At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead engineering teams to deliver high-quality software and drive innovation.
- Company: Join The National College, empowering educators with impactful technology.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive pay, generous leave, and mental health support.
- Other info: Be part of a supportive culture that values growth and success.
- Why this job: Make a real difference in education while leading a dynamic engineering team.
- Qualifications: Proven leadership in software delivery and team management required.
The predicted salary is between 80000 - 100000 £ per year.
About The National College: At The National College, we empower education professionals to transform children’s lives. Our all‑in‑one platform helps schools, trusts, and nurseries stay compliant, raise standards, and reduce staff workload through intuitive, impactful technology. If educators need it, we build it. We’ve created a unique platform that combines the world’s largest CPD and policy library with innovative software tools, developed in collaboration with thousands of schools and more than 1,000 education experts.
The Role: We are seeking an experienced, hands‑on Head of Engineering to lead software delivery, technical execution, and engineering leadership across the business. This role is accountable for engineering strategy, delivery performance, technical quality, and team effectiveness across all product and platform codebases. The Head of Engineering will lead internal engineering teams and external development partners, ensuring software is planned, prioritised, delivered, and continuously improved with high quality and predictability. This is a hands‑on leadership role requiring strong technical judgement, delivery excellence, and the ability to build high‑performing engineering teams.
Job Requirements:
- Experience: Significant senior engineering leadership experience in roles such as Engineering Manager, Head of Engineering, Engineering Director, VP Engineering, or equivalent. Proven track record of leading software delivery across multiple teams, products, platforms, or complex codebases. Demonstrated success managing diverse engineering organisations, including permanent employees, contractors, and external development partners. Strong experience improving engineering delivery performance, including velocity, predictability, quality, and operational reliability. Background in product‑led, SaaS, or high‑growth technology environments. Proven ability to scale engineering teams and delivery capability during periods of business growth or transformation.
- Leadership & Delivery Capability: Strong delivery mindset, with a clear focus on business outcomes over activity. Exceptional execution capability, with the ability to drive alignment, accountability, and momentum across teams. Strong people leadership skills, including coaching, performance management, and building high‑performing teams. Confident making prioritisation decisions in complex, fast‑moving environments with competing demands. Able to identify delivery risks, organisational bottlenecks, and execution blockers early, and resolve them pragmatically.
- Technical & Commercial Capability: Comfortable reviewing engineering output and challenging technical decisions, without needing to be the primary hands‑on feature developer. Able to introduce structure, governance, and process that improve delivery without creating unnecessary bureaucracy. Data‑driven approach to engineering leadership, using delivery, quality, utilisation, and reliability metrics to guide decisions. Strong commercial judgement, balancing delivery speed, technical quality, scalability, and business risk. Familiarity with modern SaaS architectures, cloud‑native platforms, and contemporary engineering delivery practices. Experience working in environments with customer‑facing, operational, or uptime‑critical systems.
- Stakeholder Management: Excellent communication and influencing skills with both technical and non‑technical stakeholders. Comfortable operating at senior leadership level, providing clear visibility on delivery progress, risks, dependencies, and trade‑offs. Calm, credible, and decisive under pressure, with the ability to lead effectively in fast‑paced environments.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience working with outsourced, offshore, or distributed engineering teams.
- Exposure to formal delivery, quality, reliability, or engineering productivity frameworks and their practical application.
Job Responsibilities:
- Engineering Leadership & Delivery: Lead engineering delivery across all product and platform codebases, ensuring teams consistently deliver high‑quality, scalable, and reliable software aligned to business priorities. Own engineering planning, prioritisation, estimation, and delivery commitments, creating a culture of accountability and predictable execution. Drive delivery velocity and timely issue resolution while maintaining strong standards of quality, stability, and performance. Ensure work is clearly scoped, well prioritised, and effectively owned, enabling teams to deliver with confidence and pace. Proactively identify and remove blockers that impact delivery flow, team effectiveness, or engineering output.
- Team Leadership & Performance: Lead, mentor, and develop software engineers, fostering high performance, continuous learning, and career growth. Build a strong engineering culture centred on ownership, collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement. Manage contractors, temporary developers, and external engineering partners, ensuring consistent standards and seamless collaboration. Set clear expectations for performance, delivery, and quality, addressing challenges constructively and decisively where needed.
- Technical Quality & Operational Excellence: Provide technical oversight of engineering output to ensure consistency, maintainability, and alignment with agreed engineering standards. Champion effective code review practices and engineering discipline, ensuring high‑quality delivery across the team. Own engineering quality outcomes, including defect reduction, rework prevention, and minimising delivery regressions. Continuously improve engineering processes to maximise throughput, reduce inefficiencies, and avoid unnecessary bureaucracy. Partner closely with the Staff Engineer to ensure technical design and architecture decisions support scalable, sustainable delivery.
- Cross-Functional Leadership: Collaborate closely with Product, DevOps, and QA/support teams to balance delivery goals with technical and operational constraints. Provide clear visibility of delivery progress, risks, dependencies, and trade‑offs to senior stakeholders. Use delivery, utilisation, and quality metrics to inform decision‑making, improve forecasting, and drive operational performance.
- Strategic Contribution: Contribute to the evolution of engineering practices, delivery frameworks, and team capability as the organisation scales. Play a key role in shaping a high‑performing engineering function capable of supporting ambitious product growth and long‑term business success.
Job Benefits: At The National College, we’re passionate about helping organisations grow and thrive through knowledge and connection. You’ll be part of a business that values its people, supports continuous development, and celebrates success. You’ll also be able to benefit from:
- Life assurance
- Enhanced maternity, paternity, shared parental, and adoption pay
- 24/7 online GP access
- Mental health and wellbeing support
- One paid charity day per year
- 25 days’ holiday, increasing to 30 days with service
- Professional study support
- Plus more
Head of Engineering in Sheffield employer: The National College
At The National College, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer that champions the growth and well-being of our employees. Our collaborative work culture fosters innovation and continuous learning, while our comprehensive benefits package, including enhanced family leave and mental health support, ensures a healthy work-life balance. As the Head of Engineering, you will have the opportunity to lead a talented team in a dynamic environment dedicated to transforming education, making a meaningful impact on the lives of children across the country.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Head of Engineering in Sheffield
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at The National College or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to The National College.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like The National College.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like The National College that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Head of Engineering in Sheffield
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at The National College.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at The National College and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at The National College
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If The National College uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
