Director of Engineering - Agentic Commerce

Swap; Greater London; On-site; GBP 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Swap is seeking a Director of Engineering to lead the Agentic Commerce team, steering AI-powered, high-velocity software delivery at scale. You will partner with Product, Engineering, and Commercial teams to prioritize work, while hands-on involvement ensures pragmatic execution and architectural integrity.

You’ll drive a culture of ownership, foster talent growth, and maintain engineering best practices across design, testing, and deployment in a fast-paced startup/scale-up setting.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 3 years in an engineering leadership or management role.
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally with Product and Commercial teams.
• Comfortable contributing hands-on when needed.
• Experience in startup/scale-up environments.
• Hands-on experience with agentic/LLM-powered systems or AI-driven workflows.
• Strong background in distributed systems and cloud-native architecture; GCP a plus.
• Background in ecommerce/fintech or high-growth product domains.

Responsibilities

• Lead, grow and inspire a team of engineers on the Agentic Commerce team, creating ownership and high performance.
• Drive end-to-end SDLC execution from discovery to delivery and iteration.
• Embed AI-first thinking to automate processes and accelerate development cycles.
• Align roadmaps with Product, Engineering, and Commercial leadership.
• Define and uphold engineering best practices across code quality and deployment.
• Foster continuous improvement through retrospectives and addressing bottlenecks.
• Stay close to JavaScript ecosystem to inform technical direction.

Skills

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Hands-on engineering

AI-first mindset

Talent recruitment

Tools

GCP

Job description

About Swap

Swap is the infrastructure behind modern agentic commerce. The only AI-native platform connecting backend operations with a forward-thinking storefront experience.

Built for brands that want to sell anything - anywhere, Swap centralises global operations, powers intelligent workflows, and unlocks margin-protecting decisions with real-time data and capability. Our products span cross-border, tax, returns, demand planning, and our next-generation agentic storefront, giving merchants full transparency and the ability to act with confidence.

At Swap, we’re building a culture that values clarity, creativity, and shared ownership as we redefine how global commerce works.

About the role

We are looking for an Director of Engineering to lead our Agentic Commerce team — one of the most strategically important and fast-moving teams at Swap. You will lead a team of engineers building the next generation of AI-powered commerce experiences, working at the intersection of product, engineering, and data to ship impactful work at speed.

This is a role for someone who has built and scaled high-performing teams, knows when to lead from the front and when to roll up their sleeves and get hands-on, and who genuinely lives and breathes AI — not as a buzzword, but as a practical lens for building faster, automating relentlessly, and pushing deliverables through the SDLC with conviction. You will work closely with Product, Engineering, and Commercial teams to align on priorities, reduce friction, and drive execution across the full software development lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Lead, grow and inspire a team of engineers on the Agentic Commerce team, creating an environment of ownership, psychological safety, and high performance. This includes recruiting top talent, developing careers, managing performance and setting the bar for engineering excellence at Swap.

• Drive execution across the full SDLC, from discovery and planning through to delivery, monitoring, and iteration, with a relentless focus on shipping quality software at speed.

• Embed AI-first thinking into the team's day-to-day — championing the use of AI tooling to automate processes, accelerate development cycles, and remove friction throughout the engineering workflow.

• Work closely with Product, Engineering, and Commercial leadership to align on roadmap priorities, surface dependencies early, and ensure cross-functional delivery runs smoothly.

• Define and uphold engineering best practices across code quality, system design, testing, and deployment.

• Foster a culture of continuous improvement — running effective retrospectives, identifying bottlenecks, and driving meaningful change to how the team operates.

• Stay close to the JavaScript ecosystem and emerging technologies to inform technical direction and keep Swap ahead of the curve.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 3 years in an engineering leadership or management role.

• Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally with other Engineering teams, Product, and Commercial teams, translating business goals into clear engineering priorities and keeping stakeholders aligned.

• Comfortable getting hands-on when needed — you don't just delegate, you contribute.

• Experience working in a start-up or scale-up environment — you understand the pace, the ambiguity, and what it takes to build effectively.

• Hands-on experience building or managing teams working on agentic systems, LLM-powered products, or AI-driven workflows.

• Strong background in distributed systems and cloud-native architecture; GCP a plus.

• Background in e-commerce, fintech, or similarly high-growth product domains.

Diversity & Equal Opportunities:

We embrace diversity and equality in a serious way. We are committed to building a team with a variety of backgrounds, skills, and views. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. Creating a culture of equality isn't just the right thing to do; it's also the smart thing.