Head of Software Engineering

Salary: £? - ? per year

Requirements:

• Proven experience leading multidisciplinary engineering functions within large, complex organisations.
• A strong track record of setting engineering standards and embedding them successfully across teams.
• Deep understanding of modern engineering practices, cloud-native architecture and DevOps, ideally within Microsoft Azure environments.
• Technical credibility to challenge decisions constructively and guide managers, architects and senior engineers.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical audiences.
• A collaborative, pragmatic leadership style and the ability to make an impact quickly.
• Experience in AI is a significant advantage, particularly applying AI to engineering workflows, automation or the delivery of AI-enabled services.
• Experience within regulated or operationally critical environments, such as public sector, education, healthcare or financial services, would also be key.

Responsibilities:

• Define engineering standards, governance and ways of working across the function.
• Establish best practice across software development, testing, code quality, DevOps, CI/CD and Infrastructure as Code.
• Guide architecture and platform decisions, ensuring services are scalable, resilient, secure and maintainable.
• Lead engineering managers and senior engineers across multiple teams, building collaboration and accountability.
• Assess engineering maturity, identify priority improvements and drive practical changes during the assignment.
• Support cloud-native transformation across Microsoft Azure, event-driven architecture, platform engineering and automation.
• Work with senior stakeholders to balance delivery priorities, engineering quality, technical health and cost.

Technologies:

• AI
• Azure
• CI/CD
• Cloud
• DevOps
• Support

More:

Were partnering with a large, complex and purpose-driven organisation undergoing a major technology and engineering transformation. Were seeking an experienced Head of Software Engineering contractor to lead a multidisciplinary function spanning software, integration, data and platform engineering. This three-month contract pays £600–£650 per day, inside IR35, with a hybrid arrangement requiring two days per week in London and an ASAP start. The role combines leadership with technical involvement in architecture and engineering decisions, working closely with senior technology leaders, engineering managers and senior engineers. It offers the opportunity to shape a growing engineering function and establish standards that support a substantial technology transformation. Services advertised are those of an Employment Business.

last updated 39 week of 2026