Head of Engineering | Standards & Growth (Hybrid) in Bristol

We’re building the UK’s next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience. Rowden specializes in turning advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge. We accelerate technology deployment, improve decision‑making for frontline teams, and protect people and critical assets in demanding environments. Headquartered in Bristol, we employ around 160 people and operate over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities.

Rowden is looking for a VP Engineering to lead and strengthen the engineering discipline across the company as we scale into the next phase of growth. The role owns the engineering function as a discipline: people, capabilities, standards, practices and technical calibration that underpin everything Rowden builds. You will not directly own engineering delivery; that responsibility sits within the business lines. Instead you are responsible for ensuring the engineering organisation has the right people, operating at the right standard, with the right technical and leadership behaviours across the company.

You will lead an engineering team that works across FPGA, RF, embedded systems, distributed software, ML and applications engineering. The breadth is substantial, so you don’t need to be the deepest expert in every domain – it is about exercising strong technical judgement, recognising quality, building trust with technical leaders, and creating an engineering function that consistently performs at a high bar. The role will suit someone who is technically credible, operationally grounded, comfortable making hard decisions, and motivated by building a high‑performance engineering organisation in a demanding, mission‑led environment.

Candidates must be eligible for SC clearance.

• Engineering leadership and standards
• Own the overall engineering discipline across Rowden, including standards, practices, technical quality and engineering culture.
• Establish consistent engineering expectations across teams, including code quality, review practices, testing, design documentation, security and technical debt management.
• Ensure engineering quality remains high as the business scales rapidly across multiple lines.
• Balance standardisation with pragmatism, recognising where consistency improves execution and where flexibility is required for innovation.
• Engineering capability and organisational growth
• Lead the Chief Engineers and engineering leadership community, strengthening technical leadership capability.
• Own the engineering talent pipeline end‑to‑end, including hiring strategy, progression, succession planning and performance management, partnering with Talent & People.
• Maintain a high‑performance and high‑trust engineering culture.
• Make difficult people and organisational decisions early and decisively where standards, behaviours or performance fall below the required bar.
• Technical judgement and engineering execution
• Provide technical leadership and judgement across a broad range of engineering disciplines.
• Contribute to delivery through engagement with technical discussions, design reviews, integration activity, manufacturing sessions and customer trials.
• Add value through technical judgement, challenge and calibration across disciplines rather than narrow domain ownership.
• Support strong technical decision‑making across business lines and engineering teams.
• Recognise technical, delivery and organisational risks early and intervene appropriately.
• Plan, prioritise and implement initiatives to build and improve engineering capabilities while balancing delivery work.
• Help maintain a strong balance between engineering excellence, pace and operational delivery.
• Cross‑functional leadership
• Lead through line management and influence, within a hybrid reporting model spanning multiple lines and domains.
• Work closely with the CEO, COO, Business Line Leads, Chief Architect, VP Platforms and VP Product to strengthen engineering execution.
• Partner with the Engineering Operations Manager to improve engineering visibility, operational insight, organisational effectiveness and scaling decisions.
• Build trust and credibility with technical leaders, programme teams and business leadership.
• Support the scaling of engineering operations, tooling, processes and organisational structure as the company grows beyond 250 people.

Within the first 6‑12 months you will have:

• Earned the trust of engineers and technical leaders across the business through sound judgement and practical support.
• Established regular visibility of key engineering risks, capability gaps, resourcing constraints and technical debt.
• Reinforced a clear and consistent engineering quality bar across delivery, technical standards, ownership and accountability.
• Improved consistency across engineering practices including code quality, testing, documentation, security and technical review processes.
• Helped scale the engineering organisation without losing technical depth, delivery effectiveness or Rowden’s pragmatic culture.
• Strengthened engineering progression, calibration and performance management across multiple disciplines and teams.
• Improved Rowden’s ability to attract, develop and retain high‑calibre engineers while maintaining a high hiring bar.
• Enabled teams to deliver increasingly complex programmes with greater clarity, coordination and fewer organisational bottlenecks.

We are looking for someone with:

• Experience leading complex engineering organisations through growth, increasing scale and organisational complexity.
• Experience scaling multidisciplinary engineering teams in a measured and resource‑conscious way while maintaining delivery pace and technical standards.
• Strong engineering judgement and the ability to assess technical quality, risk and trade‑offs across disciplines beyond your own specialism.
• Broad technical fluency across areas such as software, distributed systems, embedded systems, RF, FPGA, hardware or ML‑driven systems.
• Credibility with experienced engineers and technical leaders through sound judgement, pragmatism and the ability to improve technical and delivery outcomes.
• Experience building operational visibility across engineering delivery, technical risk, capability gaps, resourcing and engineering health.
• A hands‑on leadership style that stays close to engineering work without becoming a bottleneck.
• The confidence to make difficult people and organisational decisions when standards, behaviours or performance fall below the bar.
• Experience operating in mission‑critical, safety‑critical, regulated or operationally demanding environments.
• Experience in defence, national security, aerospace, communications, regulated technology or adjacent sectors would be valuable but not required.

• Care deeply about the engineering craft, not just the mechanics of managing teams.
• Be curious and engaged in the work, taking an active interest in how systems are designed, built and delivered.
• Balance ambition with pragmatism, continuously improving standards within real delivery, commercial and operational constraints.
• Combine humility with strong judgement, recognising the expertise of engineers while providing guidance and improvement.
• Value visibility, collaboration and in‑person engagement, committed to working from Bristol HQ at least three days per week.

Rowden is committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. We aim to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills and backgrounds – we encourage you to apply as you are.

We support flexible, hybrid working with an average of 3 days in the office each week. We welcome discussions around flexibility, part‑time working or workplace adjustments for all applicants.

Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply. Please let us know your requirements early so we can ensure an inclusive recruitment experience.

Even if you do not meet all the criteria but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we’d still love to hear from you.