Senior IT Engineer

Financial Times; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical cover

Parental leave

Hybrid work model

Gym membership

Job summary

The Financial Times is seeking a senior engineer to lead the design and support of collaboration tooling across Technology. You will guide engineers, drive AI-enabled features, and collaborate with vendors and stakeholders to deliver robust tools used by FT staff.

You will champion inclusive engineering, set standards, and help roadmaps for tools such as ChatGPT, Google Workspace, Slack, Jira, Confluence, Figma, Make, MASV, Monday.com, Zapier, LucidChart and LucidSpark.

Qualifications

• Experience leading design and architectural decisions for collaboration tooling.
• Strong understanding of AI capabilities within enterprise tools.
• Ability to engage with vendors and internal customers to align roadmaps.
• Proven track record in cross-functional collaboration across technology teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical design and architectural decisions for collaboration tooling platforms, providing guidance and direction for engineers across the team.
• Act as a subject matter expert for AI capabilities within collaboration tooling, helping teams understand, adopt and safely leverage AI-powered features and services.
• Engage with other disciplines, groups and teams across FT Technology and beyond, making sure we are all working together effectively, and evangelising the tools and solutions that the team own and manage.
• Contribute to the product and renewal roadmaps for the tools the team owns.
• Understand the capabilities our collaboration tools provide, and stay abreast of relevant developments in the marketplace.
• Help manage and select suppliers of key collaboration tools or technologies.
• Liaise with vendors and internal customers of collaboration tools.
• Help set and reinforce our inclusive, respectful, multidisciplinary, and open culture.
• Help to improve the technology, processes and skills of the team.
• Establish and promote engineering standards, operational practices and architectural principles for collaboration tooling and associated integrations.

Skills

Technical leadership

AI capability

Vendor management

Cross-team collaboration

Tools

ChatGPT

Google Workspace

Google Gemini

Slack

Jira

Confluence

Figma

Make

MASV

Monday.com

Zapier

LucidChart

LucidSpark

Job description

The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, globally recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy, with a mission to deliver quality information and services worldwide.At the FT, curiosity thrives and ambitious thinking is rewarded. Here, you’re given the chance to reach millions, create work that matters and deliver impartial journalism in a polarised world.In our warm, collaborative culture, you’ll connect with a diverse community of experts who support your growth, career aspirations and wellbeing.Your future at the FT will be filled with opportunities that challenge and inspire you. With no fixed path, you’ll discover new skills and forge a career that can take you anywhere.Build a newsworthy career at the FT.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We believe in the power of unique perspectives and want all voices in our organisation to be heard, respected and valued. A supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves and operate to their full potential. We are committed to removing barriers for everyone, with a focus on addressing those faced by underrepresented groups.

The Role Overview

Reporting into the Head of Collaboration Tooling in the Infrastructure & Operations group in Technology, this role is for a senior engineer to help implement and support the collaboration tools and services used by the staff of the Financial Times.

About the team:

Infrastructure & Operations has around 90 people working in multiple teams that have diverse remits, including: cloud services, code management, the management and provision of end-user devices, collaboration tools, networking, a global service desk, identity and access management, and technical operations support. We value transparency, accountability, shared responsibility and teamwork. The team works closely together with a very supportive, knowledge-sharing ethos.

We ensure FT Staff have the tools they need to run a business providing world-class journalism to our customers. We support informal knowledge sharing alongside more formal training opportunities.

• Lead technical design and architectural decisions for collaboration tooling platforms, providing guidance and direction for engineers across the team.
• Act as a subject matter expert for AI capabilities within collaboration tooling, helping teams understand, adopt and safely leverage AI-powered features and services.
• Engage with other disciplines, groups and teams across FT Technology and beyond, making sure we are all working together effectively, and evangelising the tools and solutions that the team own and manage.
• Contribute to the product and renewal roadmaps for the tools the team owns.
• Understand the capabilities our collaboration tools provide, and stay abreast of relevant developments in the marketplace.
• Help manage and select suppliers of key collaboration tools or technologies.
• Liaise with vendors and internal customers of collaboration tools.
• Help set and reinforce our inclusive, respectful, multidisciplinary, and open culture.
• Help to improve the technology, processes and skills of the team.
• Establish and promote engineering standards, operational practices and architectural principles for collaboration tooling and associated integrations.
• Ability to make and communicate sound technical decisions in ambiguous situations.
• Comfortable acting as a technical escalation point for complex problems.
• Curiosity about emerging technologies, particularly AI and automation, and an ability to translate them into practical business value.

Your focus will be on our collaboration tools such as ChatGPT, Google Workspace, Google Gemini, Slack, Jira, Confluence, Figma, Make, MASV, Monday.com, Zapier, LucidChart & LucidSpark. This list is neither exhaustive nor comprehensive.

About You

You are enthusiastic about contributing to all areas of the team's responsibilities. Our ideal candidate will bring a unique point of view to the work that we do. We firmly believe that diverse perspectives help us create great tools and enhance the team.

Characteristics we value:

• Ability to raise the skills and performance of those around you
• Keen to take action whilst being pragmatic
• Passion for realistic, high-quality engineering excellence
• Attention to detail and common sense
• Being collaborative and supportive
• Enjoy learning and teaching — whether that be pair programming, lightning talks, good documentation, leading workshops or mentoring other members of the team
• A love of solving problems with technology

What’s in it for you? Our benefits

Our benefits vary by location but we are committed to providing best-in-class perks across all our offices. These include generous annual leave, medical cover, inclusive parental leave packages, subsidised gym memberships and opportunities to give back to the community. Full details of our benefits are availablehere.

We currently operate a hybrid model which requires staff to work onsite 50% of the time, subject to role requirements & regular review. While flexible working requests will be considered, not all patterns are suitable for all roles. We believe this balanced approach supports flexibility and protects our culture, making collaboration and communication easier, building stronger relationships and team cohesion, and supporting peer learning. We reserve discretion on reasonable notice to change this approach either generally or for specific individuals or teams.

Accessibility

We are a disability confident employer and Valuable 500 signatory.

Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments/personalisation as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements or have any questions, [e-mail] and a member of our team will be happy to help.

Further information

At the FT, we embrace innovation and the use of technology and appreciate that individuals may leverage AI tools as part of their job application process. Whilst we are happy for you to use AI to assist with your application, it is essential that all information provided is authentic and accurately represents your skills, experience, and qualifications.

Candidates should be aware that the use of AI throughout the application process may be monitored to ensure a fair and transparent hiring process for all.