Senior Director Engineering – Manufacturing

IFS; Staines-upon-Thames; On-site; GBP 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

IFS is seeking a Senior Director of Engineering for Manufacturing to lead a multi-layered engineering organization, including Directors, Architects and Principal Engineers. You will define and execute the manufacturing engineering strategy aligned with product direction and business priorities, driving capability building and succession planning.

You will balance strategic leadership with technical depth, ensuring high standards in cloud-native architectures, APIs, distributed systems, and

Qualifications

• Strong foundation in software engineering and enterprise application development.
• Experience leading leaders (Directors/Managers) and senior technical experts.
• Proven track record delivering large-scale, complex software systems across multiple teams.
• Deep understanding of modern architectures (cloud-native, APIs, distributed systems).

Responsibilities

• Lead a multi-layered engineering organization including Directors, Architects, and Principal Engineers.
• Define and execute engineering strategy for Manufacturing aligned with product direction.
• Drive organizational design, capability building and succession planning.
• Build a culture of ownership, accountability and continuous improvement.
• Scale leadership capability by coaching leaders of leaders.
• Own delivery outcomes across multiple teams with predictability and quality.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Cloud-native architecture

APIs

Distributed systems

AI in engineering

Stakeholder management

Communication

Job description

Senior Director Engineering – Manufacturing

• Full-time

IFS is a billion-dollar revenue company with 7000+ employees on all continents. Our leading AI technology is the backbone of our award-winning enterprise software solutions, enabling our customers to be their best when it really matters–at the Moment of Service™. Our commitment to internal AI adoption has allowed us to stay at the forefront of technological advancements, ensuring our colleagues can unlock their creativity and productivity, and our solutions are always cutting-edge.

At IFS, we’re flexible, we’re innovative, and we’re focused not only on how we can engage with our customers but on how we can make a real change and have a worldwide impact. We help solve some of society’s greatest challenges, fostering a better future through our agility, collaboration, and trust.

We celebrate diversity and understand our responsibility to reflect the diverse world we work in. We are committed to promoting an inclusive workforce that fully represents the many different cultures, backgrounds, and viewpoints of our customers, our partners, and our communities. As a truly international company serving people from around the globe, we realize that our success is tantamount to the respect we have for those different points of view.

By joining our team, you will have the opportunity to be part of aglobal, diverse environment;you will be joining awinning teamwith acommitment to sustainability;and a company where we get things done so that you canmake a positive impacton the world.

We’re looking for innovative and original thinkers to work in an environment where you can#MakeYourMomentso that we can help others make theirs. With the power of our AI-driven solutions, we empower our team to change the status quo and make a real difference.

If you want to change the status quo, we’ll help you make your moment. Join Team Purple. Join IFS.

We are looking for a Senior Engineering Leader to lead in the Manufacturing Product organization at IFS. This role operates at a strategic and organizational level, overseeing a multi-layered engineering organization comprising Engineering Directors, Architects, and Principal Engineers.

You will be responsible for defining and executing engineering strategy across multiple teams and domains, ensuring alignment with product vision, architecture direction, and business priorities.

While this is a senior leadership role, technical depth and sound engineering judgment remain critical. You are expected to guide architectural direction, influence key technical decisions, and ensure strong engineering discipline across the organization.

AI is a core enabler and strategic priority in this role. You will drive enterprise-wide adoption of AI-assisted engineering and AI-powered product capabilities, ensuring measurable impact on both engineering productivity and customer value.

What You’ll Do

Organizational Leadership

Lead a multi-layered engineering organization, including Engineering Directors, Architects, and Principal Engineers

Define and execute the engineering strategy for Manufacturing, aligned with product and company-wide technology direction

Drive organizational design, capability building, and succession planning

Build a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement

Scale leadership capability by coaching and developing leaders of leaders

Delivery and Execution

Own delivery outcomes across multiple teams, ensuring predictability, quality, and timely execution at scale

Establish and evolve consistent engineering operating models and execution practices

Balance business priorities, technical investments, and operational excellence

Ensure teams operate with a “you build it, you run it” mindset

Technical & Architectural Leadership

Provide strategic technical direction across teams, in close collaboration with Architecture

Influence and governing architecture decisions, platform evolution, and system design standards

Ensure high standards across:

Cloud-native architecture

CI/CD and DevOps practices

Automated testing, observability, and security

Maintain strong technical credibility and intervene hands-on where it adds the most value

Drive organization-wide adoption of AI-assisted engineering practices

Enable teams to improve delivery speed, quality, and confidence using AI

Guide development of AI-enabled Manufacturing capabilities

Ensure AI usage is practical, responsible, and outcome-driven

Cross-functional Collaboration

Partner closely with Product Management, Architecture, and Manufacturing domain leaders

Aligning engineering execution with business priorities and customer outcomes

Represent Engineering in senior leadership and strategic forums

Manufacturing Domain Leadership

Provide strong leadership across key Manufacturing domains, including:

End-to-end Manufacturing lifecycle (Plan, Build, Quality, Maintain

Regulatory and industry-specific requirements

Large-scale, configurable, multi-tenant Manufacturing Solutions

Aligning Manufacturing strategy with platform, data, and integration capabilities

Required Background

Strong foundation in software engineering and enterprise application development

Extensive experience leading leaders (Directors/Managers) and senior technical experts

Proven track record delivering large-scale, complex software systems across multiple teams

Deep understanding of modern architectures (cloud-native, APIs, distributed systems, agentic workflows)

Ability to operate effectively at both strategic and technical levels

Strong communication, decision-making, and stakeholder management skills

Customer obsession, ability to work hands on with customers on site, including travel to key manufacturing customer locations.

Preferred Experience

Manufacturing, ERP, or industrial enterprise software

Platform or multi-product engineering leadership

Experience scaling engineering organizations and driving transformation

What We’re Looking For

You balance strategic leadership with strong technical depth

You lead leaders and build high-performing organizations

You create clarity and alignment while empowering teams to succeed

You care deeply about quality, sustainability, and customer value

You see AI as a practical enabler of transformation

You scale impact by enabling others, not controlling them

As a step in our recruitment process, all final candidates will undergo a background check, to get us an understanding of our future employees.

We respectfully decline all offers of recruitment and/or advertising assistance.

IFS Fact

IFS develops and delivers enterprise software for customers around the world who manufacture and distribute goods, build and maintain assets, and manage service-focused operations. The industry expertise of our people and solutions, together with a commitment to delivering value to every one of our customers, has made IFS a recognized leader and the most recommended supplier in our sector. Our team of 7,000+ employees and growing ecosystem of partners support more than 10,000 customers around the world challenge the status quo and realize their competitive advantage. Learn more about how our enterprise software solutions can help your business today at ifs.com .

We believe that coming together as a community, in person, is important for innovation, connection and fostering a sense of belonging. Our roles have the right balance of remote and in-office working to enable flexibility for managing your life along with ensuring a real connection with your colleagues and the broader IFS community.