Head of Digital Engineering in Southampton

About The Business

Quilter plc is a leading wealth management business, helping to enable brighter financial futures for every generation. Quilter oversees £141.2 billion in customer investments (as of December 2025). It has an adviser and customer offering spanning financial advice, investment platforms, multi-asset investment solutions, and discretionary fund management. The business is comprised of two segments: Affluent and High Net Worth.

Affluent encompasses the financial planning business, Quilter Financial Planning, the Quilter Investment Platform and Quilter Investors, the multi-asset investment solutions business. High Net Worth includes the discretionary fund management business, Quilter Cheviot, together with Quilter Cheviot Financial Planning – offering a highly personalised service to private clients, charities, trustees, and professional partners. Quilter Cheviot has presence throughout the UK, Ireland and Channel Islands.

At Quilter we never stand still. Our foundations are rooted in our extraordinary expertise, which is trusted by hundreds of thousands of customers, but we have great ambitions to stay one step ahead and make an even greater difference to the people and communities we serve, including our colleagues. Our business is transforming, continually modernising, and becoming even more customer centric. So, if you want to be bold in the pursuit of your ambitions, bring new ideas, and challenge and evolve what we do, it’s the perfect time to join us!

About The Role

Level: 5
Department: Group Technology Solutions
Location: Southampton | Home Worker
Contract type: Permanent.

Reporting into the Head of Software Engineering, the Head of Digital Engineering is a pivotal role within the Quilter Technology function. Within this role the incumbent will be responsible for managing the features, performance, security, and risk of Quilter Digital Solutions and Applications, including the web and mobile apps. The role is responsible for the Run and Change of the Digital solutions, within Quilter’s risk appetite and cost profile, ensuring ongoing delivery of fit-for-purpose functionality is provided to the broader Quilter organisation.

As part of a vertically integrated business, you will be involved in a number of Quilter wide Business and IT transformation initiatives, working closely with the Digital Proposition team, to deliver change onto our Digital Solutions. You will play a role in building out our digital capability driving growth and efficiency and delivering improvements in our operating margin. Embedding solutions and propositions will be a key focus as well as bringing modern technology and features to market which will allow our customers to feel more secure about the financial future and help advisers run more successful advice businesses.

The successful candidate will be responsible for our Digital Solutions. This includes the Quilter Websites, mobile applications and Extranet solutions.

Key Areas of Responsibility

• You will lead the function and ensure the solutions delivered enable Quilter in meeting our strategic goals and deliver well designed, operationally resilient technology solutions.
• You will be involved in setting the overall direction for the organization's Digital platform strategy, including identifying opportunities for implementation and customization.
• You will lead and mentor the development teams, ensuring their skill development and performance.
• You will deploy teams in an effective way, balancing delivery of goals with skill development and maximise performance of the team through regular check-ins to support continuous improvement.
• Supervise the design, implementation, and deployment of Digital solutions, ensuring compliance with the organization's specific requirements.
• Ensuring the quality of software solutions for Quilter.
• Manage the relationship with our flex delivery partners.
• Developing and maintaining a sustainable plan for Technology Suppliers engaged in delivering technology solutions, including performance, spend and status.
• Take responsibility for managing the budget for Digital development and implementation.
• You will own product delivery (via appropriate methodologies) across Run and Change, manage the lifecycle from inception, analysis, design, development, and testing through to delivery and maintenance.
• Provide effective stakeholder communication as well as acting as a key point of contact for delivery of Digital solutions and their operation.
• You will ensure a single view of Technology risks for the Digital Platform solutions exists and drives a prioritised risk mitigation process.
• Ensure the team members are clear about business priorities and performance expectations is an important part of this role.
• Drive the adoption of best practices in software development, including agile methodologies and DevOps.
• Stay updated with the latest trends and technologies in digital engineering and incorporate them into the team's strategy.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within the digital engineering team.

About You

The successful candidate will have a strong technology background, including considerable experience managing development and technical teams and deliverables including new and emerging technologies. A proven history within a wide variety of IT roles, including systems analysis, architecture, development, and project management would be ideal together with the understanding of technology best practices and trends together with their application within a business context.

We are looking for someone who has technical knowledge and experience within the Wealth Management industry as well as with customer facing digital solutions, who can demonstrate the following competencies:

• Extensive experience leading software development and digital engineering.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as C#, Next.js, and React.
• Knowledge of Azure cloud platforms and technologies.
• Experience with agile methodologies and DevOps practices.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Understanding of cybersecurity principles and practices.
• Strong people management skills with the capability to lead, coach, mentor, and influence others.
• Proven experience leading and managing the delivery of software development projects in a structured environment throughout the entire lifecycle including QA.
• In-depth knowledge of a variety of software development approaches and methodologies include Agile and Waterfall.
• Experience in Solution Architecture, implementation-level software design, DevOps, and Release Management.
• Able to influence and drive projects to meet key milestones and overcome challenges.
• They need to effectively communicate with stakeholders across the organization and collaborate with other teams, such as IT and business units, to ensure successful implementation.
• Knowledge of Risk Management, Information Security and Business Continuity Planning.

Additionally, the successful candidate will have the following personal qualities:

• Results orientated with a strong delivery focus.
• Ability to build high functioning teams.
• Ability to engage effectively with technical and non-technical teams at all levels.
• Good negotiation, facilitation and consensus building skills.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Strong listening and stakeholder engagement skills.

Inclusion & Diversity

We value diversity and strive to promote inclusivity in all aspects of our culture. We believe in equal opportunities for all, ensuring that no applicant encounters less favourable treatment based on anything but their skills, qualifications, experience, and potential. We celebrate the unique contributions of a diverse workforce and create a respectful, nurturing environment where every colleague can thrive.

Values

• Do the right thing: We act with integrity and are proudly committed to going above and beyond in service of our clients and the support we provide our communities.
• Always curious: We continuously seek new ideas and knowledge so we’re one step ahead of our clients’ needs. We look for inspiration everywhere and encourage experimentation, recognising that this is how we create brilliant solutions for brighter futures.
• Embrace challenge: We aim high to transform our potential into meaningful outcomes. With ambition as our driving force and a steadfast commitment to growth, we succeed for the good of every generation.
• Stronger together: Combining our diverse talents, we accomplish more collectively than we ever could do alone. We speak openly, actively listen, and support each other, and constructively challenge and embrace new ideas. We seek empowerment and demonstrate ownership and trust, with the confidence to make impactful decisions.

Core Benefits

• Holiday: 182 hours (26 days)
• Quilter Incentive Scheme: All employees are eligible to participate in incentive scheme, to incentivise business performance and their contribution.
• Pension Scheme: A non-contributory company pension scheme that can be boosted through personal contributions.
• Private Medical Insurance: Single cover as standard with options to increase cover to include your partner or children.
• Life Assurance: 4x your salary.
• Income Protection: 75% of salary, less state benefits, payable after 26 weeks of absence.
• Healthcare Cash Plan: Jersey employees only.