Head of Engineering - Retail in London

Just Group's Retail division develops and delivers retirement‐finance products sold via financial advisers and intermediaries. To support this, we need resilient, scalable, and innovative engineering capabilities, with AI‐first, agentic, and context‐driven practices at the centre of how we build and deliver.

The Head of Engineering for Retail will lead the Retail engineering organisation, set technical direction, and ensure high‐quality delivery. They will drive the adoption of modern engineering approaches to keep our technology secure, reliable, and future‐ready. Reporting to the Retail IT Director, they will manage Engineering Managers and foster a high‐performing culture focused on secure, efficient, and AI‐enabled delivery.

We help people achieve a better later life. That’s our purpose and it’s the reason we exist. We are a fast‐growing company helping customers enjoy the retirement they deserve. We do this through a variety of market leading, award‐winning products and services, delivered by a diverse team of over 1,400 purpose‐led colleagues who genuinely put the customer at the heart of everything we do.

This is a brilliant time to join our business. We are on an exciting growth journey to become the UK's most loved retirement expert.

• Define and deliver the Retail engineering roadmap, aligned with Group technology strategy and modern engineering practices.
• Champion AI‐first, agentic, and context‐driven approaches to improve resilience, scalability, and innovation.
• Provide technical leadership on architecture, solution design, and management of technical debt.
• Ensure high‐quality, secure, and scalable delivery of Retail platforms and applications.
• Oversee delivery planning, execution, risks, and incident management (P1/P2), ensuring rapid and effective resolution.
• Build engineering capability by leading and developing Engineering Managers and the wider engineering leadership team.
• Promote strong engineering standards across automation, DevOps pipelines, observability, and cloud‐native development.
• Act as a trusted partner to stakeholders, providing clear communication on delivery health, risks, and technical priorities.

• Chair Retail engineering governance forums, ensuring adherence to standards and alignment with Group principles.
• Maintain and regularly review the technical debt and end‐of‐life register, feeding prioritised items into roadmaps.
• Review and challenge major technical design proposals to ensure scalability, security, and maintainability.
• Act as incident escalation point for P1 and P2 events, coordinating resolution and leading post‐incident reviews.
• Partner with Engineering Managers to provide delivery updates, dependency tracking, and risk management.
• Mentor and coach Engineering Managers, building a high‐quality leadership capability.
• Represent Retail Engineering in cross‐business forums, ensuring Retail's needs are clearly articulated and understood.

• Strong engineering leadership experience, managing multi‐team delivery at scale (50+ FTE including partners), within Financial Services.
• Solid understanding of modern engineering practices, including software development, architecture, cloud, CI/CD, DevSecOps, observability, and security‐first design.
• Knowledge of AI‐first, agentic, and context‐driven engineering approaches.
• Experience delivering large‐scale technology change and modernising legacy platforms, ideally within the Microsoft ecosystem.
• Proven ability to build engineering capability, drive adoption of standards, and shape a high‐performing engineering culture.
• Skilled in managing hybrid delivery models involving vendors, partners, and in‐house teams.
• Comfortable operating in regulated environments with strong focus on security, performance, and resilience.
• Effective at influencing senior stakeholders and translating technical considerations into business‐focused outcomes.
• Experience managing major incidents (P1/P2) and leading robust resolution and review processes.

At Just you’ll have the opportunity to develop your career, whilst making a difference to the lives of those around you. You’ll be part of a company with a strong and distinctive culture – we’re ambitious, curious and collaborative – and every decision we make centres around being Just and delivering the best outcomes for our customers.

• A competitive salary, pension scheme and life assurance.
• 25 days annual leave plus an additional day on us for your birthday.
• Private medical cover and income protection, just in case.
• A generous and highly achievable bonus scheme.
• Opportunities to progress your career in‐role and within the company.
• Free access to the Headspace app, 24/7 employee assistance helpline and trained physical and mental health first aiders.
• A variety of employee funded benefits available via our online benefits portal.
• Plus, several additional purchase options available for you and your loved ones.

Valuing diversity of thought and fostering a sense of belonging is critical to our business success, driving innovation and balanced decision making. Our work on DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) aims to deliver a brilliant employee experience underpinned by a sense of belonging, where our people feel proud to work at Just.

We remain committed to our publicly disclosed HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter and Race at Work Charter targets and support a wide range of employee network and events, championing issues including intergenerational working, social mobility and neurodiversity.

Please submit your CV using the 'apply now' button. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted regarding next steps which may include an initial phone interview and in‐person assessment.

Be Bold. Be Brilliant. Be Just.