Director of Engineering

Sony Music; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A global music corporation in the City of Westminster seeks a Senior Director of Engineering to lead the technology strategy for its growing D2C vertical. This position involves overseeing all technical operations, managing teams, and fostering a culture of continuous delivery. With responsibilities spanning from product management to mentoring, the ideal candidate will have extensive experience in engineering leadership, cloud technologies, and a passion for practical solutions. Competitive benefits and a vibrant work environment are offered.

Benefits

Private medical cover

Generous pension scheme

Life assurance

Income protection

Winter break time off

Music industry perks

Qualifications

• 12–15+ years of experience leading engineering teams.
• Proven ability to understand and improve the productivity of teams.
• Experience in building modular, event-driven systems at scale.
• Passion for daily shipping and iterative improvement.
• Direct experience managing agile teams.
• Experience with cloud-based technologies (AWS).
• Hands-on experience with Python and MySQL.

Responsibilities

• Lead a Product Area with individual contributors and engineering leaders.
• Partner with Product Managers and stakeholders to define the roadmap.
• Own product commitments and technology strategy.
• Develop and manage key performance metrics.
• Make effective hiring decisions.
• Focus on mentorship and personal development.

Skills

Leading engineering teams

Understanding and improving team productivity

Building modular, event-driven systems

Managing agile teams and processes

Providing constructive feedback

Working with cloud-based technologies (AWS)

Hands-on engineering experience (Python, MySQL)

E-commerce background

Mentorship and coaching

Tools

Python

MySQL

PHP

Job description

As Senior Director of Engineering, you'll be responsible for leading the Engineering strategy for our growing D2C vertical, which will power the technology that will support our artist, label, and merchandise stores worldwide. You'll be overseeing the technical ecosystem from end-to-end, ensuring that manufacturing, supply chain, front‑end experiences, financial and reporting systems are seamlessly integrated. You'll be supporting an entire line of business, managing the development process, bringing clarity to ambiguous problems and owning the successful execution of product deliverables. Your impressive skills as a technologist will allow you to own the Engineering Roadmap, facilitate the architecture of scalable applications, as well as lead the charge on automation and continuous integration. You'll be excited to learn that we ship code continuously 24/7 and take testing seriously. You'll get the opportunity to get your hands dirty while also managing and mentoring individuals on the Engineering team(s). You are well respected for your technical skills, but take even more pride in the accomplishments and growth of the team. An ideal candidate for this role is someone who thrives in a fast‑paced, rapidly changing environment and is able to balance solutions that are elegant and scalable, yet simple and pragmatic. You embrace the value of shipping rather than over‑engineering.

What you'll do:

• Lead a Product Area made up of groups of individual contributors and engineering leaders.
• Partner with Product Managers, stakeholders and peer leaders to define roadmap, lead estimation efforts, call out risks and improve productivity.
• Own the delivery of product commitments while incorporating the technology strategy and architecture goals for your product area.
• Develop, measure, and manage key metrics for area's performance.
• Make effective staffing and hiring decisions to achieve your area's goals.
• Grow managers and individual contributors with a focus on mentorship, coaching and personal development.
• Advocate for your area and remove obstacles.

Qualifications and requirements:

• 12–15+ years of experience leading engineering teams.
• Ability to understand, communicate and improve the quality and productivity of multiple teams.
• Experience building modular, event‑driven systems at scale.
• Passion for shipping daily and iterating.
• Solid experience directly managing agile teams and processes. Experience managing managers is a plus.
• Proven ability to provide constructive feedback and communicate effectively across departments.
• Experience working with cloud‑based technologies (AWS).
• Passion for using technology to elegantly solve business problems.
• Hands‑on engineering experience, ideally with Python, MySQL, some PHP. Data integration and ETL experience is a huge plus.
• An e‑commerce background is a major plus.

Benefits:

• You join a vibrant global community with the opportunity to channel your passion every day.
• A modern office environment designed for you, empowering you to bring your best.
• Investment in your professional growth and development enabling you to thrive in our vibrant community.
• The space to accelerate progress, positively disrupt and create what happens next.
• We give you the platform to champion positive change, with the opportunity to contribute to our social impact, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
• We provide an excellent range of benefits like private medical cover, a generous pension scheme, life assurance, income protection, plus loads of music industry perks. There's also time off over winter break.

Equal Opportunities

As an active part of a culturally and socially diverse society, Sony Music aims for a diverse workforce. Sony Music is an equal opportunity employer and supports workforce diversity.