VP Engineering – AI-First Engineering Leadership
Remote (UK) | £130,000–£140,000 + bonus + equity participation
Our client is a global, private equity-backed leader in risk management and assurance. It operates in more than 50 countries and is entering its next five-year growth phase, with major investment committed and a significant technology-focused M&A pipeline.
They're hiring a VP Engineering to change how their software is built. This is a new role, created to take a talented engineering team of around 30 and turn it into an AI-first function. It comes with the autonomy, budget and executive backing to do it properly.
You'll start with a focused team. With large acquisitions in the pipeline, including a sizeable US-based engineering organisation, the function is expected to grow significantly over the next 12 to 24 months.
They are ideally looking for passionate & ambitious leaders who are looking for a step up and living/ breathing the world of AI!
What you'll do
- Lead the move to AI-first engineering: agentic AI embedded across the full development lifecycle, from requirements through to build, test and release.
- Put the right foundations in place (standards, golden paths, MD files, stage gates, reusable scaffolding) so engineers and AI tooling move fast without sacrificing quality.
- Restructure the engineering function for a product-led operating model, moving from project-based delivery to long-lived, product-aligned teams.
- Set a modern, pragmatic architecture direction: event-driven patterns and "just enough" governance, replacing heavyweight design documentation.
- Build and develop a strong leadership layer, reshaping structure and roles as you see fit.
- Define how engineering performance is measured (DORA, cycle time, time to release) and deliver a clear step-change.
- Shape the engineering side of a multi-year programme to digitise the client experience end to end.
- Integrate and scale engineering teams joining through acquisition.
- Act as the senior engineering voice to the CEO and the executive team.
What you'll bring
- Hands-on engineering leadership: you've led teams of 20 or more engineers through leads, and you're still close to the technology.
- Personal, current AI experience. You build with AI tooling yourself, you're across the latest models, and you have recent examples of what worked, what broke and what changed.
- Experience moving a team to AI-assisted or agentic development, with the structure to make it stick.
- A track record of changing how a function builds, not just running or inheriting one.
- A background in product-led environments. Scale-up, startup or high-growth product businesses would be particularly relevant.
- A strong grounding in modern software architecture, cloud and continuous delivery. The stack is Microsoft (Azure, C#, .NET, React), but adaptability matters more than stack.
- Energy, pace and the ability to bring people with you, from engineers to the boardroom.
This role suits someone on the way up: an ambitious Head of Engineering or Engineering Director who is ready for a bigger stage.
What's on offer
- Base salary up to £140,000, with a 10–15% bonus (potential flex)
- The opportunity to participate in a management incentive plan.
- Fully remote within the UK, with occasional office visits in London or Birmingham.
- Direct access to the CEO and board-level mentorship from an experienced AI and technology founder.
- Real autonomy over structure, ways of working and technical direction.
- A role that will scale significantly through acquisition.
