About this role
Head of Software Engineering, ELS
Job Family: Technology
Job Category: Engineering Career Architecture Role: Software Engineer
Role Summary
Leads a multidisciplinary Innovation Engineering capability, accountable for translating emerging technologies into scalable, enterprise-ready products and platforms. Sets strategic direction, prioritization, and execution standards across innovation squads, ensuring alignment with business objectives, product strategy, and enterprise architecture.
Drives technical excellence, accelerates experimentation-to-production cycles, and builds organizational capability across engineering, data science, and AI—delivering measurable commercial and operational impact.
Key Responsibilities
1. Strategic & Functional Leadership
• Define and execute the innovation engineering strategy, aligning with ELS business priorities, product roadmaps, and enterprise technology standards
• Set multi-quarter priorities, investment focus, and capacity planning across innovation initiatives
• Act as a senior technical authority across innovation domains (AI, platforms, emerging tech), influencing enterprise-wide direction
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2. Innovation Delivery & Execution
• Lead delivery of complex, cross-functional innovation programmes, from concept through to scaled deployment
• Drive experimentation, prototyping, and MVP development, accelerating time-to-value and adoption
• Ensure solutions are scalable, secure, and production-grade, aligned with enterprise architecture and governance
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3. Team Leadership & Capability Building
• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing, cross-functional team (engineering, data science, AI, and specialists)
• Foster a culture of collaboration, learning, and continuous improvement, strengthening innovation capability across squads
• Coach and develop senior technical leaders, creating succession pipelines and future capability depth
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4. Technical Excellence & Standards
• Establish and uphold engineering best practices, including architecture, DevOps, CI/CD, and platform reliability
• Drive improvements in release velocity, quality, and defect reduction through modern engineering practices
• Ensure alignment with security, data governance, and compliance standards
5. Cross-Functional Influence & Stakeholder Alignment
• Partner closely with Product, Platform, and Business leadership to prioritise and deliver high-impact innovation outcomes
• Influence decision-making at senior levels, translating technical possibilities into commercial value propositions
• Represent Innovation Engineering in executive and cross-functional forums
Skills & Competencies
Leadership & Collaboration
• Collaboration (Advanced): Influences and aligns multiple senior stakeholders across Engineering, Product, and Business
• People Leadership (Advanced): Builds inclusive, high-performing teams and develops future leaders
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Technical Expertise
• Software Design & Architecture (Advanced)
• Cloud Computing, API & Platform Engineering (Advanced)
• Deep understanding of scalable, distributed systems and enterprise integration Innovation & Problem Solving
• Innovation & Strategic Thinking (Advanced): Applies emerging technologies (AI, automation, data) to business problems
• Problem Solving (Advanced): Navigates ambiguity and drives breakthrough solutions
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Risk, Security & Compliance
• Data Security & Information Security (Advanced)
• Strong understanding of enterprise governance and regulatory frameworks
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Future-Focused Capabilities
• Artificial Intelligence & AI Agents (Advanced)
• Learning Agility & Adaptability (Advanced): Continuously evolves capability in line with emerging technologies
Qualifications & Experience
• Significant experience leading software engineering and innovation teams in complex enterprise environments
• Proven track record delivering large-scale, cross-functional technical programmes
• Deep expertise in software architecture, cloud-native systems, and emerging technologies (AI/ML platforms)
• Experience influencing and operating at senior leadership / executive level
• Demonstrated ability to build and scale multidisciplinary technical teams globally