Director of Software Engineering

Salary: £100,000 - 100,000 per year

Requirements:

• Proven experience leading sizeable engineering functions, ideally managing managers, multiple squads, and testing teams.
• Exceptional people-first leadership with the ability to inspire teams and navigate ambiguity.
• Background managing software delivery within agile product environments.
• Strong financial, budgeting, and workforce planning capability.
• Experience collaborating with distributed or US-based teams is a strong plus.
• Nice to have: background in SaaS platforms or EdTech.
• Nice to have: experience integrating test automation and AI-assisted tools into delivery pipelines.
• Nice to have: strong grasp of modern cloud architectures and platform scaling.

Responsibilities:

• Manage multiple Engineering Managers, QA Testing Managers, and a team of around 30 internal staff plus contractors.
• Drive delivery and quality across cross-functional squads, ensuring goals are met deterministically.
• Embed quality engineering, test automation, and modern DevOps practices.
• Deputise for executive leadership and represent our UK team on a global stage.
• Coach teams through AI adoption, evolving ways of working, and cross-functional dependencies between US and UK teams.
• Take ownership of workforce planning, engineering strategy, and overall budget allocation.

Technologies:

• AI
• Cloud
• DevOps
• Support
• QA Testing
• Excel

More:

We are an established software products company evolving towards an AI-enabled, platform-centric delivery model. We are scaling our engineering capability and hiring a dedicated Director of Engineering to join our team in the North East. This is a trusted, high-autonomy leadership role with strong support, high challenge, and a healthy work-life balance. The position is hybrid, typically requiring 1-2 days in the office per fortnight or month depending on location in Durham. We offer a salary of up to £120,000 base plus bonus, with flexibility for exceptional experience, and a fast, focused interview process with no technical tests.

last updated 31 week of 2026