CTO & AI-Driven R&D Leader (Global, Product-led)

White Horse Employment; Chippenham; On-site; GBP 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

White Horse Employment are recruiting a CTO / R&D Director to lead its global software engineering and R&D function, reporting to the Managing Director. This senior role shapes technology strategy, engineering delivery, software quality, architecture, and operational excellence across international teams.

The successful candidate will drive a transition to product-led development, build leadership, implement AI within the SDLC, and ensure secure-by-design practices while meeting regulatory

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software engineering/technology experience.
• 5+ years in CTO/VP Eng/Director roles.
• Experience leading distributed international engineering teams.
• Track record transforming engineering organisations towards product-led development.
• Strong SaaS/enterprise software/cloud experience.
• Experience developing engineering managers and future technical leaders.
• Strong understanding of modern software engineering, DevOps and cloud technologies.
• Proven experience implementing AI within the software development lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop global engineering and R&D teams, including engineering managers and technical leads.
• Shape and deliver the technology and engineering strategy.
• Transition the organisation towards a scalable, product-led development model.
• Improve delivery predictability, engineering quality and operational performance.
• Drive greater use of automated testing, DevOps and modern engineering practices.
• Establish meaningful engineering KPIs around delivery, quality and recovery.
• Oversee architecture, deployment standards and technical decision-making across cloud and on-premise environments.
• Strengthen succession planning, knowledge sharing and engineering capability.
• Manage third-party development partners and external technical resources.
• Embed secure-by-design principles and support relevant regulatory requirements.
• Lead the organisation's adoption of AI-assisted software development, delivering measurable improvements in productivity, quality, speed and cost.

Skills

Software engineering

CTO leadership

Distributed teams

Product-led development

SaaS/cloud

AI in SDLC

European languages

Job description

White Horse Employment are recruiting a CTO / R&D Director to lead its global software engineering and R&D function, reporting to the Managing Director. This senior role shapes technology strategy, engineering delivery, software quality, architecture, and operational excellence across international teams.

The successful candidate will drive a transition to product-led development, build leadership, implement AI within the SDLC, and ensure secure-by-design practices while meeting regulatory