Head of Engineering

Giant Group; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Workplace pension

Giant Advantage perks

Learning and development support

Job summary

Giant Group, a UK-based workforce management business, seeks a high-impact senior engineering leader to own delivery across JavaScript, .NET, C# and SQL systems. You will lead a distributed team of 20–25 engineers across the UK and Pakistan, shaping technical strategy, standards and debt management while partnering with Product and the CTO to drive planned outcomes.

This remote-first role offers 37 hours per week, a competitive leadership package and a bonus, with quarterly leadership meetings

Qualifications

• Proven senior leadership in software engineering.
• Strong depth in JavaScript, .NET Core/.NET Framework, C#, and Microsoft SQL.
• Experience leading multi-disciplinary engineering teams at scale.
• Track record of measurable delivery improvements and people leadership.
• Ability to partner with Product, CTO and senior engineers.

Responsibilities

• Develop the engineering team and delegate decisions; coach and recruit.
• Agree realistic delivery commitments with Product and business; surface risks early.
• Own secure development, testing, QA, change and release controls and observability.
• Provide technical leadership across JavaScript, .NET, C#, SQL architecture.
• Manage technical debt and modernisation aligned with business value and risk.
• Collaborate with Product from start to assess options and scope.
• Leverage AI and automation to improve code understanding, testing and delivery.
• Manage the engineering budget and capability plan with leadership support.

Skills

JavaScript

C#

.NET Core

SQL

Software Architecture

AI tools

Job description

Location UK-based, remote-first; quarterly leadership meetings in London

Engineering team Around 20-25 people across the UK and Pakistan

Hours 37 hours per week, with flexibility alongside team collaboration and operational responsibilities

Package Competitive senior leadership package, dependent on experience, plus performance-related bonus

Holiday 23 days, rising to 26, plus UK bank holidays and birthday off

Benefits Workplace pension, Giant Advantage perks and learning and development support. The People team will explain eligibility and start dates during the recruitment process.

About us

Giant Group is a workforce management business on a mission to make work just work. We support recruitment agencies, enterprise and SME businesses, contractors and workers across payroll, compliant employment solutions, invoice financing, back-office management and workforce technology.

We have been operating for over 30 years, are completely self-funded and are expanding in the USA. A major part of our next stage is becoming increasingly platform-led: using technology, automation and AI to make customer and worker journeys simpler and to allow revenue and service quality to grow faster than headcount.

The impact of your role

You will lead an established engineering team of around 20-25 people across the UK and Pakistan, owning engineering delivery, quality, testing, releases, technical standards, capability and technical debt.

Assess the team objectively, develop its strengths and make proportionate improvements to capability, structure and delivery. Stay close enough to the people and technology to understand the causes of problems and lead practical change.

Our technology estate includes significant established and legacy Java script, .NET core and .Net framework, C# and Microsoft SQL based applications. You do not need to code every day or be a database specialist, but you must have enough current technical depth to understand the environment, challenge engineers constructively and make sound technical judgements.

Product owns the customer problem, product vision, priorities, roadmap and outcomes. You will agree realistic delivery commitments jointly with the Head of Product and the business, based on capacity, complexity and dependencies, and be accountable for Engineering’s execution. The Group CTO retains responsibility for Group technology direction, architecture, infrastructure, cyber security and resilience, including approval of major architectural changes. You will lead the engineering team and its delivery within that direction, with authority over day-to-day engineering decisions and delegated accountability across the team.

This is a high-impact senior role with direct access to the CTO, CEO and Head of Product, and real scope to shape how Giant builds software during its next stage of growth.

Key responsibilities

• Develop the team, clarify responsibilities and delegate decisions appropriately. Coach people, address performance concerns fairly and recruit where new capability is needed.
• Agree realistic delivery commitments with Product and the business. Make capacity and dependencies visible, surface risks early and improve delivery predictability.
• Own secure development, peer review, testing, QA, change and release controls, observability, incident learning and documentation.
• Provide credible technical leadership across Java script, .NET core and .Net framework, C# and Microsoft SQL architecture, data flows, integrations and database dependencies.
• Manage technical debt and modernisation according to business value and risk, working within the CTO’s technical direction.
• Work with Product from the beginning to assess options, challenge assumptions constructively and agree scope and sequencing.
• Use AI and automation to improve code understanding, testing, documentation and delivery. Measure the benefits and retain review, security and quality controls.
• Own the engineering budget and capability plan. Improve productivity as the business grows and make well-evidenced investment proposals for people, tools and modernisation, with leadership support.

Essential experience and capabilities

• Significant software-engineering experience followed by substantial engineering leadership responsibility.
• Strong previous experience with Java script, .NET core and .Net framework, C# and Microsoft SQL based applications, with sufficient current technical depth to work credibly with senior engineers and technical specialists.
• Proven experience leading and developing a multi-disciplinary engineering organisation of comparable scale and complexity, while staying close enough to the work to know what is really happening.
• Evidence of measurable improvements you personally led in engineering delivery, quality or output.
• Strong people leadership, including hiring, coaching, assessing capability, organisation design and managing difficult performance issues.
• Deep understanding of modern software-development practices, including secure development, testing, QA, change and release management, reliability, observability and production support.
• Pragmatic experience managing technical debt and modernising established or legacy platforms.
• Strong Product partnership, commercial judgement, clear communication and documentation discipline, with the confidence to challenge Product, the CTO and senior engineers constructively.
• Practical fluency with modern AI development tools, with concrete examples of using them to improve engineering productivity, quality or delivery.
• Comfort operating in an entrepreneurial environment, using proportionate processes and adapting when priorities change.
• Ability to work in the UK. Visa sponsorship may be considered for an exceptional candidate.

Experience with distributed teams, on-premise and cloud environments, regulated or financially sensitive systems, or entrepreneurial businesses would be an advantage.

What success looks like

In the first three months, understand the people, systems and constraints; establish an engineering performance baseline; agree a prioritised improvement plan with the CTO and Product; and begin delivering improvements. Within six to twelve months, demonstrate more predictable delivery, stronger release quality, developing engineers, clearer management of technical debt and effective Product collaboration. Measure AI’s contribution while maintaining quality.

How our hiring process works

• Initial conversation with our People team to establish that the core engineering and leadership background is relevant.
• Technical and leadership discussion with our Group CTO and Group CEO, assessing Java script, .NET core and .Net framework, C# and Microsoft SQL, architecture, legacy systems, delivery and AI, alongside people leadership and improvements you have led.
• Product-Engineering leadership discussion with our Head of Product and Group CEO, focused on prioritisation, disagreement, collaboration and turning business problems into deliverable technology.

Application Deadline

Applications close on Friday 2nd November 2026

We will explore specific examples and outcomes through practical discussion. Technical credibility will be assessed early.

Giant Group is an equal opportunities employer. Strong written and verbal English proficiency is required for this role.