Head Of Software Engineering

Overview

This role will directly oversee four engineering teams: Data (AWS Databricks), CRM (Salesforce), Billing (Junifer), and Full Stack (NodeJS etc). Its purpose is to lead the development and maintenance of cutting-edge systems powering green energy delivery to our customers and stakeholders.

You will be an experienced manager today, but before this, you will have been a strong lead engineer with a track record of delivering change.

Your move into management will not have eroded your interest in technology, and from your position of leader, you’ll be an active member of the engineering function, knowing when to offer your experience, but also knowing when to let your teams fly as you watch on.

This role carries the reputation of our department, and as such needs to be visible and engage face-to-face with our stakeholders, and this will mean several days a week working at our Stroud office.

Key Responsibility Areas:

Leadership and Team Management:

• Demonstrate exemplary current technical skills to inspire the Engineering Teams.
• Cultivate a culture of technical innovation and excellence, whilst maintaining technical involvement in development projects.
• Actively mentor team members, emphasizing continuous learning and skill advancement.

Project and Delivery Management:

• Work with internal teams and product owners to ensure on-time and on-spec delivery.
• Lead the technical delivery of major transformative initiatives, including our Salesforce E&U project and our data estate overhaul.
• Run agile development, whilst understanding stakeholders' need for dates and a clear ROI.
• Ensuring platforms remain cutting-edge through strategic upgrades and BAU maintenance.

Technical Excellence and Innovation:

• Remain current on emerging engineering trends and practices, and champion commercially promising technologies to support our green mission.
• Facilitate a culture of continual technological advancement in our people, avoiding stagnation, and encouraging the 360-degree sharing of ideas.
• Enhance our delivery approach and mentor the teams to deliver quality at pace.

Quality and Security Assurance:

• Uphold high standards of security, adopting a zero-trust framework, ensuring our systems are cyber-secure and capable of quick recovery.

Consultancy and Business Alignment:

• Ensure engineering teams align closely with business objectives, offering consultancy-level engagement hand in hand with our Product Owners.
• Promote a service-partner mindset towards internal collaborations, enhancing business engagement and solutions delivery.

Performance Indicators:

• Timely and successful project deliveries within specifications.
• Measurable improvements in team functionality, collaboration, and technical prowess.
• Significant upgrades and advancements across key platforms (Salesforce, AWS).
• Strengthened security postures and effective recovery from cybersecurity incidents.
• The ability to articulate the status of work in flight to a senior audience.
• Functioning gates and controls, and transparent escalation in a timely manner.

Key Relationships:

• Director of Technology
• C-Suite and Non-Board Directors
• Technology Team Peers
• Product Owners
• Head of Project Delivery
• QA Lead

Skills and Experience:

• Be able to demonstrate proficiency in the last 5 years in at least one of; Web / NodeJS / React / Angular, Salesforce, Databricks, AWS, energy billing systems, or other transferable engineering language.
• Exceptional ability to lead within a dynamic, high-demand engineering environment.
• Deep understanding of agile methodologies and proven experience in project delivery.
• High emotional intelligence, with strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Solid knowledge of building secure systems that facilitate Disaster Recovery if ever needed.

What's in it for you...

Healthcare plan, life assurance and generous pension contribution
Volunteering day
Hybrid working
Various company discounts (including shops, days out and events)
Holiday of 25 days (plus bank holidays) & ability to buy/sell days
Cycle to work scheme, car pooling and onsite parking available

As a valued member of the team you will be supporting the Group Environmental policy and its associated targets to make the Green Britain Group net carbon neutral by 2025

Flexibility statement

The fast moving nature of the company's business means that from time to time you may be asked to perform duties or tasks outside of your original job description on an ad hoc basis. This allows the company to use it's people in the best possible way at all times and helps the employees to make make their contribution in a changing environment. 

Ecotricity is Britain's greenest energy company. When we started back in 1995, we were the first company in the world to provide a new kind of electricity- the green kind.

Our mission was, and remains, to change the way energy is made and used in Britain- by replacing fossil fuels with clean, renewable energy.

We don't just supply green energy, we use the money from our customers' bills to make it ourselves too- we build windmills and sun parks in Britain. We call this 'bills in to mills'. In 2021, we started work on building two new solar parks, and now, in 2023, we're bringing geothermal energy to our customers' fuel mix, a first in the UK. We're also developing green gas mills which will generate 100% green gas from a source that we will never run out of- grass.

We don't just focus on energy though- we built Electric Highways, Britain's leading network of electric vehicle charging points, we helped Forest Green Rovers become the greenest football club in the world, and, in partnership with RSPB, we launched Britain's greenest mobile phone service, Ecotalk.

Ecotricity is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to providing equality for all.