VP Engineering - Software

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

Job summary

Appear is a leading provider of media processing and delivery technology, headquartered in Oslo, with customers worldwide. We are looking for a VP Engineering-Software to lead the software side of our development department, guiding around 25 engineers in Oslo and Stockholm, across VX, XM and Hub.

You will shape strategy, architecture, and delivery, collaborate with our CPTO, and drive AI-enabled, cloud-native patterns while building a high-performing distributed team across sites.

Qualifications

• Technical leadership in software engineering within broadcast or real-time domains.
• Experience leading 25+ engineers across multiple sites.
• Delivery practices with agile/lean at scale.
• Collaboration with UX, product management and architecture peers.
• Experience applying AI tools in development workflows.

Responsibilities

• Define software strategy and architecture for VX and XM/Hub aligned to 3–5 year plans.
• Drive cloud-native, service-oriented design and AI-assisted patterns.
• Ensure predictable, high-quality delivery across multiple streams.
• Develop middle-management layer and autonomous, delivery-focused teams.
• Partner with product, architecture and cross-functional teams to execute strategy.
• Lead cross-functional planning including M&A and partnership integration.

Skills

Technical leadership

Distributed teams

Software delivery

Stakeholder management

AI in development

Job description

Appear is a leading provider of media processing and delivery technology. Headquartered in Oslo, Norway and with customers in over 100 countries, Appear provides the backbone that production companies, telcos and broadcasters rely on to make immersive live experiences possible for their viewers. With world-class products and expertise, Appear’s focus on modularity, efficiency and high quality helps customers stay ahead of competition in a market where expectations and requirements are constantly changing and evolving.

We are looking for a VP Engineering-Software. This is a new position, where you will be leading the software side of our development department, around 25 engineers in Oslo and Stockholm, across our software-defined media processing platform VX and our control and management layer XM and Hub.

The role will collaborate closely with our VP Engineering, X Platform, who leads hardware, FPGA and embedded software for our hardware-based contribution encoding and transport platform X. Our products heavily rely on the interfaces between those two domains, so the two of you will work closely together.

You will have executive sponsorship, direct access to our CPTO, and real influence over how our software domain develops over the next three to five years.

What you will do

Software Engineering Strategy And Architecture

• Own the technical and organizational strategy for VX and XM/Hub, aligned to our three to five year growth ambitions.
• Evolve the architecture roadmap, including the move towards more cloud-native, service-oriented and AI-assisted patterns.
• Make the architectural calls. Your architects bring the options; you weigh the trade-offs and commit.

Delivery And Operational Excellence

• Drive predictable, high-quality delivery across concurrent workstreams and product lines.
• Establish metrics and reporting that make velocity, quality and delivery risk visible.
• Embed our target operating model, together with the VP Development Operations & Transformation.

Team Leadership And Talent Development

• Build, lead and grow a distributed organization across several teams and sites, and keep strong technical talent.
• Assess how the organization is set up today and build the management layer it needs. Architecture ownership, cross-product execution, and delivery predictability are the standards.
• Develop team leads and engineering managers into a capable, autonomous middle layer, with a delivery-focused, collaborative culture to match.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner as a true peer with our VP Engineering, X Platform on the control and orchestration interfaces at the centre of our products.
• Work with Product and our Chief Architect to turn strategy into execution and stay close to customers, so decisions are grounded in real requirements.
• Represent software engineering in cross-functional planning, including M&A and partnership integration.

AI And Data-Driven Development

• Drive adoption of AI-assisted and agentic development workflows across the organization.
• Build automated development metrics and dashboards for data-driven engineering decisions.

What you will bring

• Technical competency: A documented track record of technical leadership in software engineering within broadcast, live production, or directly adjacent real-time and mission-critical domains, for example video and audio processing and compression, orchestration and control systems, or graphics.
• Team scaling and management: Proven experience leading distributed software engineering teams of 25+ across multiple sites and product lines, including scaling an organization and modernizing how it works.
• Delivery and operational excellence: Experience establishing predictable, high-quality software delivery practices, with agile or lean methods at scale.
• Collaboration and stakeholder management: A strong ability to partner with UX, product management, engineering and architecture peers.
• Use of AI in development: Practical experience applying AI tools and agentic workflows in software development processes.

About You

You lead through others. You are comfortable operating a level removed from the code, multiplying your impact by developing strong managers and team leads rather than solving everything yourself.

You are commercially grounded. You connect engineering decisions, architecture, sequencing, build versus buy - to cost, margin and customer impact. You think like a business owner, not only as a technologist.

You are delivery-driven. You hold the organization to predictable, high-quality shipping, and you bring order and follow-through rather than open-ended technical exploration.

What We Offer

• A peer-VP seat in a listed, high-growth company at an inflection point, with genuine executive sponsorship and board-level visibility.
• Direct access to the CPTO, and real influence over how VX and XM/Hub evolve over the next three to five years.
• Technically interesting, mission-critical software. Broadcast-grade reliability requirements, and a real opportunity to modernize architecture and ways of working.
• A rare organizational mandate. You shape how software engineering at Appear is structured, not only how it delivers.

Practical Information

• We will consider applicants on a rolling basis.
• Language requirements: Professional English, written and spoken. Our working language is English.
• Visa requirements: For EU/EEA -Citizenship or valid work permit and for UK -British citizenship or indefinite leave to remain.
• Some international travel is to be expected.

Due to the nature of our work, and because Appear supplies products used in the delivery of critical infrastructure within the EU, we maintain a strict Security Policy. All candidates offered a position must undergo a background check as part of our global hiring process.

Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, Appear is a leader in live production technology, specialising in high-capacity, sustainable solutions for media processing and content delivery. Our portfolio is designed to support the most complex scenarios of live event contribution, adapting seamlessly to the ever-evolving dynamics of the media, entertainment, and sports industries.

Over the past 20 years, Appear’s world-renowned team of experts made us the most progressive and forward-thinking company in the industry. Our relentless emphasis on modularity and functional versatility places us at the forefront of driving innovation in live production technology.

We proudly count the world’s leading content creators amongst our esteemed list of customers who trust our solutions to deliver the highest profile live media with integrity and efficiency.

Appear’s global operation includes centres of excellence in Oslo, Sweden, Southampton, Singapore and Los Angeles.