Vice President of Software Engineering
10 hours ago
Edinburgh
Vice President of Software Engineering Location: Remote UK based The Opportunity Our client, a rapidly scaling fintech, is seeking an exceptional Vice President of Software Engineering to lead and evolve a large, high-performing engineering organisation. This role sits at the intersection of technical leadership, organisational scale, and AI-driven innovation. You will take ownership of an engineering function of 100–120 Software Engineers, supported by 6 Software Engineering Managers, and play a central role in shaping both capability and culture during a critical growth phase. This is a true player-coach position—requiring deep technical credibility alongside proven leadership at scale. Key Responsibilities • Lead, develop, and scale a multi-layered engineering organisation, ensuring strong leadership at every level, • Own delivery against a complex product roadmap, driving measurable business outcomes, • Define engineering strategy, architecture, and organisational design aligned to growth objectives, • Maintain hands-on technical engagement, contributing to high-level design and decision-making, • Champion AI-first engineering practices, building on an environment where 80–90% of code is AI-generated, with a roadmap to 95%+, • Embed modern engineering excellence (CI/CD, trunk-based development, observability, and automated testing), • Partner cross-functionally across Product, DevOps, Security, and Platform teams, • Build a high-performance culture grounded in accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement Your profile Our client is specifically seeking a candidate with a highly credible blend of leadership experience, technical depth, and modern engineering exposure: Leadership & Scale • 8+ years in software engineering leadership roles, with at least 3+ years operating at VP level (or equivalent), • Proven experience leading large-scale engineering organisations (minimum 50+ engineers), • Demonstrated success as a manager of managers, including developing senior engineering leaders, • Track record of scaling teams and capabilities in high-growth environments, ideally within startups or SME organisations Technical Expertise • Strong hands-on engineering background with the ability to remain technically engaged, • Deep technical fluency across modern architectures and polyglot environments (including .NET/C#, with exposure to other languages such as Java or Ruby), • Experience defining architecture and engineering strategy at scale, • Ability to challenge, guide, and influence technical decisions at all levels AI & Modern Engineering Practices (Critical) • Proven experience working in an AI-enabled or AI-first engineering environment, • Hands-on use of AI-assisted or agentic development tools (e.g. Claude or similar), • Clear understanding of how AI can accelerate delivery, improve quality, and reshape engineering workflows, • Experience driving adoption of AI tooling across teams and embedding it into the development lifecycle Delivery & Engineering Excellence • Strong background in continuous delivery environments, where software is shipped to production frequently or daily, • Expertise in modern practices including:, • CI/CD pipelines, • Trunk-based development, • Automated testing strategies, • Observability and system reliability, • Experience designing and evolving engineering organisations using modern frameworks (e.g. Lean, Scrum, Kanban, XP), • Strong understanding of team topologies (stream-aligned, platform, enabling teams), • Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence executive stakeholders, • Comfortable operating in ambiguous, fast-moving environments, • Strong problem-solving mindset with a willingness to experiment and iterate, • Values transparency, continuous learning, and candid feedback, • Demonstrates curiosity, innovation, and the ability to identify novel solutions to complex challenges Why This Role? • Opportunity to lead a large, complex engineering function at scale, • Significant influence over the evolution of AI-driven software development practices, • Join a high-growth fintech at a pivotal stage of its journey, • Work in an environment where engineering excellence and innovation are core to success If you are a technically credible engineering leader with experience scaling teams, embedding AI into development, and delivering at pace, this is a rare opportunity to make a significant impact.