Head of Engineering

Zaizi has adopted a Team of Teams approach to organising ourselves. As part of our ambitious growth journey Zaizi has formed Clubs focused on specific sectors within the UK public services market.

Our Clubs provide the knowledge and experience required to meet our customers demanding outcomes. From these Clubs Teams are formed to deliver on project schedules that may range from a few weeks to multi-year engagements.

Zaizi seeks a motivated and results-oriented individual to join the Club Leadership Team.

Day-to-day activities may include project scoping bid work initiating recruitment monitoring project progress addressing escalations from teams or customers and supporting the Club Executive to manage the clubs Profit & Loss and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

As a member of the Club Leadership Team you will play a pivotal role in helping the club to deliver on its quality and financial targets. You will serve as the head of profession for your discipline within the club ensuring the club has the people skills and capabilities to successfully execute the club strategy and deliver client projects.

Club Leadership Key Responsibilities

• Supporting Client Managers and Business Development Managers in building strong client relationships to maintain existing opportunities and uncover new opportunities.
• Demonstrate capabilities within the club and across the organisation to clients.
• Ensure quality of delivery across all client engagements including looking for opportunities to innovate and deliver above client expectations
• Support Club Executive in the effective operation of the club against agreed quality and financial targets
• Support the People team in ensuring the Employee experience is excellent within the club.
• Work with the Club Executive and other Club Leadership roles to balance between quality and financial KPIs.
• Ability to estimate team size and makeup for potential opportunities.
• Keeping abreast of industry trends customer needs and competitor offerings to position the club effectively.
• Sharing knowledge and contributing to wider Zaizi success by active participation in the Design Authority and Communities.
• Actively participate in Zaizis Design Authority and identify new and emerging technologies or approaches to differentiate offerings.
• Help write support and structure compelling bids including technical and commercial aspects.
• Capability to lead coach and mentor others within the club.
• Work alongside the Club Exec to build club capability and actively manage the club P&L and SFIA reviews and annual pay progressions within the club

Key Responsibilities:
Provide Strategic Engineering Leadership
Define and lead the engineering strategy in alignment with business objectives government policy and public sector digital standards. This includes compliance with the GDS Service Standard Technology Code of Practice and NCSC Secure by Design principles.

Lead and Support Inclusive High-Performing Teams
Build support and inspire multidisciplinary engineering teams across a range of projects. Foster an inclusive and collaborative culture that values quality delivery innovation and user-centred outcomes. Promote equity psychological safety and continuous improvement for all team members.

Ensure Technical Excellence and Reliable Delivery
Oversee the design development and implementation of secure scalable and maintainable digital services. Promote best practices in Agile DevOps CI/CD cloud-native architectures and secure software development while ensuring work is understandable accessible and inclusive by design.

Collaborate with Clients and Stakeholders
Serve as a senior technical advisor to a diverse range of stakeholders including central government departments and public sector organisations. Translate a wide range of user needs into practical and sustainable technical solutions ensuring delivery meets shared goals.

Promote Compliance Accessibility and Security
Ensure engineering outputs meet legal regulatory and ethical standards including accessibility (e.g. WCAG 2.2) cyber security (e.g. Cyber Essentials Plus) and data protection. Embed accessibility and inclusion as core elements of technical design and delivery.

Drive Innovation and Set Technical Standards
Lead the development of technical standards governance and design patterns that promote sustainable inclusive engineering. Stay informed on emerging technologies and methods to enhance delivery and resilience in public sector systems.

Support Ethical Business Growth
Work with delivery and commercial colleagues to shape inclusive responsible and technically sound proposals. Contribute to bids and frameworks and help define clear fair statements of work.

Promote Knowledge Sharing and Inclusive Capability Building
Promote opportunities for mentoring peer learning and cross-team collaboration. Help individuals grow their skills and confidence and promote knowledge sharing internally and with client teams. Encourage continuous learning across all backgrounds and experience levels.

CLT KPIs: To be agreed with the Ops Board on an annual basis. Typically includes:

• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
• Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
• Team Health Score
• Club Gross Margin
• Club Revenue

You are eligible for a bonus. Details of the bonus scheme will be provided and agreed with you in April of each year.

Reporting Line: Club Executive

Salary: 100000 - 130000

Bonus: 10000 based on Company & Club KPIs

Security Clearance

Certain projects demand that our staff be British and cleared to SC level (or eligible for clearance). Candidates cleared to DV level are also required for our growth plans.

You dont meet all the requirements

Studies show that women and black Asian and minority ethnic people are less likely to apply for a job unless they meet every qualification. So if youre excited about this role but your experience doesnt align perfectly with the job description wed love you to still apply. You might just be the perfect person for this role or another role here at Zaizi.

We actively welcome applications from people of colour the LGBTQ community individuals with disabilities neurodivergent individuals parents carers and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

If you need any accommodations to support your specific situation please feel free to let us know. For candidates who are neurodiverse or have disabilities we are happy to make any adjustments needed throughout the interview processjust ask!

Interview Process:

1st stage:

Initial phone screening done by a member of the recruitment team

2nd stage:

Technical interview this stage evaluates your technical expertise and problem-solving abilities especially if youre applying for a technical role.

Final Stage:

10-15 min presentation and a panel interview where multiple people from different departments ask you questions.

25 days paid holiday plus bank holidays

Vitality medical insurance
Workplace Pension 5% employer contribution
Group Life Assurance
Cycle scheme
5 days a year for approved Training
WFH equipment allowance
Buy / Sell Holiday
2 days paid volunteering days

Other benefits:
Flexible working
Work on exciting projects - make a difference
Empowered to make decisions
Encouraged to fail fast and learn quickly
1-2-1 and team coaching / training available to all our staff

For further information contact-

Nat Hinds-Head of Talent

Kayla Kirby-Talent Acquisition Specialist

Required Experience:

Director