Head of Engineering

Role Overview

• Lead and own all software engineering delivery for Valpak, reporting to the CTO (Comply).
• Act as Valpak’s senior software engineering leader, supporting strategic initiatives and bids.
• Lead, mentor and develop Tech Leads and product engineering squads.
• Build a high‑performance engineering culture aligned to Reconomy standards.
• Drive recruitment, retention and development of engineering talent, leveraging near‑shore capability.
• Define and deliver Valpak’s engineering strategy aligned to Comply and Reconomy objectives.
• Own and maintain a multi‑year technology roadmap.
• Ensure technology investments enable scalability, efficiency and innovation.
• Continuously evolve strategy in line with market and technology trends.
• Establish and uphold engineering, architectural and coding standards.
• Embed modern development practices including DevOps, CI/CD and automation.
• Improve delivery speed, quality and productivity through standardised tooling and AI.
• Ensure consistency and maintainability across all software products.
• Define and deliver a multi‑year data strategy aligned to Reconomy’s Data Strategy.
• Support enterprise data architecture, governance, security and quality standards.
• Implement a Data as a Product approach, enabling reuse and potential monetisation of data assets.
• Set data engineering standards and governance across Valpak.
• Enable trusted self‑service analytics via Reconomy’s Datastream platform.
• Oversee the design, optimisation and scalability of Azure‑based data platforms.
• Implement Reconomy’s engineering quality strategy, standards and testing frameworks.
• Enforce quality gates across the full development lifecycle.
• Champion a culture of shared ownership for quality and continuous improvement.
• Provide assurance on product quality, release readiness and risk.
• Implement Reconomy’s cloud strategy across Valpak systems.
• Embed modern DevSecFinOps and shift‑left ownership within engineering teams.
• Ensure cloud platforms are secure, resilient, scalable and cost‑optimised.
• Drive automation and infrastructure‑as‑code adoption.
• Drive adoption of agentic AI across the software development lifecycle.
• Ensure AI‑assisted development is safe, secure and aligned to engineering standards.
• Track and improve engineering performance metrics and delivery predictability.
• Act as the Technology Business Partner for Valpak senior leadership.
• Align engineering delivery with business priorities and growth objectives.
• Communicate strategy, progress and outcomes to technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Lead resourcing, prioritisation and delivery of high‑impact initiatives.
• Ensure compliance with enterprise security, resilience and ISO27001 requirements.
• Embed secure‑by‑design principles into engineering practices.
• Support operational resilience through robust system and reliability engineering.
• Partner with security and infrastructure teams to manage and mitigate risk.

Requirements

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in data engineering, with at least 4–5 years in a leadership or managerial role and experience of managing multiple teams.
• Expertise in building and scaling data platforms, with a strong focus on Azure Cloud technologies (e.g., Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse, Azure Data Lake, Azure SQL Database, Databricks, Apache Spark).
• Proven experience leading the implementation of data platform strategies and managing large-scale data infrastructure initiatives using Azure.
• Demonstrated experience implementing modern engineering practices such as DevOps, CI/CD, automated testing, and platform engineering.
• Experience building and scaling cloud-native platforms in large enterprises.
• Strong background in enterprise architecture, integration patterns, and API-driven architectures.
• Experience operating within complex organisational structures, balancing centralised technology governance with business unit autonomy.
• Experience leading distributed engineering teams, including offshore or near-shore development centres.
• Experience managing major technology transformation or modernisation initiatives.

Tech Stack

• Apache
• Azure
• Cloud
• Spark
• SQL

Benefits

• Dual Location / Hybrid worker Status
• Participation in our annual Incentive Plan (VIP)
• up to 15% bonus
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, volunteering day and your birthday off!
• Option to buy and sell up to 9 days annual leave
• Access to voluntary benefits including private medical insurance, cycle to work scheme, and subsidised gym membership
• Automatic inclusion in Life Assurance, Critical Illness and Disability Income protection schemes
• Pension scheme up to 8% employer contribution
• Access to reward & discount platform
• Wellbeing initiatives