As our VP of Engineering, you will set our technical direction, manage our technology stack and ensure our team is performing to the highest standards as we grow, expand our team, products and markets. This role works closely with the CPO, CEO and COO to maintain our highly collaborative culture. You line manage our team of Lead Engineers, being accountable for the quality of work in delivering our technical solution to B2B2C clients. You will report into the CPO.

This position is based in Leeds or remotely in the UK.

The Role
In this role, you will define, evolve and lead the delivery of our technology vision and strategy across the whole organisation. You will have architectural ownership (including tech stack, budget and roadmap), focusing on improving our current software and processes as well as taking forward looking decisions beyond Series A, helping us to scale and diversify. This role can defend our technology and infrastructure in front of enterprise clients, our investors and our board. You will take a hands-on approach to setting the highest standards for best practises in engineering – both in respect of the quality of implementation and in the definition of processes, standards and practises in engineering.

You need to be an experienced collaborator, working effectively with the whole business, and a great thought-partner to our CPO, to jointly manage our strategic direction and foster close relationships between our wider product and technology teams to deliver the highest quality from discovery, delivery and product support.

Your remit will include ensuring we have an efficient, secure and scalable infrastructure and software development processes that deliver high quality products for our end users (children and families) and clients (hospitals, clinicians, pharmaceutical, biotech and Clinical Research Organisations).

You will foster a healthy, high-performing engineering culture, empowering teams and individuals through coaching and leadership rooted in your significant experience of best practises. You will define and monitor KPIs for technical performance and drive accountabilities within the tech team to ensure a consistent focus on execution and delivery of quality products.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and optimisation of the technology architecture and stack, ensuring it is well-suited to meet current demands and future scaling challenges
• Direct, mentor and coach a team of Lead Engineers, building a culture of high performance and accountability
• Ensure compliance with security regulations through application of principles of Security and Privacy by Design
• Lead on technical strategy – being accountable for the technical implementation of OKRs, business goals and requirements for the short and long term aims of Little Journey
• Support tactical delivery of software development projects by supervising requirements, goals and timelines
• Maintain high standards in technical delivery, implementing effective software development processes and robust infrastructure that meet client needs
• Foster a culture of innovation within the engineering team
• Define and monitor key performance indicators and manage OKR initiatives to ensure accountability and success
• Define excellence in engineering throughout the teams: you regularly check in on contributions, demonstrate strong opinions about system design and architecture, and implement robust policies and procedures around best practises and high standards
• Responsible for the implementation of secure development and deployment practices in line with the requirements and expectations of Little Journey's customers, regulators and industry best practice

Measuring Success
First 3 months: successfully implement cross functional team culture, breaking down silos, facilitate interaction between tech and product. This is in motion already and you will enable the team to be successful.

6 months: Reflect the needs of the content side of the company, delivering the user experience of the content team. Tools and automation and support. We have a SaaS infrastructure and architecture. Take ownership of productization of platform, expert from the tech side, what does the SaaS platform look like and how is it architected (incl. security, content management, user management) hand in hand with the content solution

12 months: You have successfully deployed a SaaS platform that is delivering services to new clinical trials and our healthcare customers. Everything done in month 3 – 6 – 9 is running effectively, within out SLA’s/ Operational costs have been significantly reduced.