Global CTO & R&D Director — AI-Driven Product Engineering

White Horse Employment; England; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

White Horse Employment is supporting an established technology business in appointing a CTO / R&D Director to lead its global software engineering and R&D function. This senior leadership role reports to the Managing Director and drives technology strategy, engineering delivery, software quality, architecture and operational excellence.

The role focuses on transitioning to a product-led development model, reducing dependency on individual experts, and strengthening engineering leadership across

Qualifications

• Extensive leadership of global engineering teams.
• Experience transforming organisations towards product-led development.
• Proven expertise in SaaS, cloud and enterprise software environments.
• Strong background in software architecture, DevOps and modern engineering practices.
• Experience implementing AI within the software development lifecycle.
• Ability to work with senior technical specialists and provide clear strategic direction.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop global engineering and R&D teams, including engineering managers and technical leads.
• Shape and deliver the technology and engineering strategy.
• Transition the organisation towards a scalable, product-led development model.
• Improve delivery predictability, engineering quality and operational performance.
• Drive greater use of automated testing, DevOps and modern engineering practices.
• Establish meaningful engineering KPIs around delivery, quality and recovery.
• Oversee architecture, deployment standards and technical decision-making across cloud and on-premise environments.
• Strengthen succession planning, knowledge sharing and engineering capability.
• Manage third-party development partners and external technical resources.
• Embed secure-by-design principles and support relevant regulatory requirements.
• Lead the organisation's adoption of AI-assisted software development, delivering measurable improvements in productivity, quality, speed and cost.

Skills

15+ years software experience

CTO/Director level

Distributed teams

Product-led development

SaaS/Cloud/Enterprise

Leadership development

Software architecture & DevOps

AI in SDLC

Executive collaboration

Job description

White Horse Employment is supporting an established technology business in appointing a CTO / R&D Director to lead its global software engineering and R&D function. This senior leadership role reports to the Managing Director and drives technology strategy, engineering delivery, software quality, architecture and operational excellence.

The role focuses on transitioning to a product-led development model, reducing dependency on individual experts, and strengthening engineering leadership across