Developer Experience Lead

IAG Loyalty; City of Westminster; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading international loyalty program in the UK seeks a Developer Experience Lead to enhance the experience for internal product teams and partners. This pivotal role involves owning platforms and tooling while ensuring teams function effectively at scale. Responsibilities include setting strategic direction, leading multi-disciplinary teams, and managing budgets. A strong background in developer platforms and stakeholder management is essential. The position offers a hybrid work model, requiring minimal office attendance in London.

Benefits

Hybrid working model

Inclusive workplace culture

Qualifications

• Senior leadership experience in developer experience or platform engineering.
• Strong engineering or architecture background, particularly with cloud platforms.
• Experience delivering tools that improve developer productivity.
• Proven ability in managing large teams and budgets.
• Ability to develop strategies aligned with business priorities.

Responsibilities

• Set strategy for Developer Platforms and Backstage.
• Lead multi-disciplinary teams with clear vision and coaching.
• Own cloud and data platforms to maintain operational stability.
• Manage budgets and supplier relationships.
• Drive developer experience strategy based on feedback.

Skills

Leadership in developer experience

Stakeholder management

Cloud platforms (AWS preferred)

Engineering background

Strategic thinking

Budget management

Strong communication skills

Job description

We are seeking a Developer Experience Lead to shape and deliver a world‑class developer experience for internal product teams and external partners across IAG Loyalty and BA Holidays. This strategic leadership role is focused on removing friction, improving developer productivity, and enabling teams to build and operate software effectively at scale. You will own the platforms, tooling, and developer‑facing products that underpin how engineering teams work, from cloud and data platforms through to developer portals. You will lead two core teams:

• Developer Platforms – responsible for our cloud and data platforms, shared engineering services, and developer tooling. This team enables autonomous delivery by providing secure, reliable foundations and clear platform guardrails.
• Backstage – responsible for our internal developer portal. This team focuses on product‑led improvements to the developer experience, delivering self‑service capabilities, documentation, and workflows that reduce friction and help teams operate efficiently at scale.

While this is not a hands‑on role, you will operate confidently in a technical domain, using your experience to set direction, influence decisions, manage budgets, and lead a large mix of permanent and contract colleagues. This role is based in our London office and follows our hybrid working model, The Blend, with a minimum of two days per week in the office.

What You’ll Be Doing

You will set the strategy and direction for both Developer Platforms and Backstage, aligning industry best practice with business priorities. You will lead and develop multi‑disciplinary teams, providing clear vision, coaching, and accountability. You will own our central cloud and data platforms, balancing new capability delivery with operational stability and effective support for product and data teams. A core focus of the role is defining and driving the developer experience strategy. You will evolve our developer portal and tooling to reduce friction, accelerate onboarding, and increase self‑service, using developer feedback to prioritise improvements and measure impact. You will act as a trusted advisor and escalation point for platform and developer experience topics, manage budgets and supplier relationships, and champion modern engineering practices such as DevOps, CI/CD, and observability.

Qualifications

• Senior leadership experience in developer experience, platform engineering, or related technical domains.
• Strong engineering or architecture background, with experience across cloud platforms (AWS preferred), data platforms, and developer tooling.
• Proven track record delivering platforms, portals, or tools that improve developer productivity and partner experiences.
• Strategic thinker able to translate vision into clear roadmaps and outcomes.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills at all levels.
• Experience leading large teams and managing budgets, contracts, and suppliers.
• Clear, confident communicator with a collaborative, pragmatic leadership style.
• Comfortable working in a fast‑paced, evolving environment.
• You only want to focus on your to‑do list; we're a small, high‑performing team, we help each other to succeed.
• You value perfection over fast iteration and progress; IAG Loyalty moves fast, we learn and iterate as we go; our environment isn't right for everyone.
• You're looking to create but not build; this is an end‑to‑end role, you need to be comfortable owning your space, from ideation through to delivery and review.

If you think you have what it takes but don't meet every single point above, please do still apply. We'd love to chat and see if you could be a great fit.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Our vision, 'to create the world's most rewarding experiences,' applies not only to our customers but for our colleagues too. It's about taking belonging seriously, actively fostering a culture where everyone feels welcomed and valued by embracing diverse identities, personal histories, and perspectives. This commitment makes IAG Loyalty a rewarding place to work and enhances our ability to solve complex problems, drive innovation, and better serve our customers and communities.

Please let us know if we can make any reasonable adjustments to support your interview process with us.