Head of Software Engineering

McLaren Automotive Ltd; Woking; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday

Private medical insurance

Enhanced pension

Discretionary annual bonus

Sabbatical opportunity

Wellbeing initiatives

Job summary

McLaren Automotive Ltd. seeks a Head of Software Engineering to lead the Customer Experience Solutions engineering function, owning build, release and operational quality across client-facing digital platforms.

The role ensures security by design, consistent architecture, and long-term operability, coordinating with internal teams and external partners to maintain one standard.

Qualifications

• Experience leading software engineering functions delivering customer-facing platforms at scale.
• Ability to hold delivery partners to a technical standard and sign-off criteria.
• Strong practice in CI/CD, automated testing, code reviews, release management and production operations.
• Secure development practices including threat modelling and vulnerability management.
• Experience building a squad-based agile delivery and a tech lead layer.
• Ability to convert supplier capability into internal teams.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end engineering delivery across the customer-facing platform estate.
• Define acceptance criteria and sign-off partner work before release.
• Set and enforce engineering standards across all contributors.
• Own secure development practices and security gating.
• Establish squad-based delivery with internal tech leads.
• Collaborate with Enterprise Architecture, Product Management, Programme and Delivery.
• Partner with Core Technology on QA, DevOps, environments and release tooling.
• Influence supplier selection and commercial reviews with an outcomes focus.

Skills

Leadership

Partner management

CI/CD

Automated testing

Code review

Release management

Secure SDLC

Agile squads

Tech leadership

Internal capability

Stakeholder engagement

Production operations

Job description

What to Expect

The Head of Software Engineering leads the engineering function within Customer Experience Solutions, owning the build, release and operational quality of McLaren's client-facing digital platforms. The role holds technical accountability for all software delivered into the digital backbone, whether written by McLaren engineers, contractors or delivery partners, and is the final point of technical acceptance for supplier work. It exists so that an estate delivered by six partners alongside an internal team is engineered to one consistent standard, is secure by design, and can be operated and evolved by McLaren over the long term rather than rebuilt each time a contract ends.

What You'll Do

• Own end-to-end engineering delivery across the customer-facing platform estate, including the website, configurator, owner app, client portal, stock platforms and booking tools.
• Act as the technical authority for partner and supplier work. Define the acceptance criteria, review the output and sign off delivery before release, so that no partner code enters production without McLaren technical acceptance.
• Set, publish and enforce engineering standards across every contributor, so that platforms built by different teams and partners are consistent in architecture, code quality, testing and documentation.
• Own secure engineering practice within the software development lifecycle, covering threat modelling, secure coding standards, dependency and vulnerability management, and security testing gates aligned to McLaren policy.

Accountable for the engineering element of the digital delivery budget.

• Establish and run a squad-based delivery model in which each squad is led by a McLaren tech lead who is accountable for technical decisions within that scope.
• Build the internal tech lead layer, using the McLaren Engineering Competency Framework to assess capability, assign Senior and Staff Tech Lead scope, and develop engineers toward it.
• Reduce dependency on external engineering capacity by identifying the capabilities McLaren must own and converting supplier-held knowledge into internal capability against an agreed timeline.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture on integration and data design, with Product Management on roadmap feasibility and sequencing, and with Programme and Delivery on release planning and supplier governance.
• Partner with Core Technology on QA, DevOps, environments and release tooling so that engineering standards are enforced consistently at the point of release.
• Own the engineering input to supplier selection, statements of work and commercial reviews, ensuring agreements are structured around outcomes and quality standards McLaren can hold partners to.

What You'll Bring

Business knowledge

• Understanding of customer-facing digital platforms and the commercial outcomes they support, ideally within automotive, luxury retail or a comparable consumer sector.
• Familiarity with a multi-partner delivery estate and the commercial mechanics of engineering supplier agreements.

Essential Functional And Technical Skills

• Substantial experience leading software engineering functions that deliver customer-facing web, mobile and integration platforms at scale.
• A proven record of holding delivery partners to a technical standard, including defining acceptance criteria and exercising sign-off authority.
• Depth in modern engineering practice, including continuous integration and delivery, automated testing, code review discipline, release management and production operations.
• Practical command of secure development practice, including secure coding standards, vulnerability management and security testing within the development lifecycle.
• Experience establishing squad-based agile delivery and a tech lead layer, including capability assessment and structured development.
• Experience converting outsourced or supplier-held capability into a permanent internal engineering team.
• Confidence engaging senior stakeholders on technical trade-offs, risk and investment.

Personal attributes and competencies

• Sets a clear technical standard and holds the line on it, with partners as readily as with internal teams.
• Builds trust through consistency, so that business and retailer stakeholders can rely on what engineering commits to.
• Develops engineers deliberately, creating leadership scope rather than additional hierarchy.
• Comfortable operating in a changing organisation and making decisions without complete information.
• Pragmatic about where external capacity adds value and where McLaren must own the capability.

What We'll Do for You

We offer a wide – ranging benefits package, which includes:

• Structured career development framework
• 25 days’ holiday, plus bank holiday. Annual buy & sell up to five days
• Enhanced company pension scheme
• Discretionary annual bonus award
• Private medical insurance and health cash plan
• Life assurance benefit
• Ability to apply for a sabbatical of up to one year after only two years’ service
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• Generous parental leave policies
• A range of wellbeing initiatives, such as employee assistance programme and free financial & mortgage advice

Who Are We?

No restraints. No limitations. We don’t simply push boundaries. We completely rethink them. McLaren Automotive exists to create breath-taking performance road cars.

It takes a community to do what we do. A diverse group of people with many areas of expertise, united by their passion to deliver visionary products and set new benchmarks.

McLaren Automotive commits to equal opportunity for all. Diversity, Equality and Inclusion is at the heart of our impact, it drives our innovation and enables us to truly create something special. Join us on our journey.