Head of Product & Engineering - Web

theeconomistgroup; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The Economist Group is seeking a Head of Product & Engineering to lead the web domain and end-to-end product delivery. You will align engineering, product, design, and quality to deliver a high-velocity web experience, with a clear ownership model and a focus on performance and user experience.

You will drive hiring, set architecture standards, and own KPIs related to acquisition, registrations, engagement, retention, and web performance, while shaping the future of the website and related

Qualifications

• Experience leading engineering functions for high-traffic, customer-facing web products.
• Familiar with consumer subscriptions, media, e-commerce or marketplace contexts.
• Strong focus on mobile web performance and Core Web Vitals.

Responsibilities

• Own the web domain end-to-end with strategic roadmaps and measurable KPIs.
• Lead a multidisciplinary team across engineering, product, design and QA.
• Absorb delivery accountability and manage planning, dependencies and delivery assurance.

Skills

Web engineering leadership

Product management

Leadership

Job description

Who we are Since 1843, The Economist Group has championed independence, excellence and openness, helping people understand and tackle the critical challenges shaping the world. Today, we are building on that legacy as a global media and information-services company powered by digital innovation, analytical rigour and evidence-based insight.

Across our three businesses - The Economist, Economist Enterprise and Economist Education - we deliver trusted analysis and insights to individuals and organisations in more than 170 countries. United by a shared purpose to drive progress, we empower decision-makers to make sense of change and chart a course through an increasingly complex world.

As a colleague, you will be part of a culture that values ideas, encourages ownership and holds itself to high standards. We invest in people who are curious, thoughtful and adaptable, whether they are launching new products, reporting on global events or harnessing emerging technologies such as AI to improve how we work. Here, fresh thinking is taken seriously, ambition is matched by integrity, and great work is recognised. Working across disciplines, geographies and perspectives, we are united by a commitment to innovation, excellence and creating meaningful impact.

Want to discover more about life at The Economist Group? Follow @EconomistCareers on Instagram to discover the people, stories and opportunities that make TEG unique.

Our team of 450 colleagues across Technology, Product and Data is at the heart of The Economist Group's digital-first agenda. Together, we design, build and optimise the digital products, platforms and data capabilities that power our business and reach millions of people around the world. Whether you're an engineer, product manager, designer, data scientist or analyst, you'll work on products that have real-world impact. From enhancing economist.com and developing new products for Economist Intelligence to creating personalised experiences and applying AI to solve complex challenges, you'll help shape how consumers, businesses and government leaders access trusted insights. Working in cross-functional teams, we combine engineering excellence, product thinking and data expertise to solve meaningful problems, experiment with new technologies and continuously improve the experiences we create. It's an opportunity to do challenging, purposeful work alongside curious, collaborative colleagues, while helping drive sustainable growth for one of the world's most trusted brands.

The role

Web is one of those domains and, commercially, the most exposed. The Head of Product & Engineering role is created to bring together engineering, product, design and quality capability for the web experience - capability currently distributed across separate functions and reporting lines - under a single accountable leader, and to grow it materially through hiring. The purpose is to remove the coordination overhead and hand-offs that currently sit between the people who identify a web opportunity and the people who ship it, and to place clear end-to-end ownership of the web channel with one person.

Responsibilities

• Own the web domain end to end. Set direction, own the roadmap within agreed strategic, financial and capacity guardrails, and be accountable for what the team delivers and how it is built and operated.
• Lead a multidisciplinary team. Line-manage Engineering Managers, Product Managers, Product Designers and senior individual contributors; set expectations, calibrate performance and develop careers across all four disciplines.
• Absorb delivery accountability. Take on the planning, dependency management, prioritisation and delivery assurance previously held by a separate delivery layer, without recreating one.
• Build the team. Consolidate existing web capability and lead an aggressive hiring programme for engineering individual contributors, raising both capacity and the standard of web engineering skill.
• Move the numbers. Own a defined set of KPIs - acquisition volume and mix, registration and subscription conversion, subscriber engagement, retention, web performance - and the financial outcomes attached to them.
• Own technical quality. Set and hold architectural and quality standards for the web stack with Distinguished Engineers and principal QA standards, and keep quality a whole-team accountability rather than a downstream gate.
• Operate with a hands-on posture. Stay close enough to the code, the data and the customer experience to make credible technical trade-offs and to earn the confidence of senior engineers.

Who you are

• Web engineering leadership at scale. Substantial experience running engineering functions for high-traffic, customer-facing web products in a product-led technology organisation. Consumer subscription, media, e-commerce or marketplace context strongly preferred.
• Mobile web engineering depth. A strong engineering background in mobile web - performance, Core Web Vitals, rendering s