Director Next Generation Architecture Aerospace & Defense

About the Role

Were looking for an Engineering Leader who is equal parts technical leader and people leader and who sees AI as a fundamental part of how modern software is built not a bolt-on. This is a player-coach role youll lead one or more autonomous product teams while maintaining the technical depth of a Principal Engineer or Architect. You wont just manage engineers; youll guide architectural decisions set the technical bar and help shape how we build enterprise software at IFS.

AI fluency is central to this role. Youll be expected to drive AI adoption across your teams from AI-assisted development workflows that accelerate delivery to AI-powered product capabilities that create customer value. You need to understand AI/ML integration patterns (RAG agentic architectures evaluation harnesses) guide your engineers in using AI tools effectively and responsibly and ensure your teams can build test and validate AI-driven features. This isnt about hype its about making AI a practical embedded part of how your teams work and what they ship.

Your teams own the full delivery lifecycle design development testing deployment and operations. Youll ensure they have the clarity context and conditions to deliver great work while taking direct responsibility for hiring developing and retaining the engineers on your teams.

This is not a role for managers who have left the code behind. Youll be expected to participate in design reviews evaluate architectural trade-offs unblock complex technical problems and stay hands-on with modern engineering practices including the AI tools and techniques your teams use daily.

What Youll Do

• Lead and grow engineers hire onboard coach and develop Software Engineers across the full career ladder from associate through to senior lead level
• Own delivery outcomes ensure your teams deliver high-quality software at a sustainable pace balancing technical quality with business value
• Drive technical quality participate in architectural reviews guide technology choices and ensure teams follow modern engineering practices (CI/CD automated testing observability infrastructure as code)
• Champion AI fluency drive adoption of AI-assisted development across your teams ensure engineers can build and validate AI-powered product features and foster a culture where AI is a practical tool not a buzzword
• Remove obstacles resolve cross-team dependencies shield teams from organizational noise and ensure engineers can focus on what matters
• Shape engineering culture foster continuous learning healthy debate and a you build it you run it mindset
• Partner cross-functionally work closely with Product Management Design Architecture and senior leadership to align technical execution with product strategy
• Develop specialisms help engineers identify and grow deep expertise in areas such as front-end back-end data engineering applied AI platform/SRE security and more

Qualifications :

Required Qualifications

• Significant experience in software engineering with a track record of operating at Principal Engineer or Architect level system design cross-team architectural thinking and technology strategy
• Proven experience managing and developing engineering teams (typically 5 engineers) including hiring performance management and career development
• Strong hands-on background in modern software development: cloud-native architectures microservices API-first design CI/CD containerization and infrastructure as code
• Proficiency in one or more modern programming languages (e.g. Go Python Java C# TypeScript) you should be able to read review and reason about production code
• Demonstrated AI fluency hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tools understanding of AI/ML integration patterns (RAG agents prompt engineering evaluation) and a track record of driving AI adoption within engineering teams
• Experience leading teams that own the full delivery lifecycle: development testing deployment and production operations
• Excellent communication skills able to articulate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and translate business needs into engineering direction
• A coaching mindset you measure your success by the growth and output of your team not your personal technical contributions

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in enterprise software or SaaS product development at scale
• Experience building or leading teams that build AI-powered product capabilities MLOps pipelines AI safety and governance practices or AI evaluation frameworks
• Background in multiple engineering disciplines (e.g. front-end and back-end or platform and application development)
• Experience with event-driven architectures message brokers and streaming platforms
• Track record of modernising legacy systems or migrating to cloud-native architectures
• Experience engaging directly with enterprise customers in technical discussions workshops or co-creation sessions
• Familiarity with security practices (OWASP threat modelling security tooling in CI/CD)
• Experience with organizational design team structures team topologies and scaling engineering organizations

What Were Looking For in You

• Youre technically deep but your ambition is to multiply the impact of others not just your own
• You lead with context not control you set direction and trust your teams to execute
• Youre comfortable with healthy tension and constructive debate; you optimize for better decisions not comfortable meetings
• Youre AI-native you use AI tools in your own work and youre energized by helping others do the same
• You stay curious youre continuously learning and you expect the same from your teams
• Youve got grit you navigate ambiguity remove blockers and keep teams moving forward

Additional Information :

We embrace flexibility and hybrid work opportunities to support diverse needs and lifestyles while also valuing inclusive workplace experiences. By fostering a sense of community we drive innovation strengthen connections and nurture belonging. Our commitment ensures you can work in a way that suits you best while also engaging with colleagues to share ideas and build meaningful relationships.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time