Head of Engineering

Company

This is an established, product-led technology business headquartered in Gateshead, operating within the digital consumer space. Its core mobile platform is already live in the market and experiencing strong growth, with an ambitious roadmap that requires significant scaling and evolution.

The organisation is currently undergoing a major transformation across product and engineering, moving away from legacy, outsourced foundations toward a modern, scalable architecture (including an ongoing AWS migration). The platform requires substantial investment in backend capability, engineering standards, and operational maturity to support future demand.

Historically, the business has faced challenges around delivery predictability, technical debt, and alignment between product, engineering, and leadership. In response, a new leadership direction has been established, focused on:

• Rebuilding engineering foundations for scale and resilience
• Introducing clear ownership, structure, and delivery discipline
• Strengthening engineering culture, accountability, and standards
• Hiring key talent to support long-term growth

This is a high-impact, transformation environment—not a steady-state role. The successful candidate will join at a pivotal moment and play a key role in shaping the future of the engineering organisation.

The role is Gateshead-based, with an expectation that candidates spend meaningful time in the office to drive alignment, culture, and stakeholder engagement.

Role

The Head of Engineering will be responsible for leading the transformation, performance, and evolution of the engineering function.

This role combines organisational leadership, delivery improvement, and technical oversight—with a strong emphasis on building a high-performing, accountable engineering culture in a fast-moving, startup-like environment.

Key Responsibilities

Engineering Leadership & Transformation

• Define and implement the target engineering operating model, including team structure, ownership, and ways of working
• Lead the transition from legacy delivery challenges to consistent, predictable, high-quality output
• Establish and embed engineering standards, governance, and best practices
• Play a central role in rebuilding trust between engineering, product, and leadership

Delivery & Execution

• Drive significant improvements in delivery discipline, planning, and execution
• Ensure teams focus on prioritised outcomes rather than fragmented workloads
• Improve release predictability, scope control, and throughput
• Introduce and mature delivery processes that enable scalable, repeatable execution

Engineering Capability & Technology

• Provide oversight of a platform undergoing architectural evolution and technical uplift, including:
  • Backend and database improvements
  • AWS migration and infrastructure scaling
  • Engineering standards and system reliability
• Strengthen core capabilities in:
  • Backend engineering
  • DevOps, monitoring, and observability
  • Incident management and operational excellence
• Ensure the platform is fit for scale and future growth, not just short-term delivery

Data & Performance Management

• Introduce and leverage engineering metrics (e.g. delivery, quality, DORA indicators) to drive improvement
• Build visibility into engineering performance and use data to inform decisions
• Establish a culture of continuous improvement and measurable outcomes

People & Culture

• Lead, develop, and performance manage engineering leaders and teams
• Build a culture of:
  • Accountability and ownership
  • Pragmatism and delivery focus
  • High standards and continuous improvement
• Address capability gaps through hiring, coaching, and where necessary, change of personnel
• Improve morale, engagement, and trust within the team

Stakeholder Management

• Act as a key interface between engineering, product, and executive leadership
• Operate effectively in a business where priorities may shift and direction can change
• Translate technical challenges into clear business context and trade-offs

Person

This role requires a hands-on leader of leaders, with experience operating in complex, fast-paced, and evolving environments, ideally where transformation has been required.

Experience & Background

• Proven experience leading engineering teams in a product-led or digital business
• Track record of transforming underperforming or immature engineering functions
• Experience improving delivery, structure, and engineering standards at scale
• Strong understanding of modern engineering environments, including cloud-based architectures (e.g. AWS)
• Background in backend-heavy systems and scalable platforms is highly beneficial

Leadership & Delivery Style

• Strong focus on execution and outcomes, not just process
• Comfortable introducing structure and discipline where it is lacking
• Data-driven approach to managing performance and improvement
• Able to balance speed, quality, and pragmatism in a growing business

Mindset & Behaviour

• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and change, typical of a scaling business
• Resilient and pragmatic, with the ability to navigate shifting priorities and stakeholder demands
• Builds credibility quickly and can reset expectations where needed
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability

People Leadership

• Experienced in hiring, developing, and, where necessary, restructuring teams
• Confident managing performance and raising standards
• Able to build trust and improve culture in environments with low morale or misalignment

Communication & Influence

• Strong communicator who can bridge technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Able to challenge constructively and influence at senior level
• Comfortable working with founders or leadership teams where direction may evolve frequently

In summary this is a high-impact opportunity for a Head of Engineering to lead a full-scale transformation, shape a growing platform, and build a high-performing engineering organisation from the ground up.