SVP Engineering in London

The Senior Vice President (SVP) of Engineering is a pivotal executive role reporting into our Chief Technology & Product Officer. The role is responsible for leading the globally distributed engineering organisations through a dual transformation: evolving the business from an academic publisher to a Knowledge Marketplace while simultaneously pivoting the technology function toward AI‐First Software Engineering.

This role requires a leader who is a strategist and an expert in modern engineering and is aware of how to embed AI across the entire software lifecycle. You will be responsible for the technology strategy that powers our marketplace, balancing the need for robust distributed systems with the agility required to experiment and grow. You will partner closely with Product leadership to co‐create solutions that solve complex user problems.

The role will work to bridge geographies and time zones, championing Distributed Agile practices that allow our global teams to collaborate seamlessly. You will embed AI‐assisted development (e.g. Copilot code generation, automated refactoring) into the core of our SDLC, amplifying the productivity of our global teams and defining the future of our engineering workforce. You will champion Distributed Agile practices that bridge time zones and instil a culture of technical excellence rooted in Test‐Driven Development (TDD) and Continuous Delivery.

This role demands a visionary leader who can balance technical innovation with business priorities to achieve sustainable growth and competitive advantage. The Academic Publishing industry and T&F are on an exciting growth agenda; from a portfolio of separate products to an integrated platform with a focus on leveraging emerging technologies to ensure advanced substantiated knowledge is accessible and can have real‐world impact. This role ensures that the company achieves its long‐term goals and remains competitive in a dynamic business environment.

The successful candidate will be able to utilise our balanced working model. We ask that candidates live within a reasonable commuting distance of our office in either Milton Park Oxfordshire (OX14) or London Blackfriars to enable you to collaborate in person at least 3 days per week.

Key Responsibilities and Accountability

• Technology Strategy & Marketplace Architecture
  • Own the Tech Vision: Author and execute a comprehensive engineering strategy that transitions the business to a platform model. Define the architectural runway (e.g. Event‐Driven Architecture, Microservices) needed to support a high‐traffic multi‐sided marketplace.
  • Commercial understanding of the business vision, translating this into the Engineering landscape for delivery.
  • Scalability & Distributed Systems: Ensure systems are capable of complex data ingestion and high‐speed retrieval. Ensure the architecture supports rapid scaling of both content (supply) and users (demand).
  • Build vs. Buy: Responsible for technology decisions that balance speed‐to‐market with long‐term ownership and differentiation.
  • Build and maintain strong relationships with customers, partners and vendors to support business objectives and drive innovation.
  • Communicate technical concepts and engineering strategies effectively to non‐technical stakeholders, ensuring alignment and understanding.
• Modern Engineering Excellence
  • Embedding AI‐First Engineering: Fundamentally evolve the software creation process. Operationalise the use of AI coding assistants and increase developer effectiveness. Implement governance to ensure AI‐generated code meets security and quality standards.
  • Methodology Leadership: Move beyond standard Agile to true Continuous Delivery. Instill a rigorous commitment to modern software engineering practices.
  • DevOps & DORA Metrics: Oversee the maturity of the DevOps culture. Drive performance based on DORA metrics (Deployment Frequency, Lead Time for Changes, Time to Restore, Change Failure Rate) to ensure high‐velocity, high‐quality shipping.
  • Legacy Modernisation: Lead the strategic strangulation of legacy applications, migrating them to modern cloud‐native architectures without disrupting ongoing business needs.
• Product Engineering Partnership
  • Product‐Minded Engineering: Act as a strategic partner to the VP of Product. Understand the why behind the roadmap and ensure engineering contributes to product discovery, not just delivery.
  • Commercial & Customer Focus: Bridge the gap between technical code and commercial outcomes. Ensure engineering teams understand how their technical decisions impact marketplace liquidity, conversion rates and customer satisfaction.
  • Feedback Loops: Shorten the feedback loop between code commit and customer impact, enabling the business to test hypotheses and pivot quickly.
• Team Development & Culture
  • One Team Culture: Build a cohesive, high‐performing engineering organisation that eliminates onshore vs. offshore silos. Foster a culture where ownership and decision‐making are distributed.
  • Upskilling for the AI Era: Lead the cultural shift required for AI adoption. Own upskilling programmes to enable engineers to adopt AI effectively across the SDLC, ensuring the team remains competitive in a rapidly changing landscape.
  • Talent Magnet: Build and lead a world‐class engineering organisation. Attract top‐tier talent with expertise in modern stacks, distributed systems and AI engineering.
  • Culture of Mastery: Cultivate an environment of continuous learning (e.g. hackathons, internal tech talks). Mentor Engineering leadership to become both technical leaders and people managers.
• Stakeholder Collaboration
  • Act as a key liaison between engineering teams and other departments, ensuring alignment and collaboration across the organisation.
  • Represent the engineering function in executive meetings, board discussions and external engagements, providing insights and recommendations.
  • Build and maintain strong relationships with customers, partners and vendors to support business objectives and drive innovation.
  • Communicate technical concepts and engineering strategies effectively to non‐technical stakeholders, ensuring alignment and understanding.
• Creativity and Technology Leadership
  • Champion the adoption of emerging technologies, tools and methodologies to drive innovation and maintain a competitive edge. Ensuring the company stays at the cutting edge of modern technology in line with customer aspirations of how they want to consume content.
  • Foster a culture of experimentation and continuous learning within the engineering organisation.
  • Identify emerging industry trends, technologies and market opportunities to inform strategic decision‐making and maintain competitive advantage.

Qualifications Experience & Knowledge

• Modern Engineering Practitioner: Proven deep hands‐on background in software engineering with a philosophy rooted in TDD, CI/CD and Agile XP principles. Understanding of good software and solutions. Crucially you have practical experience of AI tools and understand the impact this has on productivity and code quality.
• Distributed Systems: Proven experience architecting and managing complex distributed systems and cloud‐native architectures (AWS / Azure / GCP). You understand the complexities of building a multi‐sided global marketplace.
• Marketplace / Platform Context: Experience building platforms that support B2B or B2C marketplaces or complex content ecosystems is highly desirable.
• Global Leadership: Experience leading large‐scale globally distributed engineering teams. You have a playbook for managing distributed agile at scale, handling cultural nuances and synchronising delivery across time zones.
• Strategic Transformation: Demonstrated history of leading engineering teams through transformations from legacy methods to modern automated and AI‐enhanced workflows.
• Product Fluency: You speak Product. You have experience working in a Triad model (Engineering, Product, Delivery) and understand how to balance technical debt reduction with feature delivery.
• Holistic business knowledge with an understanding of the operational complexities of large multinational organisations, particularly of a matrix organisational structure.
• Mature and proactive attitude with excellent judgement and problem‐solving skills.
• A flexible and agile mentality able to quickly adapt and respond to changing work pressures and priorities.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills with the ability to present and drive change with stakeholders at all levels of the business.
• A curious outlook, known for asking the right questions of the right stakeholders.
• Highly collaborative, emotionally intelligent and someone people are excited to work with; also having strong personal influencing skills.
• Extremely well‐organised and comfortable managing a significant and varied workload across global time zones that needs constant prioritisation.
• Numerate with an ability to interpret and understand project plans, budgets and financial targets; ability to analyse and compile a large amount of data and come up with conclusive results.
• Commercially minded with strong financial acumen and a dedicated customer‐focused attitude.
• Demonstrated commercial acumen and results orientation.
• Programme management skills with a proven ability to get things done not deterred by the changing or evolving nature of a project.

Additional Information

Location: We believe that great things happen when people connect face‐to‐face. That’s why we work in‐person with each other or with customers and partners three days a week or more. When you’re not spending time together in one of our offices or other workplaces like at conference you get the flexibility and support to work from home or remotely. The successful candidate will be able to utilise our balanced working model. We ask that candidates live within a reasonable commuting distance of our office in either Milton Park Oxfordshire (OX14) or London Blackfriars to enable you to collaborate in person at least 3 days per week.

What we offer in return

• An excellent work/life balance with a fantastic flexible working culture.
• 25 days annual leave per year plus a day off for your birthday.
• 3 additional discretionary days off during the holiday season at the end of the year.
• 4 paid volunteering days each year.
• Company funded single cover private medical insurance.
• Employee assistance programme offering 24/7 well‐being support.
• Share Match Plan that matches every share purchased with two free shares.
• Pension scheme.
• Life assurance plus optical and medical care.

If you’re excited about working with Taylor & Francis to foster human progress through knowledge we invite you to apply even if your existing skills and experience don’t fit every item listed above. At Taylor & Francis we are at our best and most successful when colleagues can be themselves and make a contribution regardless of their identity or background. As a colleague you will have the opportunity to further innovate and develop in areas that you are passionate about. Our goal is to empower you with the resources, incentives and flexibility you need to enjoy success at work and to live a healthy balanced life.

Taylor & Francis is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe in and value diversity of people and thought, fostering a supportive and inclusive environment where all colleagues can learn and succeed as their true selves. Taylor & Francis recruits, develops and retains colleagues without regard to any protected personal characteristics or other non‐merit based factor.

If you have a disability or face another barrier and would like to request an adjustment to assist your participation in the hiring process and/or in the advertised position, please contact us. Your request will be reviewed and considered in the strictest confidence.

We genuinely care about our colleagues, promoting work‐life balance, wellbeing and flexible working. We believe that the skills and experience you bring to Taylor & Francis are invaluable. We want you to have the opportunity to develop your abilities and to innovate and develop in areas which you are passionate about.

To find out more about our business and the great career opportunities, please go to our Careers Site: better yet check out our LinkedIn Life Page highlighting our accomplishments, employees and company culture. It’s also a good way of meeting our recruitment team who will be happy to advise you on your journey here at T&F.

We recognise that sometimes the perfect candidate doesn’t exist and that people can be put off applying for a job if they don’t fit all the requirements. If you’re excited about working for us and have most of the skills or experience we are looking for, please go ahead and apply. You could be just what we need! We believe strongly in the value of diversity and creating supportive inclusive environments where our colleagues can succeed.

As such, Informa is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, citizenship or other protected characteristics under local law.

This role may also be available on a flexible working or part‐time basis, please ask the Talent Acquisition team for more information.

Remote Work: No

Employment Type: Full‐time

Key Skills: React Native, AI, Enterprise Software, React, Node.js, Redis, AWS, Software Development, IOS, Team Management, Product Development, Mobile Applications

Experience: years

Vacancy: 1