Head of Engineering

La Fosse; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

La Fosse is partnering to appoint a Global Head of Software Engineering in London. This role reports to the CTO and oversees the global software engineering organisation across the UK, Europe, US and India, driving platform modernisation, engineering leadership and delivery transformation.

You will shape the future engineering operating model, improve delivery predictability, and build a high-performance culture as the business scales with AI, data and intelligent automation at the core.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading large or complex software engineering organisations.
• Experience managing engineering managers and senior technical leaders.
• Led globally distributed and/or offshore engineering teams.
• Delivered improvements in engineering performance, quality and predictability.
• Experience transforming CI/CD, automated testing, and modern delivery practices.
• Experience with AI transformation initiatives within products or platforms.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a distributed, multi-site software engineering organisation across locations.
• Create a consistent global engineering operating model across teams and locations.
• Improve delivery predictability, engineering quality and execution.
• Accelerate move to continuous delivery with automation and modern CI/CD.
• Drive testing, release management, platform reliability and reduce technical debt.
• Evolve teams toward a product and platform mindset.
• Collaborate with Product and Architecture to shape the future tech roadmap.
• Develop senior engineering leaders and build a high-performance culture.
• Provide visibility of engineering performance, delivery and risk to CTO/executives.
• Build engineering capability to support AI, data intelligence and orchestration.

Skills

Senior leadership

Global team leadership

Software engineering strategy

CI/CD transformation

Automation & DevOps

AI transformation awareness

Job description

Global Head of Software Engineering - Reporting to CTO

London | Hybrid | International remit + Monthly Travel

PE Backed Payments Business

We are partnering with a PE-backed global payments technology business to appoint a Global Head of Software Engineering at a pivotal point in its growth and transformation journey.

The business operates a sophisticated, cloud-based payments platform used by major international organisations and is now investing in the next evolution of its technology capability.

Reporting directly to the CTO, you will take ownership of the global software engineering organisation across the UK, Europe, US and India, with a mandate spanning engineering leadership, delivery transformation, platform modernisation and organisational design.

This is an opportunity to shape how a global engineering function operates today, while also building the foundations for the business’s future ambitions across AI, data and intelligent automation.

You will be responsible for:

• Leading and developing a distributed, multi-site software engineering organisation through care and excellence
• Creating a consistent global engineering operating model across teams and locations
• Improving delivery predictability, engineering quality and execution
• Accelerating the move towards continuous delivery, greater automation and modern CI/CD practices
• Driving improvements across testing, release management, platform reliability and technical debt
• Evolving engineering teams towards a stronger product and platform mindset
• Partnering closely with Product and Architecture to shape the future technology roadmap
• Developing senior engineering leaders and building a high-performance, accountable engineering culture
• Providing clear visibility of engineering performance, delivery and risk to the CTO and executive leadership team
• Building the engineering capability required to support the organisation’s growing investment in AI, machine learning, data intelligence and intelligent orchestration

The next phase:

The organisation has already made significant progress in modernising its core technology estate and is now moving into a new phase of scale. Alongside continued platform and engineering transformation, the business sees significant opportunity in using its data more intelligently applying AI and machine learning to improve optimisation, identify commercial opportunities and ultimately create new sources of value for customers.

The Global Head of Software Engineering will play a central role in ensuring the technology, engineering practices and organisational capability are ready for that next chapter.

About you

We are looking for a senior engineering leader who can combine technical credibility with organisational leadership and delivery excellence.

We are looking for someone who has:

• Significant experience leading large or complex software engineering organisations
• Experience managing engineering managers, Heads of Engineering and senior technical leaders
• Led globally distributed and/or offshore engineering teams
• Delivered measurable improvements across engineering performance, quality and predictabilityStrong technical understanding of architecture, system design, cloud platforms and platform modernisation
• Led transformation across CI/CD, automated testing, DevOps and modern software delivery practices
• Experience within a complex product or platform environment
• Strong understanding of the end-to-end product development lifecycle
• The ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, PE-backed, high-growth or transformation environment
• The credibility to move comfortably between engineering teams, executive leadership and investor stakeholders
• Experience with starting to take a business through AI transformation, implementing AI into the day to day, and then into the products and services

Experience within payments, fintech, transaction processing or another high-volume platform environment would be highly advantageous, as would exposure to GCP or similar cloud-native environments.

This is a genuine transformation mandate with significant executive sponsorship and scope to make an impact. You will have the opportunity to influence the engineering organisation, operating model, technology platform and emerging AI agenda of an international technology business as it moves from transformation into its next phase of growth.

Location: London, hybrid working

International travel: Monthly travel to overseas - which is a non negotiable