Vice President of Software Engineering

Vice President of Software Engineering

Location: Remote UK based

The Opportunity

Our client, a rapidly scaling fintech, is seeking an exceptional Vice President of Software Engineering to lead and evolve a large, high-performing engineering organisation.

This role sits at the intersection of technical leadership, organisational scale, and AI-driven innovation.

You will take ownership of an engineering function of 100–120 Software Engineers, supported by 6 Software Engineering Managers, and play a central role in shaping both capability and culture during a critical growth phase.

This is a true player-coach position—requiring deep technical credibility alongside proven leadership at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, and scale a multi-layered engineering organisation, ensuring strong leadership at every level
• Own delivery against a complex product roadmap, driving measurable business outcomes
• Define engineering strategy, architecture, and organisational design aligned to growth objectives
• Maintain hands-on technical engagement, contributing to high-level design and decision-making
• Champion AI-first engineering practices, building on an environment where 80–90% of code is AI-generated, with a roadmap to 95%+
• Embed modern engineering excellence (CI/CD, trunk-based development, observability, and automated testing)
• Partner cross-functionally across Product, DevOps, Security, and Platform teams
• Build a high-performance culture grounded in accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement

Your profile

Our client is specifically seeking a candidate with a highly credible blend of leadership experience, technical depth, and modern engineering exposure:

Leadership & Scale

• 8+ years in software engineering leadership roles, with at least 3+ years operating at VP level (or equivalent)
• Proven experience leading large-scale engineering organisations (minimum 50+ engineers)
• Demonstrated success as a manager of managers, including developing senior engineering leaders
• Track record of scaling teams and capabilities in high-growth environments, ideally within startups or SME organisations

Technical Expertise

• Strong hands-on engineering background with the ability to remain technically engaged
• Deep technical fluency across modern architectures and polyglot environments (including .NET/C#, with exposure to other languages such as Java or Ruby)
• Experience defining architecture and engineering strategy at scale
• Ability to challenge, guide, and influence technical decisions at all levels

AI & Modern Engineering Practices (Critical)

• Proven experience working in an AI-enabled or AI-first engineering environment
• Hands-on use of AI-assisted or agentic development tools (e.g. Claude or similar)
• Clear understanding of how AI can accelerate delivery, improve quality, and reshape engineering workflows
• Experience driving adoption of AI tooling across teams and embedding it into the development lifecycle

Delivery & Engineering Excellence

• Strong background in continuous delivery environments, where software is shipped to production frequently or daily
• Expertise in modern practices including:
• CI/CD pipelines
• Trunk-based development
• Automated testing strategies
• Observability and system reliability
• Proven ability to use engineering metrics to drive performance and continuous improvement

Organisational Design & Methodologies

• Experience designing and evolving engineering organisations using modern frameworks (e.g. Lean, Scrum, Kanban, XP)
• Strong understanding of team topologies (stream-aligned, platform, enabling teams)
• Ability to align organisational structure to product and delivery needs

Leadership Mindset & Approach

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence executive stakeholders
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous, fast-moving environments
• Strong problem-solving mindset with a willingness to experiment and iterate
• Values transparency, continuous learning, and candid feedback
• Demonstrates curiosity, innovation, and the ability to identify novel solutions to complex challenges

Why This Role?

• Opportunity to lead a large, complex engineering function at scale
• Significant influence over the evolution of AI-driven software development practices
• Join a high-growth fintech at a pivotal stage of its journey
• Work in an environment where engineering excellence and innovation are core to success

If you are a technically credible engineering leader with experience scaling teams, embedding AI into development, and delivering at pace, this is a rare opportunity to make a significant impact.