Head of Engineering

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and own all software engineering delivery for Valpak reporting to the CTO (Comply).
• Act as Valpaks senior software engineering leader supporting strategic initiatives and bids.
• Lead mentor and develop Tech Leads and product engineering squads.
• Build a highperformance engineering culture aligned to Reconomy standards.
• Drive recruitment retention and development of engineering talent leveraging nearshore capability.

• Define and deliver Valpaks engineering strategy aligned to Comply and Reconomy objectives.
• Own and maintain a multiyear 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 multiyear data strategy aligned to Reconomys 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 selfservice analytics via Reconomys Datastream platform.
• Oversee the design optimisation and scalability of Azurebased data platforms.

• Implement Reconomys 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 Reconomys cloud strategy across Valpak systems.
• Embed modern DevSecFinOps and shiftleft ownership within engineering teams.
• Ensure cloud platforms are secure resilient scalable and costoptimised.
• Drive automation and infrastructureascode adoption.

• Drive adoption of agentic AI across the software development lifecycle.
• Ensure AIassisted 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 nontechnical stakeholders.
• Lead resourcing prioritisation and delivery of highimpact initiatives.

• Ensure compliance with enterprise security resilience and ISO27001 requirements.
• Embed securebydesign principles into engineering practices.
• Support operational resilience through robust system and reliability engineering.
• Partner with security and infrastructure teams to manage and mitigate risk.

Skills Knowledge & Expertise

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science Engineering Data Science or a related field.
• 10 years of experience in data engineering with at least 45 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.

Job 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