DDCC Head of Engineering

TechWomen4Boards Ltd; Crawley; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Thales UK is seeking an experienced DDCC Head of Engineering to lead engineering teams delivering cortAIx UK AI and data platforms in safety-critical environments.

You will drive strategy, governance, and delivery across software, systems, IVVQ, AI and ML, shaping roadmaps while ensuring security, quality, and compliance with industry standards.

This hands-on leadership role demands cross-functional collaboration and clear communication with stakeholders to accelerate value from AI initiatives.

Qualifications

• Academic qualifications in Engineering/CS and leadership roles (Engineering Manager, Technical PM, Design Authority).
• Experience in complex programmes in regulated defence/aerospace environments.
• Ability to verify deliverables and assess requirements, risks, and opportunities.
• Ability to lead and manage technical projects with clear risk visibility.
• Experience developing high-quality technical documentation to defined processes.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: Develop and execute the engineering strategy for AI products and platforms.
• Engineering Leadership: Build and scale high-performing teams; establish standards and architecture principles.
• Operational Excellence: Define metrics; drive automation across the AI lifecycle; improve reliability and CI/CD.

Education

Engineering/CS degree

Job description

At Thales, we focus on building and delivering robust, real-world AI and Data solutions that make a tangible impact for our customers—and society at large. Our global cortAIx initiative unites over 600 AI and data specialists dedicated to developing trusted, operationally effective AI-powered systems for some of the most challenging and complex environments. In the UK, CortAIx is accelerating this mission by fostering technology, talent, and research focused on ethical, transparent, and explainable AI.

Primary Purpose of the Role:

DDCC is Thales UK’s Digital and Data Competence Centre. This includes 3 primary areas of activity:

• cortAIx UK & Enterprise AI: Our AI incubation and industrialisation accelerator for deployed and enterprise AI solutions
• Data Enablement: Delivering foundational data tools, processes and architectures to support generation of value from data at pace
• Sovereign Cloud: Delivering cloud native platform solutions for Thales UK development and production activities

The DDCC Head of Engineering role is focused on technical management of engineering activities primarily supporting cortAIx UK. They manage and monitor the solution engineering activities and the teams in terms of development process, practices and tools strategies across DDCC engineering activities

What are we looking for:

We’re looking for an experienced Software Engineer who understands architecture and can provide cross functional leadership to a small, technical complex team to drive developments. This is very much a hands-on position, leading solution delivery by working with teams across Software, Systems, IVVQ, AI and Machine Learning.

We need a solution provider, a force multiplier whose expertise sit in the delivery management of technical solutions but also can manage a small team of functional leaders and understands software architecture within safety critical environments.

Due to the nature of the work, we require the successful individual to be able to hold UK EYES ONLY Security clearance. See below for further details.

As DDCC Head of Engineering, your remit will cover:

• Stakeholder management: 1st point of contact for customer technical requirements/escalation points for scrum teams
• Governance: enforce technical direction; resolve cross-team conflicts.
• Change management: improving engineering effectiveness (e.g., test maturity, CI reliability, coding standards).
• Communication: translate leadership communication and analyse/describe impact to roadmap and trade-offs.
• Cross-team integration: coordinating platform, software, test/automation and support needs
• Quality, Safety, Cyber Assurance: verification strategy, traceability, defect management and Project Design Authority co-ordination/delivery
• Process/tooling: CI/CD for embedded, static analysis, unit/integration test frameworks, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, configuration management.
• Risk management: project technical risks reviews and management in conjunction AIDM

Key Responsibilities and Tasks:

Strategic Leadership

• Develop and execute the engineering strategy for AI products and platforms.
• Accountable for the technology roadmaps aligned to business objectives.
• Partner with executive leadership to identify and prioritise AI opportunities.
• Build a culture of innovation, experimentation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Act as a trusted advisor on emerging AI technologies, trends, and risks.

Engineering Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop Engineering Managers, Principal Engineers, AI Engineers and SW Engineers
• Build and scale high-performing, diverse engineering teams.
• Establish engineering standards, architecture principles, and delivery practices.
• Drive operational excellence across reliability, security, performance, and scalability.
• Foster a strong engineering culture focused on quality and customer outcomes.

Operational Excellence

• Define the process for and track engineering metrics including but not limited to:
  • Reliability
  • Deployment frequency
  • Lead time
  • Platform utilisation
  • Cost efficiency
• Drive automation throughout the software and AI lifecycle.

Success Measures

Within the first 12-24 months:

• Delivery of measurable business value from AI initiatives.
• Improved engineering productivity and deployment frequency
• High employee engagement and retention.
• Successful implementation of AI & Engineering governance frameworks.

Core Skills and Experience required

You will likely have academic qualifications in a relevant Engineering / Computer Science Discipline and will have experience among the following types of positions: Engineering Manager, Technical Project Manager, Software Engineering Manager, Technical Design Authority, Senior Systems / Solution Architecture roles in a relevant discipline

• You have worked on complex programmes in highly regulated environments /w defence / aerospace specific experience being of additional value
• You know how to verify the technical deliverables of engineering teams (customer needs, OCD, requirements, architecture choice…)
• You are able to lead and manage technical engineering projects, meeting the requirements with a clear view of the risks and opportunities
• You have significant experience in developing high quality technical documentation aligned to specified processes and frameworks
• You are able to engage and influence a diverse set of stakeholders as well as creating clear and achievable goals
• You are able to take decisions – even in uncertain contexts
• You are able to drive a culture of continuous improvement

Experience of having delivered operational AI solutions into embedded environments would be advantageous or knowledge/qualifications/experience that suggest you can quickly learn tools and processes which enable the establishment and smooth running of an MLOps and AI delivery organisation in a complex environment