Head of Engineering

Hours: 37.5 hours per week (This is a full time post but we welcome applicants interested in a part time role)

First round interviews: Ongoing

What we're looking for We're looking for a technically strong, people oriented leader, ready to own how data and technology powers a fast growing education organisation.

The challenge: we've made real progress automating individual processes, but we're ready to make a significant leap. The next stage is shifting from operational efficiency to powering end to end journeys for our mentors, pupils and guardians, journeys that actively deepen engagement, and drive better outcomes for our pupils. Getting there requires rearchitecting how our data flows between systems, and building the automation and AI layer that makes those journeys possible.

Concretely, that means commissioning and leading a thorough technical review of our current architecture, acting decisively on what it surfaces, and then delivering across multiple workstreams, from intelligent, automated communication tools to an enhanced mentor platform and a new pupil facing application.

You'll have a small permanent team, resource for contracted specialists, and a Head of Product as your close peer. You'll have real ownership, a clear mandate, and work that matters. If you're energised by hard technical problems and want to see the difference your work makes, this is for you.

We exist to serve pupils from backgrounds that are under represented in university mathematics, and believe that we do this better when our team includes people who are from these backgrounds themselves. If you consider yourself to be from a background where progressing to university mathematics is not the norm then we strongly encourage you to apply.

About Axiom maths Axiom Maths is a maths education charity on a mission to help every child with the heart and head for maths realise the potential of their power. Every year 30,000 children who were top performers at the end of primary school don't go on to get top GCSE grades in maths. We aim to change that by partnering with schools across England and Wales to run fully funded in school or online maths circles. Pupils tackle challenging and rewarding maths problems in a supportive social group where the subject is valued.

We're looking for team members who will bring the best of themselves to Axiom Maths, and the best of Axiom Maths to the wider system. We champion innovation and our employees are empowered to implement new ideas without barriers. We are a small team, and we place a big focus on open communication, collaboration and supporting one another.

About this role The key responsibilities of this role include:

Strategy, Vision & Leadership

• Own the organisation's technology and data strategy: setting direction, making the right calls, and keeping the roadmap ahead of where the organisation is going
• Set a clear vision for how every team thinks about and uses data and technology, and make it stick

Technical Leadership & Delivery

• Lead the technical review that precedes any build: defining its scope, leading its execution, interpreting findings, and ensuring the organisation acts on what it surfaces
• Lead technical workstreams across a significant programme of change: managing dependencies, making prioritisation calls, and maintaining pace without compromising quality
• Commission, brief, and oversee contracted specialists, ensuring their outputs integrate coherently and leave the organisation with systems it can own and build on
• Be comfortable navigating a mixed technology stack. We use PHP and Symfony on the backend, Next.js and TypeScript on the frontend, and PostgreSQL as our database. You don't need to be expert in all of these, but you need to read an unfamiliar codebase and engage credibly with the engineers working across it
• Our in house products sit alongside a landscape of third party tools - including a CRM, communications platform, survey tools, and a knowledge management system. A key part of this role is exercising clear judgment about what we build, what we buy, and how we make the two work well together

Automation, Integration & AI Implementation

• Build and own the automation and integration layer that connects our tools, and user facing products
• Make sound, evidence based decisions about how automation is built and what it runs on, guided by the findings of the technical review
• Lead the responsible implementation of AI across our products and workflows, with clear judgment about where it creates genuine value and where it introduces risk

Data, Security & Governance

• Own the organisation's data estate: its architecture, quality, and governance
• Establish and embed rigorous data protection standards, including UK GDPR and the Children's Code, and maintain our Cyber Essentials Plus certification as our technology evolves
• Own application security across our products, including commissioning and acting on penetration testing and external security audits for in house tools
• Ensure our in house products meet WCAG accessibility standards
• Bring clear judgment to emerging AI governance obligations, translating developing regulation into principles the organisation can act on

Product & User Experience

• Set direction for the build and ongoing evolution of our two core digital products, a mentor facing platform and a pupil facing application, ensuring both deliver a strong experience for our users
• Work closely with the Head of Product to ensure technology decisions are grounded in user need and serve our impact goals

Team Leadership

• Lead and develop a small internal team, creating the conditions for good technical work and mission driven focus to go hand in hand
• Manage contracted resource with clear accountability, ensuring quality and coherence across all delivery
• Build team capability over time: spot where skills need to grow and create the space for people to do their best work

Organisation contribution / champion

• You will act as a champion or otherwise contribute to the organisation's operations and mission. Specific responsibilities will vary according to areas of current relevance to the organisation and who is best placed to gain knowledge or share expertise.

You should apply if you have:

• Belief in the value of our mission and want to align closely with our culture and values - putting our users first, moving with momentum towards excellence, feeling high ownership and acting with high agency and as one team.
• A track record of leading disciplined delivery, sequencing work carefully and holding the line on doing foundations before features
• Experience leading both permanent team members and contracted specialists, holding a high bar on quality across all of them
• Confidence navigating a mixed technology stack, able to read an unfamiliar codebase and engage credibly with the engineers working across it.
• Experience working closely enough with relational databases to have genuine intuition
• Hands on experience building automations and experimenting with AI, with the judgment to know where each creates genuine value
• A track record of using AI tools to meaningfully extend what they and their team can deliver
• A deep understanding of data protection principles and the ability to apply them rigorously
• Experience working closely with non technical stakeholders to deliver user facing digital products
• A willingness to roll your sleeves up and get involved in the work alongside your team
• Genuine curiosity about emerging technology and what it can do for an organisation's users

It is desirable that you have:

• Familiarity with CRMs and experience auditing complex systems landscapes
• A track record of shifting how people outside a technical team think about and use data and technology, with the communication skills to bring colleagues along at every level

You must have:

• The right to work in the UK
• Willingness to undergo an enhanced DBS check
• Commitment to equality of opportunity and the safeguarding and welfare of all students
• Willingness to undertake in person and online training and development, both of knowledge and of skills

What we Offer

• Remote first team: We all work remotely but meet once a week on Tuesdays at our London office.
• Flexible Working: We work flexibly by default, and value outcomes not hours worked. All our team are empowered to organise their work in a way that balances their work and life.
• Annual leave: 27 days (excluding bank holidays and the days between Christmas and New Year) increasing by 1 day after 2 years tenure up to 30 days pro rata for part time
• Pension: 11% employer only contribution (plus Life Assurance)
• Work from Home: £500 (pro rata) working from home allowance to purchase equipment (in addition to the laptop we provide)
• Health cash plan including employee assistance programme: Employees have access to a health cash plan which provides money back towards treatment, discounted fitness and wellbeing as well as access to a confidential employee assistance programme.
• Cycle to work and car salary sacrifice schemes to help with travel arrangements
• Payroll giving: Payroll giving enables employees to sacrifice part of their salary in exchange for a donation to be made to charities of choice. This means the donation comes out prior to tax and can help maximise the amount the charity will receive.
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