Director, Software Engineering

WPP; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Accommodations on request

Job summary

WPP in the United Kingdom is seeking a senior, product-minded engineering leader to drive delivery for our commerce product area and to lead the application of AI into our SDLC. You will be core to translating product priorities into reliable engineering outcomes and guiding your team toward high-quality results.

You will lead across core commerce systems and data flows, collaborating with Product, Design, Commercial and Delivery to align roadmaps, ensure reliability, and accelerate value

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience across large, complex systems.
• Proven ability to influence roadmaps and deliver with cross-functional teams.
• Strong API, distributed system and integration experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering delivery for commerce products and AI in the SDLC.
• Translate business needs into reliable engineering outcomes and roadmaps.
• Own end-to-end lifecycle from discovery to post-production support.
• Mentor senior engineers and drive cross-team collaboration.

Skills

Engineering leadership

APIs & integrations

AI in SDLC

Cloud data platforms

System architecture

Multi-team leadership

Job description

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands.

We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth.
We work with the world's most valuable brands and have global reach across 100+ markets, with deep local expertise.
Our people are the key to our success. We’re committed to fostering a culture of creativity, belonging and continuous learning, attracting and developing the brightest talent, and providing exciting career opportunities that help our people grow.
For more information, visit WPP.com.

WPP’s Data & Technology Solutions is WPP’s unified global data and technology organisation. We build the platforms, products, and engineering capabilities that power marketing transformation at scale.

WPP Open is our AI-powered platform for marketing. It connects people, data, tools, and AI into a single ecosystem, enabling teams to deliver better outcomes faster, more efficiently, and at global scale.

Our teams of engineers, product leaders, and operators work across multiple domains to build systems that power planning, execution, and delivery for some of the world’s largest brands.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for a senior product-minded engineering leader to drive delivery and execution for our commerce product area and to lead the application of AI into our SDLC.

You will be core part of our product development process and help to inform roadmap and will lead your team in translating product priorities into reliable, high ‑ quality engineering outcomes. Additionally, you will lead the application and adaptation of AI-driven development practices, ensuring systems operate effectively in real ‑ world, production environments. This role requires strong systems thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and the ability to manage complex integrations in a rapidly developing environment.

Work in this area spans both core commerce marketing systems and the data flows and pipelines required to interact with these systems , requiring a blend of data-aware system design, application engineering, and integration engineering.

You are:

• A product-focused engineering leader with strong technical credibility and demonstrated ability in influencing and driving the roadmap.
• Comfortable operating in integration-heavy, business-critical systems
• Significant experience in programme design and systems architecture.
• Demonstrated portfolio incorporating AI driven development into the end-to-end SDLC.
• Data & metrics-driven, able to manage complexity across multiple teams, platforms and external partners.
• Focused on outcomes tied to business performance.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

Engineering Leadership & Team Development

• Establish and develop team mentorship paths aiming to incorporate agents into day-to-day work.
• Accountable for the career growth and development of senior engineers and their teams across craft, delivery and business outcomes.

Stakeholder Alignment & XFN Collaboration

• Act as the primary engineering partner to Product, Design, Commercial, and Delivery stakeholders.
• Translate business requirements into actionable engineering outcomes and technical product direction.
• Drive alignment with engineering leads and XFNs from partner teams to deliver integrated roadmaps.

End-to-End Accountability

• Take ownership across the full software development lifecycle — from discovery through to release and post-production maintenance.
• Ensure systems are reliable, performant, and capable of operating under real-world conditions.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

• 12+ years of software engineering experience
• Proven experience delivering complex, operational systems at scale
• Strong experience with APIs, distributed systems, and integrations
• Experience working with systems that integrate with external platforms or partner ecosystems
• Strong understanding of system performance, latency, and production reliability
• Hands-on experience delivering AI-enabled product features into production, including integrating LLMs and generative AI services
• Strong experience with modern cloud data warehouse and lakehouse platforms (e.g. Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift)
• Solid understanding of data modelling, ELT/ETL pipelines, and orchestration tooling (e.g. dbt, Airflow), including data quality, lineage, and governance
• Deep experience architecting and operating systems on major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, and/or GCP)
• Strong knowledge of cloud-native architecture patterns, including microservices, containers and Kubernetes, serverless, and event-driven design
• Experience with infrastructure as code (e.g. Terraform), CI/CD, observability, cloud security and IAM, and cloud cost optimisation (FinOps)
• Demonstrated ability to lead delivery in multi-team, dependency-heavy environments
• Strong stakeholder management across Product, Delivery, and Engineering

If you are ready to lead engineering delivery at scale, working across complex systems and driving real business outcomes, we encourage you to apply.

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, respect, and equal opportunity for all.

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.