development tools and practices, with a pragmatic approach to adoption.
• Ability to evaluate new technologies strategically rather than chasing trends.

BENEFITS:

• Competitive Base Salary
• Generous Holiday Package - 25 Days + 10 Public Holidays
• Private Medical, Dental & Vision
• Employee Wellness Program and Classes
• Flexible model of hybrid working