Head of Engineering

Head of Software Engineering, ELS Job Family: Technology Job Category: Engineering Career Architecture Role: Software Engineer

Role Summary

Leads a multidisciplinary Innovation Engineering capability, accountable for translating emerging technologies into scalable, enterprise-ready products and platforms. Sets strategic direction, prioritization, and execution standards across innovation squads, ensuring alignment with business objectives, product strategy, and enterprise architecture. Drives technical excellence, accelerates experimentation-to-production cycles, and builds organizational capability across engineering, data science, and AI—delivering measurable commercial and operational impact.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic & Functional Leadership Define and execute the innovation engineering strategy, aligning with ELS business priorities, product roadmaps, and enterprise technology standards

Set multi-quarter priorities, investment focus, and capacity planning across innovation initiatives

Act as a senior technical authority across innovation domains (AI, platforms, emerging tech), influencing enterprise-wide direction

1. Innovation Delivery & Execution Lead delivery of complex, cross-functional innovation programmes, from concept through to scaled deployment

Drive experimentation, prototyping, and MVP development, accelerating time-to-value and adoption

Ensure solutions are scalable, secure, and production-grade, aligned with enterprise architecture and governance

1. Team Leadership & Capability Building Build, lead, and develop a high-performing, cross-functional team (engineering, data science, AI, and specialists)

Foster a culture of collaboration, learning, and continuous improvement, strengthening innovation capability across squads

Coach and develop senior technical leaders, creating succession pipelines and future capability depth

1. Technical Excellence & Standards Establish and uphold engineering best practices, including architecture, DevOps, CI/CD, and platform reliability

Drive improvements in release velocity, quality, and defect reduction through modern engineering practices

Ensure alignment with security, data governance, and compliance standards

1. Cross-Functional Influence & Stakeholder Alignment Partner closely with Product, Platform, and Business leadership to prioritise and deliver high-impact innovation outcomes

Influence decision-making at senior levels, translating technical possibilities into commercial value propositions

Represent Innovation Engineering in executive and cross-functional forums

Skills & Competencies

• Leadership & Collaboration Collaboration (Advanced): Influences and aligns multiple senior stakeholders across Engineering, Product, and Business

• People Leadership (Advanced): Builds inclusive, high-performing teams and develops future leaders

• Technical Expertise Software Design & Architecture (Advanced)

• Cloud Computing, API & Platform Engineering (Advanced)

• Deep understanding of scalable, distributed systems and enterprise integration Innovation & Problem Solving

• Innovation & Strategic Thinking (Advanced): Applies emerging technologies (AI, automation, data) to business problems

• Problem Solving (Advanced): Navigates ambiguity and drives breakthrough solutions

• Risk, Security & Compliance Data Security & Information Security (Advanced)

• Strong understanding of enterprise governance and regulatory frameworks

• Future-Focused Capabilities Artificial Intelligence & AI Agents (Advanced)

• Learning Agility & Adaptability (Advanced): Continuously evolves capability in line with emerging technologies

Qualifications & Experience

• Significant experience leading software engineering and innovation teams in complex enterprise environments

• Proven track record delivering large-scale, cross-functional technical programmes

• Deep expertise in software architecture, cloud-native systems, and emerging technologies (AI/ML platforms)

• Experience influencing and operating at senior leadership / executive level

• Demonstrated ability to build and scale multidisciplinary technical teams globally