Engineering Manager

National Energy System Operator; Warwick; Hybrid; GBP 72,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus up to 15% of salary

28 days annual leave

Pension with 12% company match

Flexible benefits programme

Cycle to Work Scheme

Job summary

National Energy System Operator (NESO) seeks an Engineering Manager for Market Change Delivery to own and elevate the engineering practice for Response and Reform Services. You will guide cross-functional and vendor teams, shaping the technical roadmap and delivering high-quality production systems.

Lead with strong architectural awareness, drive delivery, and mentor engineering leads while promoting robust testing, CI/CD, and observability in a complex, regulated energy context. Hybrid UK role.

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering background with hands-on experience in distributed system architectures.
• End-to-end engineering proficiency including CI/CD pipelines, DevOps tooling, automated testing, observability, and operational readiness.
• Deep expertise in one of: real-time/event-driven systems, transactional systems, or modern front-end frameworks.
• Proven ability to drive delivery and mentor multi-vendor teams.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the engineering practice for Response and Reform product areas within Market Change Delivery.
• Provide strong technical leadership across distributed, multi-vendor engineering teams.
• Define and uphold engineering standards, guardrails, reusable patterns and best practices.
• Translate architectural direction into actionable engineering plans and ensure production-ready delivery.
• Drive improvements in test automation, CI/CD, observability, and DevOps maturity.
• Ensure documentation and remediation planning for technical debt.
• Proactively manage engineering risks and dependencies across teams.
• Partner with Product Managers and Solution Architects to shape delivery roadmap.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Distributed systems

CI/CD

DevOps

Communication

Job description

About The Role

The Engineering Manager for MCD will be responsible for owning and advancing the engineering practice within the product areas of Response and Reform Services. This role is suited to an engineering leader with deep hands-on experience, strong architectural awareness, and proven capability operating in multi-vendor delivery environments.

You will guide engineering excellence, ensure high-quality product delivery, support and manage cross-functional engineering teams—including vendor engineers-within a complex, high-performing ecosystem. Your leadership will directly influence product reliability, delivery velocity, engineering culture, and long-term technical strategy.

This role can be based from Wokingham or Warwick & we continue to offer Hybrid working.

Key Accountabilities

• Own and evolve the engineering practice for Response and Refrom product areas within Market Change Delivery.
• Provide strong technical leadership across distributed, multi-vendor engineering teams.
• Define and uphold engineering standards, development guardrails, reusable patterns, and engineering best practices.
• Translate architectural direction into actionable engineering plans and ensure high-quality, production-ready delivery.
• Drive improvements in test automation, CI/CD, observability, and DevOps maturity.
• Ensure clear documentation and remediation planning for technical debt.
• Proactively manage engineering risks, integration dependencies, and quality across internal and vendor teams.
• Partner with Product Managers, Solution Architects, Delivery Managers, and UX to shape product delivery and technical roadmap.
• Grow and empower engineering leads by providing frameworks, coaching, and technical direction that enables them to challenge and uplift their squads.

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK by the start of employment. Visa sponsorship may not be available for this role and will be considered in line with business requirements.

Essentials

About You

• Strong software engineering background with hands-on experience in distributed system architectures.
• End-to-end engineering proficiency including CI/CD pipelines, DevOps tooling, automated testing, observability, and operational readiness.
• Deep expertise in one of the following technical areas:
  • Real-time or event-driven systems
  • Transactional systems
  • Responsive front-end engineering and modern UI frameworks
• Demonstrated ability to drive delivery, navigate ambiguity, and make pragmatic engineering decisions.
• Strong leadership and people management skills with experience mentoring engineering leads and multi-vendor teams.
• Ability to rapidly understand business context, product domain, and complex problem statements, and translate them into engineering direction.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to set expectations, challenge constructively, and strengthen team culture.

Desirables

• Experience working in highly regulated, mission-critical, or real-time operational environments.
• Knowledge of power systems, Balancing Mechanism, or energy industry domains.
• Familiarity with cloud-native architectures, event streaming, or large-scale data platforms.
• Background in designing or supporting optimisation engines, forecasting models, or decision-support tools.
• Prior experience improving engineering maturity across multiple delivery partners.

What You'll Get

A competitive salary of £72,000 - £80,000 dependent on experience and capabilityAs well as your base salary, you will receive a bonus of up to 15% of your salary for stretch performance, 28 days annual leave as standard, and a competitive contributory pension scheme where we will double match your contribution to a maximum company contribution of 12%.

Benefits

NESO's flexible benefits programme provides you with more flexibility around your health, lifestyle and protection benefits, here's just a few available:

• Flexible Bank Holidays & Holiday Trading
• Additional Birthday Day Off
• Cycle to Work Scheme, Retail & Gym Discounts
• Private Medical Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance & Personal Accident Insurance

About Us

At the National Energy System Operator (NESO), we play a vital role in tackling climate change and securing Great Britain's energy future. We already operate the world's fastest decarbonising electricity system and are working towards our ambition to run it carbon-free for a short period this year - provided the market supplies electricity exclusively from renewable sources. Alongside this, we provide expert advice to government on how to deliver a clean power system by 2030. In autumn 2024, the Electricity System Operator (ESO) transitioned to become NESO - an independent, expert public corporation with a whole-system view across electricity, gas, and hydrogen. NESO operates independently and transparently, always acting in the best interests of all energy users. Licensed and regulated by Ofgem, we make impartial decisions that balance sustainability, affordability and security. Our organisation is fully independent from government, the regulator and all commercial interests, with a clear focus on system-wide benefit, long-term thing and public value. The time to deliver is now. Join the energy transformation and help shape the future. Your energy. Our future. Together National Energy System Operator (NESO) recognises the potential of bright and talented individuals, and we encourage you to join us as Great Britain's energy system undergoes an ambitious, exciting, and vital transformation. Together with industry, we are creating a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.

More Information

This role closes at 23:59, on the day before date shown above, however we encourage candidates to submit their application as early as possible and not wait until the published closing date as this can vary.

Research shows that some people may hesitate to apply unless they meet every single requirement.

At NESO, we believe potential comes in many forms and we're committed to a fair, inclusive recruitment

We're committed to building a workforce that represents the communities we serve, and a working environment in which each individual feels valued, respected, fairly treated, and able to reach their full potential.

If this role sparks your interest but you're not sure you tick every box, we still want to hear from you.

process where everyone has the opportunity to show their talents.

We celebrate the difference people can bring into our organisation, and welcome and encourage applicants with diverse experiences and backgrounds.