Vice President of Software Engineering

Salary: £29,000 - 69,000 per year

Requirements:

• We require leadership experience at scale, having led engineering functions and driven a step-change in how teams build software.
• We require real experience introducing AI and automation into software engineering, with the foundations to make it stick.
• We require deep grounding in Continuous Delivery, DevOps and cloud, along with engineering productivity measurement such as DORA, cycle time or equivalent.
• We require a strong architecture background, including setting direction and running a Technical Design Authority or similar forum across a complex, integrated estate.
• We require a track record of establishing engineering standards, golden paths and reusable foundations that lift a whole function.
• We require experience setting strategy and standards and landing them through other leaders and their teams, including re-platforming and culture change.
• We require experience of engineering organisation design, operating models and developing leaders.
• We require the ability to operate at a strategic level, set direction and raise the capability of the whole function.

Responsibilities:

• We lead the adoption of AI in engineering by setting the direction for AI-assisted development and embedding it into how teams design, build and test.
• We put in place the foundations that make AI-assisted engineering work at scale, including engineering standards, golden paths, repository structure, documentation-as-code and reusable scaffolding.
• We drive automation across the software lifecycle, from build and test through to release, to make delivery faster, more consistent and less manual.
• We set the engineering practices that support faster, more reliable software flow, including Continuous Delivery, CI/CD, automated testing and release readiness, working with Infrastructure/DevOps and others.
• We set the software engineering strategy and multi-year technical roadmap aligned to the digital and business strategy.
• We set the software engineering standards, tooling and technology-stack direction for the function.
• We set the software engineering architecture direction across Digital Transformation and hold cross-estate coherence.
• We act as the escalation and decision point for the most significant technical and design choices across the estate.
• We lead, develop and set direction for the Head of Development, the Cyber Development Lead and the Enterprise Architect.

Technologies:

• AI
• Architect
• CI/CD
• Cloud
• DevOps
• Flow
• Support
• LESS

More:

Our client is recruiting for a VP Engineering to lead the adoption of AI in engineering. This senior leadership role is intended to step change how software is engineered, set the direction for Digital Transformation, and establish the standards, tooling and modern practices the function builds to. The role also leads the adoption of AI-assisted engineering and automation to raise productivity and shorten time to release. This is a remote-based role, but candidates must be based in the UK.

last updated 37 week of 2026