Vice President of Software Engineering

Role Summary

The Vice President of Software Engineering is a senior leadership role responsible for setting the technical vision, strategy, and execution for the company’s entire software engineering. VP of Software Engineering leads multiple engineering teams, drives innovation in product development, ensures high-quality scalable systems, and aligns engineering efforts with overall business objectives. The VP of Software Engineering plays a critical role in building high-performing engineering culture, attracting top talent, and delivering technology solutions that support centralized corporate functions and innovation.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: Define and execute the long-term technical strategy and roadmap in alignment with company goals. Partner closely with Business Units, Shared Services, Operations, Finance, and other business leaders to prioritize initiatives.
• Engineering Organization Management: Lead, mentor, and grow a diverse engineering organization of data, digital, and AI skills. Oversee multiple teams including Enterprise Architecture, Full stack development, platform, infrastructure, DevOps, and data engineering.
• Technical Excellence: Ensure the delivery of high-quality, scalable, secure, and reliable software systems. Champion best practices in software architecture, code quality, testing, CI/CD, observability, and security.
• Talent Acquisition & Development: Attract, retain, and develop world-class engineering talent. Build strong engineering leadership bench strength, establish career growth frameworks, and foster a culture of inclusion, innovation, and continuous learning.
• Process & Delivery: Implement and improve agile/lean development processes, engineering metrics (DORA, SPACE, etc.), and delivery predictability while maintaining velocity.
• Innovation & Technology: Stay ahead of industry trends (cloud-native, AI/ML, microservices, etc.) and evaluate new technologies that can drive business value.
• Risk & Compliance: Oversee technical risk management, data privacy, security standards, and regulatory compliance (SOC2, GDPR, HIPAA, etc. as applicable).
• Budget & Operations: Manage the engineering budget, vendor relationships, and infrastructure costs. Optimize resource allocation across projects and initiatives.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Act as a key member of the leadership team, providing technical guidance to other business leaders and the C-suite when needed.

Qualifications & Experience

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent experience).
• Experience: 12+ years of progressive software engineering experience, with at least 5–7 years in senior engineering leadership roles (Director or above). Experience leading engineering organizations in SaaS, consumer tech, fintech, or enterprise software environments is strongly preferred.
• Proven Track Record: Demonstrated success shipping complex, high-scale products and platforms used by thousands of Enterprise users.
• Leadership Style: Servant leader with a track record of building high-trust, high-performance engineering cultures.

Required Skills & Competencies

• Deep expertise in modern software architecture, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), distributed systems, and DevOps practices.
• Strong people leadership skills with experience managing managers and directors.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities — able to translate technical concepts for non-technical executives.
• Strategic thinking combined with strong execution and operational rigor.
• Data-driven decision making using engineering metrics and KPIs.
• Experience with AI/ML integration or modern frontend/mobile stacks is a plus.

What Success Looks Like

• Engineering organization consistently delivers high-impact features on time with high quality.
• Low employee turnover and strong employer brand in the technical talent market.
• Technology platform is reliable, scalable, and cost-efficient.
• Engineering is viewed as a strategic partner across the company, not just a delivery function.

About us

SLR are global leaders in environmental and advisory solutions helping our clients achieve their sustainability goals. We are a consultancy with over 4,500 staff across 6 regions. SLR’s ‘one team’ culture is at the heart of our business; providing a collaborative and supportive environment for professional development.

Competitive compensation package, benefits, and wellness initiatives. Final package will vary according to which region the successful candidate resides in.