Deputy Director - Distinguished Engineer

Deputy Director - Distinguished Engineer
Southend-on-Sea , Essex Exec Search Sep 26, 2025

This role can be located in any of the following locations: Bristol, London (Stratford), Leeds, Telford, Newcastle.

Almost every individual and business in the UK is a direct customer of HMRC, as we collect the money that pays for the UK's public services and gives people who need it vital financial support. Over recent and coming years, our work never has been, nor will be, more critical as we rebuild and secure our nation's future.

With these demands in mind, and as one of the largest and most digitally focussed organisations in the UK, we are undergoing a thrilling change programme. Our team of 4,000 digital experts is undertaking one of the biggest digital and technology transformations in Europe, as we drive towards a high performing landscape of cutting-edge technology. This includes several key strategic priorities, including real-time transactional information and a single customer account, enabling customers to access all their data and undertake all their interactions with HMRC in one place.

Underpinning all of this are the platforms that touch every aspect of HMRC's IT estate and the engineering behind it, keeping systems performant whilst running one of the largest technology change programmes anywhere in the UK currently. As this programme moves into a new phase of development, we require a skilled Head of Engineering who will shape and deliver the engineering strategy for business-critical customer engagement platforms. driving innovation, improving developer experience, and ensuring our technology enables seamless, secure, and scalable customer interactions with millions of customers throughout the UK.

To deliver this critical agenda as Distinguished Engineer you will:

• Set the agenda and roadmap to lead on Engineering Strategy for Critical Customer Engagement platforms.
• Drive a culture of Innovation within Engineering, inspiring and supporting Engineering teams to deliver greater services securely and reliably.
• Own and manage the relationship with key stakeholders (Internal, other government departments, and suppliers), connecting Platform Engineering with key partners.
• Enable the development of service strategy and roadmaps, embed continuous improvement, drive consistency in approach, and harness shared capabilities.
• Provide excellent leadership to a team of c.200, coaching and developing others to ensure best practice across multiple engineering functions.

The following aspects of the role will be key to your success:

• Strategic & Operational Leadership: Performing as a leader who can balance the strategic with hands-on operational management of technical teams, driving positive change. Bringing with you a proven track record of developing and delivering a vision for Engineering services across multiple platforms.
• Exceptional Stakeholder engagement: You will be an excellent leader and manager with a proven track record of building, leading, and influencing to drive cultural change. You will also be able to influence senior stakeholders, providing clear advice to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strategic & Hands-on Technical Expertise: This role will require expert-level knowledge in building and maintaining software solutions in a multi-cloud environment, a deep understanding of modern DevSecOps and Secure Software Development Lifecycle methodologies, alongside continuous delivery and running systems at scale.
• Proven Innovation and Technical Foresight: You will also be constantly scanning for new technologies, understanding how they can solve business problems, building business cases and leading proof-of-concept projects. Experience in containerised application development, building engineering reference architectures, and capitalising on AI solutions to improve platforms is essential.
• Strong Communication & Interpersonal Skills: The ability to communicate a technical vision to all levels of management, business partners, and technical staff is critical. You must be able to secure consensus from a wide group of stakeholders and demonstrate expert-level interaction with senior leadership.

This role is open to public sector and private sector candidates and would suit someone with experience of working within Enterprise scale organisations as an Engineering Leader.

For further information or to apply email or contact Dave Flynn/Becca Connor on to arrange an informal conversation