Head of Software Engineering

Salary: £40,000 - 73,000 per year

Requirements:

• We require National Security Vetting clearance to SC level, or the ability to gain it.
• We require applicants to consent to workforce screening activities, which may include Baseline Personnel Security checks, National Security Vetting, reference checks, verification of working rights, and a security interview.
• We are looking for someone with software engineering leadership capability and the ability to define strategy, provide governance, and drive technical direction.
• We need experience supporting software delivery across research, product development, customer programmes, and engineering infrastructure.
• We require the ability to lead, coach, mentor, and develop a software engineering team.
• We are looking for experience with architecture oversight, software quality, configuration management, release management, and continuous improvement.
• We value experience with automated testing, CI/CD, DevOps, and modern software development practices.
• We need someone with stakeholder engagement and business development experience, including customer engagement, bid support, and proposal development.

Responsibilities:

• We lead the Software Engineering function to ensure successful delivery of projects and products to agreed cost, schedule, quality, and performance targets.
• We define and execute the Software Engineering strategy in alignment with business objectives and future product roadmaps.
• We provide leadership, governance, and technical direction across all software engineering activities.
• We support the definition and execution of our long-term technical vision.
• We promote a culture of innovation, collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement throughout the engineering organisation.
• We oversee software development activities across R&D programmes, product development, and customer-funded projects.
• We ensure effective planning, prioritisation, and utilisation of software engineering resources.
• We establish and maintain software engineering metrics and performance indicators.
• We lead software delivery reviews and manage technical risks, dependencies, and issues.
• We support software-related customer demonstrations, trials, and technical reviews.
• We establish and maintain software engineering standards, processes, and governance.
• We ensure appropriate architectural oversight across software products and technology platforms.
• We champion best practices in software design, testing, configuration management, and release management.
• We drive continuous improvement in software quality, reliability, safety, and security.
• We promote the adoption of automated testing, CI/CD, DevOps, and modern software development practices.
• We manage technical debt and ensure long-term maintainability of software products and frameworks.
• We lead, coach, mentor, and develop the Software Engineering team and individuals technical growth.
• We build organisational capability through recruitment, succession planning, and skills development.
• We conduct performance management, objective setting, and career development activities.
• We foster an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performing engineering culture.
• We ensure the software organisation has effective tooling, development environments, and engineering infrastructure.
• We support continual improvement of source control, build systems, CI/CD pipelines, test automation, and deployment processes.
• We oversee software development tooling, licensing, and open-source governance.
• We drive improvements in developer productivity, engineering efficiency, and operational resilience.
• We support business development activities through technical leadership, customer engagement, and bid support.
• We contribute to proposal development, technical strategy, and solution definition activities.
• We build strong relationships with customers, suppliers, and strategic partners.
• We identify opportunities across Saab and external organisations that can expand BlueBears software capability and business opportunities.
• We represent the Software Engineering function at internal and external reviews, workshops, and technical forums.

Technologies:

• AI
• CI/CD
• DevOps
• Embedded
• Support
• Robotics
• Security

More:

Saab UK is part of Scandinavias largest defence company, with a growing presence across eight UK sites and more than 600 employees. We bring together Swedish and British innovation to deliver world-leading solutions and services in defence, aviation, space, and civil security. Our specialisations include software engineering, underwater robotics, radars, AI, and armed forces training. BlueBear, a Saab company, is the setting for this Head of Software Engineering role, where we focus on advanced software capability across mission systems, embedded software, autonomy-enabling technologies, DevOps, and supporting engineering infrastructure. Saab is headquartered in Sweden and operates globally, with a purpose of helping nations keep people and society safe.

last updated 34 week of 2026