Delivery Lead, Engineering & Technology, CP R&D IT

Syngenta Group; Bracknell; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Syngenta Crop Protection UK is seeking a Delivery Lead to drive reliable, transparent delivery across Engineering and Technology. Based in Platform Engineering, this role owns cross‑stream dependency management and alignment with AI Enablement and Product Engineering.

You will chair the Delivery Council, publish dashboards, manage risks and capacity, and coordinate with vendor leads to keep commitments. Strong communication and collaborative leadership in scientific, data‑intensive environments

Qualifications

• Proven track record coordinating multi-squad engineering delivery in enterprise environments.
• Understanding of CI/CD, cloud, IAM, observability, API infrastructure and HPC.
• Able to distinguish technical, resourcing and process risks and escalate appropriately.
• Adapts Scrum or Kanban to platform engineering and coordinates vendors effectively.
• Influencing without authority, credibility and leadership backing are essential.
• Excellent written communication; produces dashboards and status reports.
• Turns retrospective outcomes into actionable operating changes.
• Fluency in English, written and spoken.
• Experience delivering technology in scientific, data-intensive or complex enterprise settings.

Responsibilities

• Own the delivery rhythm across Platform Engineering; drive outcomes over compliance.
• Surface and manage cross-squad dependencies; align with primary consumers.
• Coordinate day-to-day delivery with vendor leads and statements of work.
• Onboard/offboard externals; surface performance or capacity issues early.
• Chair the Delivery Council and manage the dependency register across teams.
• Trigger re-plans when needed and escalate only when necessary.
• Establish and publish delivery metrics and reporting for transparency.
• Maintain delivery dashboards on health, dependencies, and metrics.
• Drive delivery forums and prepare for the wider Engineering cadence.
• Identify, assess and mitigate delivery risks and issues.
• Facilitate capacity planning and optimize resource allocation.
• Champion continuous improvement in delivery processes.

Skills

Delivery coordination multi-squad

CI/CD & cloud understanding

Risk escalation

Scrum/Kanban adaptation

Influencing without authority

Written communication

Dashboard & reporting

English fluency

Experience in data-intensive env

Tools

CI/CD

Cloud

IAM

Observability

API infrastructure

HPC

Job description

Delivery Lead, Engineering & Technology, CP R&D IT

• Full-time

Syngenta Crop Protection is a leader in agricultural innovation, bringing breakthrough technologies and solutions that enable farmers to grow productively and sustainably. We offer a leading portfolio of crop protection solutions for plant and soil health, as well as digital solutions that transform the decision-making capabilities of farmers. Our 17,900 employees serve to advance agriculture in more than 90 countries around the world. Syngenta Crop Protection is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, and is part of the Syngenta Group.

Our employees reflect the diversity of our customers, the markets where we operate and the communities which we serve. No matter what your position, you will have a vital role in safely feeding the world and taking care of our planet. Join us and help shape the future of agriculture.

Purpose

We are looking for a Delivery Lead to drive reliable, transparent, and continuously improving delivery across Engineering and Technology. Based in Platform Engineering, this role owns the cross-stream dependency and commitment management that keeps Platform Engineering, AI Enablement, and Product Engineering aligned in day-to-day execution.

Platform Engineering provides shared foundations to reduce duplicated effort, remove friction, promote reuse, and establish consistent engineering standards — enabling teams to build, ship, and operate digital products faster, more consistently, and with greater confidence. This directly accelerates the delivery of software solutions to our scientists and, ultimately, active ingredient discovery across small molecules and biologicals.

This role is accountable for delivery orchestration across the team, ensuring prioritised work is delivered incrementally, with transparent execution, actively managed risks and dependencies, and clear alignment to successful business outcomes.

Accountabilities

Own the delivery rhythm across Platform Engineering and ensure ceremonies drive outcomes, not compliance. Prioritise early, incremental value delivery

Surface and manage cross-squad dependencies inside Platform Engineering and between Platform Engineering and its primary consumers.

Own day-to-day delivery coordination with vendor leads and delivery commitments (statements of work) in Platform Engineering scope.

Coordinate onboarding and offboarding of vetted externals with the relevant Staff Engineers and surface performance or capacity issues early.

Chair the Delivery Council, own the cross-stream dependency register, and drive follow-through across Platform Engineering, AI Enablement, and Product Engineering.

Call cross-stream re-plans when commitments slip and escalation only when consensus cannot be reached.

Establish and maintain effective delivery metrics and reporting to ensure progress transparency and support data-driven action

Publish authoritative delivery dashboards covering delivery health, dependency status, and agreed organisational metrics.

Drive recurring delivery forums and preparation for the wider Engineering and Technology operating cadence.

Proactively identify, assess, and manage delivery risks and issues, implementing mitigation strategies and communicating impact to stakeholders.

Facilitate capacity planning and resource allocation discussions to ensure realistic commitments and optimal utilisation of team capabilities.

Champion continuous improvement initiatives within delivery processes, gathering feedback from teams and implementing enhancements to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

Maintain comprehensive delivery documentation and knowledge repositories to ensure transparency, traceability, and institutional learning across the organisation.

Dimensions

Business Impact: Key role coordinating platform engineering teams with budget up to $5M/year

People: Managing IT teams internal or external third-party, no direct FTE reports

Geographic Scope: Global

Complexity: High stakeholder management, matrix design, and cross-functional leadership requirements

**Experience / Previous roles required for the role**

**Must Have**

• Proven track record of coordinating multi-squad engineering delivery in enterprise environments with real dependency depth and organisational visibility
• Understands CI/CD, cloud, IAM, observability, API infrastructure, and HPC well enough to challenge delivery assumptions credibly
• Can distinguish technical risk, resourcing risk, and process risk, and **escalate** the right issue at the right time
• Adapts Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid approaches to platform engineering; comfortable coordinating vendor delivery without letting external structures distort internal priorities
• Influencing without authority—operating as an individual contributor whose mandate comes from role design, credibility, and explicit leadership backing
• Exceptional written communication, producing clear dashboards, dependency registers, status reports, and re-plan proposals
• Turns retrospective outcomes into real operating changes with tracked follow-through
• Fluency in English, both written and verbal
• Experience delivering technology capabilities in scientific, R&D, data-intensive, or complex enterprise environments

**Nice to have**

• Background in software engineering, computer science, or agile frameworks (SAFe/Release Train Engineer experience)
• Experience working in life sciences, crop protection R&D, or similar environments that promote diverse thinking and experimentation

**Experiences to be gained in the role**

• Exposure to business strategy as an entry into more strategic leadership roles
• Deep understanding of Crop Protection R&D and digital science
• Build authentic, trust-based working relationships with sponsors, experts, and managers

Why Syngenta?

• Meaningful impact: help build technology that supports scientific innovation and sustainable agriculture.
• Complex, modern challenges: work on high-scale platforms and systems with room for technical judgement.
• Collaborative environment: partner with global engineering, R&D and product communities.
• Growth: broaden your influence through challenging work, visible outcomes and a global network.