Director of Engineering

Qurated; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Qurated in London is recruiting a Director of Engineering to lead a 20-30 person team through a critical modernization of payments and FX infrastructure. The role blends deep technical work with org-building, ensuring delivery quality while shaping how the engineering function scales.

You will work hands-on with senior engineers, drive an AI-assisted engineering program, and partner with architecture to deliver resilient systems at scale in a hybrid model.

Qualifications

• Hands-on depth in Java/Kotlin, Spring Boot, and event-driven systems on AWS.
• Proven experience scaling an engineering org (~20-30) in a transformation-heavy environment.
• Experience managing blended delivery — in-house, offshore, vendor.

Responsibilities

• Lead and shape a 20-30 person engineering org through a period of transformation.
• Unify hybrid delivery: in-house, offshore, and outsourced vendor teams under one engineering standard.
• Partner with Head of Architecture to turn design intent into shipped, resilient, high-volume systems.
• Drive ROI from AI-assisted engineering and modernisation initiatives.

Skills

Java/Kotlin

Spring Boot

Event-driven

AWS

Org scaling

Delivery governance

Tools

N/A

Job description

Director of Engineering - Financial services- London (Hybrid)

We're hiring a Head of Engineering for a specialist bank building critical payments and FX infrastructure for institutions worldwide. They're mid-transformation - modernising legacy platforms and moving toward an agentic, AI-assisted engineering model - and need someone who can lead that shift hands-on, not from a slide deck.

This is a rare mix: real technical credibility (you'll be in the weeds with strong, opinionated senior engineers) combined with the scope to shape how a ~20-to-30-person engineering org works, delivers, and grows.

Why this role is interesting

• You'll take AI-assisted engineering from ad-hoc adoption (teams already use Claude and Codex daily) to a measured, industrialised practice — and you own proving its ROI.
• You'll rebalance a top-heavy team, building out a proper senior-to-mid engineering bench as the org scales.
• You'll unify a hybrid delivery model — in-house, offshore, and outsourced vendor teams — under one engineering standard, without killing the pace that got them here.
• You'll partner directly with the Head of Architecture, turning design intent into shipped, resilient, high-volume systems.

What you'll actually need (non-negotiable)

• Hands-on depth in Java/Kotlin, Spring Boot, and event-driven systems on AWS — enough to earn trust in a code review, not just a 1:1.
• Proven experience scaling an engineering org (~20-30+) inside a fast-moving, transformation-heavy environment.
• Experience managing blended delivery — in-house, offshore, vendor — without it becoming a coordination tax.