Head of Engineering
Lift the team. Don’t rescue it.
Six months in, here is the test: does the business trust that what we commit to will be delivered on time?
The platform is mature, well-used, and built by experienced engineers who know the workflows deeply. There is no rescue mission here. There is also no cruise control. The next phase of growth depends on lifting delivery confidence, modernising without breaking, and embedding AI capability where it earns its place rather than where it makes for a good slide.
This is not a turnaround, and it is not a maintenance VP role. The engineers already know more than most leaders inheriting a function do. The work is coaching, sharpening and lifting, not stabilising someone else’s mess.
The role at a glance
What you would actually do
- Lead and develop the engineering organisation across squads and QA, with a focus on planning, estimation, prioritisation and release confidence.
- Build engineering management rhythms, ownership models and performance standards. Mentor leads and senior engineers in execution discipline and modern engineering practice.
- Increase the pace of delivering customer value through smaller, smarter releases. Break ambitious initiatives into bite-sized increments that ship.
- Lead the ongoing evolution of a mature platform toward modern architecture, balancing modernisation with continuous delivery and customer stability.
- Define and execute the engineering side of the AI roadmap, and introduce AI tooling that increases developer productivity, where it earns its place.
- Partner closely with Product and Data & Intelligence leadership to translate strategy into delivered value.
- Reduce founder dependency in delivery escalations by building a self-sustaining engineering leadership model.
What you bring
- A track record leading Engineering in a strong B2B SaaS environment, with shipped customer value as the headline rather than process metrics.
- Experience in modernising mature or legacy systems while maintaining delivery momentum. You can defend technical decisions commercially.
- A history of coaching engineers and leads to stronger operators. You can name specific people and what changed in them.
- Strong execution leadership and technical judgement. You simplify complexity rather than add to it.
- Comfort working closely with a founder who carries deep domain expertise. You pull context out actively, and you understand the platform before you redesign it.
- A pragmatic view on AI. You have shipped real value beyond pilots, and can separate genuine opportunities from hype.