Head of Engineering

Head of Engineering - Large B2C - Birmingham/Nottingham, Hybrid

Are you the kind of engineering leader who wants to build something, not just inherit it?

We're working with a large, well-established UK business that's in the middle of pulling three separate tech organisations into one. It's not tidy yet. That's the point - whoever takes this on gets to shape what it becomes.

What you'll be doing

This isn't a \"keep the lights on\" kind of role.

You'll be:

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  Leading engineering across Cloud Platforms, Frontend, SaaS Platforms, and Backend Engineering & Architecture - as one connected function, not four separate silos

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  Managing managers, not just teams - think engineering managers and functional leads reporting into you, with 60-70 people within your scope

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  Bringing three distinct tech cultures together without anyone feeling like they've been swallowed up

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  Embedding modern engineering practice and DevOps discipline, with real metrics behind it

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  Helping the business figure out where AI-enabled delivery actually fits, not just talking about it

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  Working closely with Product, AI and Data leadership to keep capacity and strategy aligned

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What they care about

Yes, they want someone with a serious engineering leadership pedigree.

But more than that, they want:

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  Confidence. Someone who doesn't need every decision rubber-stamped

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  Someone who can make the call, then tell people after - not before

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  A genuine focus on culture, not just delivery metrics

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  Someone who accepts AI is now just part of how engineering works, without needing to be sold on it

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The technical bit

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  Real experience leading leaders within engineering functions inside a complex, enterprise-scale environment

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  Track record managing senior engineering managers across multiple disciplines and locations

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  Comfortable across cloud (mostly AWS, some Azure, a bit of Google thrown in)

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  Experience balancing in-house teams, strategic vendors and commercial platforms - buy vs. build calls

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  Retail or B2C background is a genuine plus here, though not essential - broad experience in a complex, large-scale environment counts just as much

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Why this is worth a look

Most Head of Engineering roles are about protecting what's already there.

This one isn't.

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  You're joining while the org is being reshaped, which means you help define it

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  You'll sit close to genuinely senior leadership from day one

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  There's real scope here - this function is only going to grow, and AI/Data are just down the corridor

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If you've led at this scale before and want to build something rather than maintain it, this is worth a proper look.

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