Head of Engineering- Accounting

Bright; Warwick; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading provider of accounting solutions in the UK seeks a Head of Engineering to oversee the development of scalable and secure accounting products. This role requires strong leadership skills, expertise in SaaS environments, and a passion for AI. Candidates should have a successful track record of managing engineering teams and technology budgets, as well as the ability to communicate effectively across the organization.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Performance based bonus

25 days annual leave

Health Insurance

Company pension

Free food onsite

On-site parking

Referral programme

Sick pay

Wellness programmes

Qualifications

• Senior leadership experience in a SaaS environment.
• Expertise in AI application to enhance engineering outcomes.
• Knowledge of building services for SaaS applications.

Responsibilities

• Deliver the product roadmap on time with high quality.
• Lead AI engineering initiatives within teams.
• Manage technology budgets and ensure compliance.

Skills

Experience in a senior leadership role within a high customer volume SaaS business

Passion for AI

Strong knowledge of Microsoft development languages (C# and .net)

Management of engineering capacity

High emotional intelligence

Tools

Azure

AWS

PHP and Laravel

Job description

of Engineering- Accounting

Department: Development

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Warwick

Description

Bright is a leading provider of accounting, payroll, tax and HR solutions to businesses across the UK and Ireland, with ambitious growth plans. We streamline processes for accountants and businesses by delivering excellent products that enable automation and integration of core business functions, underpinned by world‑class support. BrightPay is used to process the payroll for over 380,000 businesses across Ireland and the UK. BrightPay is used to process pay slips for 3.5 million employees.

Hg

Hg Capital acquired Bright in 2021. Hg's vision is to be the most sought‑after private equity investor within our sector focus, being a partner of choice for management teams and providing a rewarding environment for Hg colleagues. Hg has led over 100 investments in the software and services sector during the last 25 years. This focus means we have developed an institutional expertise and a deep understanding of the markets and businesses in which we invest.

The Opportunity

Due to our ambitious plans a strong growth, we are looking for a Head of Engineering to lead our Accounting Products across Engineering, Devops and Infrastructure teams. Taking responsibility for ensuring our resources are deployed in the most effective way to produce scalable, secure, and highly usable products for our customers. The successful person will lead teams located in the UK, Ireland and India and work closely with the Chief Product and Technology Officer, the Chief Information Security Officer, other Heads of Engineering and our Heads of Product to deliver our exciting roadmap. This position will play a pivotal role in the future of the company, making strategic technology decisions, including managing a technology budget and making investments to technically align the company with its vision and mission. The candidate will be a strategic thinker, an effective communicator, and an expert in technological development.

AI: You will have a passion for AI in engineering across all disciplines and a key focus on optimising Engineering outcomes and delivering innovation with pace and rigour. Understanding the application of AI to drive safe and performant velocity in all aspects of team deliverables will be a core skill. In return we will provide state of the art tooling and access to LLM Ops platforms and infrastructure for you to execute.

Technology and Development

With experience in building and delivering SAAS software in a high‑volume customer environment, you will have highly developed native technical skills and will be required to keep on top of emerging technologies and trends, particularly within a SaaS business, to support the business remaining competitive.

Leadership and Communication

Critically, you will have robust leadership skills, be a people person with high emotional intelligence and the ability to inspire and engage various teams. The capability to communicate technology initiatives and how they fit with company goals will be key.

Commercial Acumen

You will have a strong eye for cost optimisation ensuring that our R&D expenditure provides the highest return on investment.

Key Responsibilities

• Delivering the product roadmap to high quality and agreed deadlines
• Lead on AI engineering initiative, showcase best practice and leverage and adoption of AI throughout the engineering lifecycle
• Work with teams to ensure the engineering toolchain and process is robust and efficient
• Increase visibility of engineering KPIS and deliverables
• Making recommendations and presenting business advantages for technology initiatives and improvements
• Working with the CPTO to design and lead the implementation of our strategy for technology while ensuring the implementation and enforcement of technology standards across the organisation
• Working in close collaboration with the CPTO and CISO to establish best practices for the software development lifecycle, application delivery, infrastructure management, user experience, and security; overseeing the implementation of the entire software development lifecycle from build, through test and deploy into production
• Building sustainable processes for resourcing software engineering requirements for the group
• A key contributor to the Software Engineering strategy and evolution, enhancing functional and non‑functional capabilities of the products and services
• Promotion of best practice tools and processes
• Lead on technical integration strategy
• Promoting a positive work environment; continuously provide feedback, mentoring, and coaching to existing team members

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Experience in a senior leadership role within a high customer volume SaaS business
• Good understanding of implementing and reacting to software instrumentation metrics
• Experience with, architecting, developing, and managing application delivery on cloud platforms
• A passion for AI and demonstrable implementation of AI tools and practices to increase velocity, manage technical debt and deliver at scale
• Experience of successfully working for a Private Equity backed company would be an advantage
• Strong Knowledge of Microsoft development languages and frameworks (C# and .net) and an appreciation of PHP and Laravel will be a distinct advantage.
• Strong Knowledge of building services to deliver SAAS applications on Azure and an appreciation of AWS
• Advocate/strong understanding of SOLID
• Management of engineering capacity to deliver ROI against Roadmaps
• Influences roadmap being a customer advocate for high quality and compelling UX
• Able to articulate the business case for resolving and maintaining technical debt
• Managed a significant engineering budget in excess of GBP 2m per annum
• Managed compliance heavy solutions (accountancy/tax)
• Successful in working with multidisciplinary technical teams and diverse technology across multiple locations
• Comfortable operating within an agile/Kanban environment and has a good understanding of the associated value drivers and measures
• Ability to act as a credible representative of Bright at all levels with the ability to communicate and deliver the business strategy
• High level of emotional intelligence, with the ability to gather information accurately, influence effectively and negotiate to achieve the best possible results

• Incisive leader with sound judgement; must have the credibility, intellectual capacity and operational grip to gain immediate respect with the leadership team and shareholders
• Exceptional analytical skills and effectively leverages data to inform opinions and solve problems
• Proven track record of building strong remote teams with strong cultures

Benefits

What will you get?

• Competitive salary
• Performance based bonus
• 25 days annual leave
• Health Insurance
• Company pension
• Company events
• free food onsite
• On-site parking
• Referral programme
• Sick pay
• Wellness programmes