Deputy Head of Engineering and Delivery

Thales is a global technology leader trusted by governments institutions and enterprises to tackle their most demanding challenges. From quantum applications and artificial intelligence to cybersecurity and 6G innovation our solutions empower critical decisions rooted in human intelligence. Operating at the forefront of aerospace and space cybersecurity and digital identity were driven by a mission to build a future we can all trust.

Whom We Are Looking For

As the deputy Head of Engineering and Delivery you own the execution and people side of technology delivery. You ensure teams have the right skills structures and processes to deliver high-quality products reliably and at scale. You report to the Head of Engineering and Delivery but also to the directors of the lab.

We are looking for a seasoned engineering leader who thrives at the intersection of rigorous delivery and creative ambiguity. Youve led multi-disciplinary teams through the full arc of product development from early-stage experimentation to production-grade systems and you know how to maintain momentum without sacrificing quality.

You bring enough technical depth to earn the respect of engineers and architects but your real strength is building the conditions in which great work happens: clear ownership healthy engineering culture and a delivery rhythm that doesnt crush innovation. Youre comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment where requirements evolve priorities shift and not every bet pays off and you help your teams navigate that with clarity rather than chaos.

Youve likely worked across both established organizations and leaner more entrepreneurial settings and you understand the distinct challenges of each. Above all youre someone who believes that engineering excellence and speed of learning are not in tension they reinforce each other.

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for on-time quality delivery of product increments.
• Promote the use of agentic AI in everyday engineering practices to improve the prototyping phases but improving the overall quality of the system.
• Ensure Agile/Scaled-Agile processes (Scrum Kanban SAFe etc.) are applied effectively adapting them to new AI-driven development when needed.
• Track delivery KPIs (velocity cycle time defect rates deployment frequency).
• Build and manage the engineering organization (hiring onboarding career paths performance management).
• Define team structures (feature teams platform teams enabling teams etc.).
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement collaboration and accountability.
• Ensure that engineering practices (CI/CD testing observability DevOps) are consistently applied.
• Support but do not override the Chief Architect in architecture decisions but act as a pragmatic enabler of the architecture vision.
• Ensure technical debt is managed as part of delivery planning.
• Own engineering budget resource planning and vendor/outsourcing decisions.
• Manage delivery risks (resourcing gaps process bottlenecks quality regressions).
• Ensure compliance with relevant standards (e.g. safety-critical security data privacy).

Requirements:

Education

• Bachelors in Computer Science or Information Technology
• Masters degree in Computer Science or Data Science if applicable

Essential Skills/Experience

• Proven track record leading engineering and delivery across multiple concurrent workstreams from concept through production
• Experience managing and developing multi-disciplinary teams engineers architects QA and delivery professionals in a hands-on leadership capacity
• Strong grasp of modern software delivery practices: CI/CD agile at scale platform thinking and how to adapt these in fast-moving ambiguous environments
• Ability to hold both the strategic and operational view setting direction while staying close enough to the ground to spot delivery risk early
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with senior stakeholders translating between engineering realities and business or programme-level expectations
• Experience building or evolving engineering culture: hiring ways of working standards and psychological safety
• Comfortable with ambiguity and iterative discovery youve delivered in contexts where the problem itself was still being defined
• Financial and resource accountability: budgets headcount planning and making the case for investment

Desirable Skills/Experience

• Familiarity with cloud-native architectures and platforms (e.g. Kubernetes serverless event-driven systems) enough to have informed conversations with architects and make sound build-vs-buy calls
• Experience in a dedicated innovation R&D or venture-style environment labs incubators or internal startups
• Exposure to hardware/software integration or cyber-physical systems where software delivery intersects with physical or operational constraints
• Background in regulated or safety-conscious industries understanding what good enough to ship looks like when the stakes are higher
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development practices: using LLMs as a force-multiplier in the development lifecycle code generation documentation test coverage and architectural exploration and the judgment to know where these tools accelerate and where they introduce risk
• Awareness of the emerging vibe coding paradigm and what it means for team composition code ownership and quality assurance including how to govern it without killing the productivity gains
• Experience scaling or winding down initiatives: knowing when to accelerate when to pivot and when to kill something cleanly is as valuable as knowing how to build

Essential Traits

• Calm under ambiguity: you dont need a perfect picture to make a decision and you dont transmit anxiety downward when things are uncertain
• Intellectually honest: you call things as they are with stakeholders and with your team; you dont over-promise to buy time or comfort
• Builders instinct: you are energized by creating things that dont exist yet not just optimizing what does
• High trust high standards: you give people genuine autonomy and hold them to genuine accountability; youre neither a micromanager nor a passenger
• Bridge-builder: you naturally translate across boundaries: technical/non-technical strategic/operational internal/external
• Resilient and pragmatic: you absorb setbacks without drama and recalibrate quickly; you know the difference between a problem and a crisis

At Thales were committed to fostering a workplace where respect trust collaboration and passion drive everything we do. Here youll feel empowered to bring your best self thrive in a supportive culture and love the work you do. Join us and be part of a team reimagining technology to create solutions that truly make a difference for a safer greener and more inclusive world.