Director of Engineering - Home Office - SCS2 in Manchester

Location: London, Croydon, Manchester or Sheffield. Frequent travel to 2 Marsham Street, London will be required if based elsewhere in the UK.

About The Job

Home Office Digital designs, builds and runs the technology and services that deliver, at scale, some of the UK’s most critical and well‑used public services. The engineering capability plays a critical part in every area of the Home Office in delivering its mission from how we secure the border and control immigration to issues passports and reducing and preventing crime, supporting these services that impact millions of people every year.

The Home Office Digital estate consists of more than 600 systems, enabling critical services such as:

• 13 million Electronic Travel Authorisations since launch
• 3 million visa applications annually
• 130 million border checks each year
• 7 million passport applications annually
• 140 million police checks on people, vehicles, and property

The Director of Engineering role will have responsibility for the management and operational deployment of almost 1,000 engineers, while also being the head of our engineering profession setting the overarching strategy on the tools, standards, methods and techniques we use every day, delivering software and services at pace.

Our approach to how we design, build and run digital services today and in the future makes this role an integral part of the cultural and operational shift we are undergoing to broaden our use of multi‑disciplinary teams and place decision making as close to our service delivery teams as possible.

As an experienced engineering lead with a deep understanding of how to operate in a fast paced, security critical and highly visible environment, you will bring your experience to the department to embed engineering discipline and modern software development practices into our teams.

Reporting to the Chief Digital, Data and Technology Officer, you will provide the strategic direction and vision for all software engineering activities undertaken across Home Office Digital, simultaneously championing innovation and best practice. With a budget of £60M this is a leadership role of exceptional criticality and complexity, requiring strategic digital engineering leadership experience at scale, and the ability to collaborate across government and industry.

As part of the Home Office Digital Senior Management Team, you will play a pivotal role in delivering the Home Office 2030 Digital Strategy, ensuring technology underpins national security and public trust as we continue to deliver across our missions.

Job Description

The role requires a leader with the credibility and influence to engage senior stakeholders and drive consensus across the department. Strong communication skills are vital, with the ability to simplify complexity and inspire change. The individual must combine strategic vision with attention to detail, commercial acumen, and resilience under pressure, while providing inspiring leadership to build and develop high‑performing teams.

The role holder will engage and manage a large, diverse, and executive level group of stakeholders across the Home Office, and other organisations; ensuring stakeholders are bought into and engaged with delivery of engineering services. They will be responsible for managing a highly complex risk environment, ensuring an effective, proactive approach to risk management is implemented, including the appropriate provision of risk mitigation funding.

The Director of Engineering is a senior technical and strategic leader, responsible for shaping and delivering the department’s software engineering function and wider technology delivery strategy.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

The role requires a senior software engineering leader with the credibility and influence to manage a sizeable engineering workforce, engage senior stakeholders and drive consensus across the department. Strong and confident communication skills are vital, with the ability to simplify complexity and inspire change. The individual must combine strategic vision with attention to detail, commercial acumen, and resilience under pressure, while providing inspiring leadership to continue to build and develop high performing teams across the department.

Extensive Digital, Engineering and Technology Leadership Experience at senior level within complex, multi‑divisional organisations, delivering high‑transaction, user‑centric services across a mix of legacy systems and modern digital solutions with a proven ability to lead dispersed teams in software development, and deliver results through others in challenging and often ambiguous environments.

Strategic Vision and Horizon Scanning Ability to use insights from strategic horizon scanning to set digital vision across the Home Office and input at government level, including compelling software engineering roadmaps aligned to organisational strategy, demonstrating originality and judgement supporting a fast‑paced environments. Able to describe end to end software delivery and how technology is changing and developing through that lifecycle and the benefits and risks in adoption to support the organisation through digital change.

Inspirational Leadership Ability to convey and embed a persuasive future vision, inspiring confidence and commitment at all levels, and attracting, retaining, and developing diverse talent to create an inclusive, high‑performing organisation. Experience leading people, and helping to deliver change across a complex delivery organisation. Ability to operate alongside a series of digital transformation programmes and provide the right strategic direction and thought leadership, as part of the senior leadership team, into the wider organisation.

Financial and Commercial Acumen Evidence of managing significant budgets and complex supplier landscapes while applying innovative and highly strategic approaches to sourcing services efficiently. Experience in managing supplier and commercial outcomes through effective market engagement, commercial engagement, and supplier management.