Director Of Engineering

Engineering · Full-time · United Kingdom

Job description

About Technology at hyperexponential

Our engineering department combines technical depth with a culture of kindness and innovation. Our platform, hx Renew, drives unique challenges that demand a forward-thinking and technically astute engineering approach. With regular hackathons and a focus on pushing boundaries, hyperexponential is committed to fostering an engineering environment that is both innovative and sustainable.

Role Overview

As Director of Engineering, you’ll be joining an already impactful and agile engineering organisation and play a vital role in helping us scale to even greater heights. You will work closely with the VP of Engineering and the Technology leadership team to build on our current successes, sharpening our focus on high performance, innovation, and resilience. You’ll provide leadership across our autonomous Technology teams, each led by Engineering and Product Managers, and will bring the strategic insight and operational depth to help drive the next phase of our journey as we continue to innovate and deliver value at scale.

You will be responsible for advancing technical strategy, delivery excellence, and people development across the Technology function.

This role is pivotal to hyperexponential's next phase of growth, requiring a balance of strategic foresight, technical insight, and empathetic leadership to build on a foundation of excellence and drive our engineering organisation to the next level.

Objectives

1 month

  • Build on the established leadership framework for your direct reports, setting performance expectations and team goals.
  • Take a hands-on approach to understand the team structure and current pastoral care plans, identifying opportunities to enhance support and well-being.
  • Assess team dynamics, identifying areas where additional mentorship or growth support can accelerate our momentum.

3 months

  • Integrate seamlessly into the Technology leadership team, contributing to the execution of our engineering roadmap in alignment with product goals.
  • Develop a comprehensive technical understanding of the Renew platform, enabling you to provide guidance and refine decision-making on technical initiatives.
  • Deliver early contributions to VP-led initiatives, enhancing existing processes or accelerating initiatives already underway (specific milestones to be set).

6 months

  • Refine and execute our engineering strategy to keep Renew’s technical roadmap aligned with hyperexponential's 3-year product and revenue ambitions.
  • Working closely with Technology leadership, help optimise our delivery model to sustain and improve alignment with our strategic goals.
  • Establish a robust hiring strategy to address anticipated growth, regularly conducting gap analyses across teams to ensure we’re building the right capabilities at the right time.

Key Responsibilities

  • Strengthen and evolve our engineering strategy and roadmap, in close collaboration with Technology leadership.
  • Foster an even stronger partnership with the Product function to sustain alignment in priorities, resourcing, and delivery goals.
  • Serve as a leader of leaders, ensuring pastoral care, technical coaching, and career development are in place and evolving across all engineering teams.
  • Drive continuous improvement by reinforcing best practices, setting the bar for engineering quality, and actively managing delivery risks.
  • Champion a customer-first mindset, ensuring that all engineering efforts directly support a superior user experience, product reliability and timely delivery.

Key Attributes

You are a proactive owner:

You are the vital link between the VP Engineering and your department, with your team’s output directly reflecting on your own success. You set a high bar, take full accountability for performance, and manage upwards to support the VP while empowering your team to operate autonomously. Your influence and example lift your team and the entire engineering function.

You are a respected leader:

With a foundation of trust and clarity in expectations, your team follows your lead without the need for micromanagement. You foster an environment where accountability is widespread, enabling high standards to be met consistently. You strike a balance between approachability and decisiveness, managing issues promptly and constructively.

You are a developer of people:

A commitment to the growth and well-being of your team is at the heart of your leadership. You’re vigilant about workload and stress levels, promoting open dialogue to address concerns before they escalate. Your coaching approach helps engineers excel both technically and professionally.

You have technical depth and insight:

You gain a solid technical understanding of our platform and can make or advise on decisions impacting architecture, scalability, and design. You identify and elevate high-performing individuals and teams, optimising both output and team health.

You are customer-obsessed:

You view every decision through the lens of the end-user experience, prioritising quality and reliability to deliver a product that customers trust and value.

Qualifications and Experience

  • Demonstrated experience as a Director/Head of Engineering, with a track record of leading large engineering teams and influencing organisational culture.
  • Proven expertise in managing cloud-native, distributed applications, and services, with deep knowledge of scalable architecture and cloud infrastructure.
  • Strong grounding in core computer science principles and software engineering practices, including complexity, algorithms, data structures, testing, and system design.
  • Significant experience with modern software delivery methodologies, such as agile, lean, and DevOps, with a history of driving organisational design that promotes efficiency, collaboration, and innovation.
  • Demonstrable ability to develop and execute a technical strategy aligned with business goals and customer needs.
  • A track record of attracting, inspiring, and retaining top engineering talent, with a knack for creating high-performing, motivated, and collaborative teams.
  • Experience in establishing engineering standards and workflows that eliminate friction, enabling teams to achieve outcomes that exceed traditional expectations.

Interview Process

  • Initial call with our Talent team to kick things off

  • Manager Interview (60 mins)

  • Technical Interview (120 mins)

  • Values Interview (90 mins)

  • Meet the CEO/Co-Founder (30 mins)

  • We offer!

Please note that background checks will be conducted as part of the hiring process to ensure compliance with our governance policies. We handle all background checks sensitively and in full compliance with relevant regulations. All applicant data will be processed in accordance with data protection regulations and our privacy policy.


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