Head of Engineering (Search & Recommendations)

ASOS; Greater London; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading online fashion retailer is seeking a Head of Engineering to lead its Search & Recommendations team. This role involves defining the technology vision and roadmap while inspiring a large team of product developers. Candidates should have significant experience in leading engineering teams, strong technical expertise in distributed systems, and a proven track record in scaling search and discovery systems. The position requires collaboration with various stakeholders to enhance the customer experience with innovative technology solutions.

Benefits

Employee discount

Employee sample sales

25 days paid annual leave

Discretionary bonus scheme

Private medical care scheme

Flexible benefits allowance

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading engineering teams in fast-moving digital businesses.
• Proven track record scaling search, recommendations, ranking or discovery systems in consumer-facing products.
• Deep knowledge of distributed systems, large-scale data pipelines, information retrieval, and applied ML.

Responsibilities

• Define the technology vision and roadmap across multiple critical platforms.
• Build, grow, and inspire product development teams.
• Lead design and scaling of search and recommendations platforms.

Skills

Leadership in engineering

Experience in scaling search systems

Knowledge of distributed systems

Strong technical communication

Building diverse teams

Job description

Job Description

We are looking for a Head of Engineering to lead our Search & Recommendations team, a mission-critical function at the heart of our customer experience. You will set the vision, define the technical strategy, and inspire product development teams to deliver world-class discovery experiences.

Focused on consumer mobile and web e-commerce, this role operates at huge scale: over a billion visits a year, 23 million active customers, and 50 million unique visitors per month. You’ll partner with Product, Data Science, and Design to build systems that are fast, relevant, and reliable, guiding the evolution of our discovery and customer experience platforms.

The Details :

• Define the technology vision and roadmap across Search, Recommendations, Category Navigation, Product Catalogue, AI Stylist, and Customer Care Experience.
• Build, grow, and inspire 6 product development teams and a team of 60, fostering a culture of innovation, delivery, and technical excellence.
• Collaborate with senior product and business leaders to align technology priorities with company strategy and customer needs.
• Lead the design and scaling of search and recommendations platforms, ensuring speed, relevance, and personalisation.
• Oversee category navigation and product catalogue systems to ensure customers can easily browse and find products at scale.
• Partner with Data Science to embed AI-driven experiences ( AI Stylist) into the shopping journey.

We believe being together in person helps us move faster, connect more deeply, and achieve more as a team. That’s why our approach to working together includes spending at least 3 days a week in the office. It’s a rhythm that speeds up decision-making, helps ASOSers learn from each other more quickly, and builds the kind of culture where people can grow, create, and succeed.

Qualifications

About You :

• Significant experience leading engineering teams in fast-moving digital businesses.
• Proven track record scaling search, recommendations, ranking or discovery systems in consumer-facing products.
• Deep knowledge of distributed systems, large-scale data pipelines, information retrieval, and applied ML.
• Strong technical leadership with the ability to balance strategic vision with hands-on problem solving.
• Excellent communicator and influencer, able to build trusted relationships across Product, Data, and Design.
• Passion for building diverse, inclusive, and high-performing teams.

Additional Information

BeneFITS

• Employee discount (hello ASOS discount!)
• Employee sample sales
• 25 days paid annual leave + an extra celebration day for a special moment
• Discretionary bonus scheme
• Private medical care scheme
• Flexible benefits allowance - which you can choose to take as extra cash, or use towards other benefits
• Opportunity for personalised learning and in-the-moment experiences that enable you to thrive and excel in your role.