Director of Product Engineering

TL;DR

Director of Product Engineering (AI-enabled): Defining and owning the product engineering operating model across the Digital & Data Office, transforming from project-centric to product-led delivery with an accent on scalable engineering practices, AI integration, and organizational capability building. Focus on leading engineering teams, aligning with product and IT leadership, optimizing delivery flow, and managing technology budgets in a multi-region environment.

Location: Cardiff, UK (Hybrid: 2 days in office)

Salary: £99,289 - £124,111, negotiable depending on experience

Company

World-class educational services provider to over 6,000 schools across 160 countries, empowering innovative education through digital transformation.

What you will do

• Define and lead transformation to a product-led, AI-enabled engineering organization from project-based delivery.
• Own and evolve the product engineering operating model for scalable, sustainable digital product delivery.
• Establish organizational structures, roles, and decision rights across engineering teams and regions.
• Partner with Product Management and IT leadership for alignment on strategy, architecture, and risk management.
• Manage performance of technology estate, improve end-to-end delivery flow, and set outcome-oriented metrics.
• Build engineering leadership, define career paths, shape hiring strategies, and integrate AI into practices.
• Exercise commercial accountability over product engineering budget.

Requirements

• Extensive senior leadership in product engineering or technology at enterprise scale in complex organizations.
• Proven track record transforming to product-centric models, influencing executives, and delivering change.
• Deep expertise in modern software engineering: cloud platforms, APIs, data-intensive systems.
• Experience embedding AI at scale, with judgement on value, limitations, and risks.
• Ability to lead transformation, build high-performing teams, and manage significant budgets.

Culture & Benefits

• Flexible benefits allowance (1.5% of salary).
• 10% employer pension contribution (3% employee).
• Enhanced family-friendly benefits, 30 days annual leave + public holidays.
• Life assurance 4x salary, paid volunteering leave.
• Flexible hours (core 10am-12pm, 2pm-3pm), 37.5 hours/week.
• Excellent continuous professional development.