Engineering Director

The Engineering Director, P&P is accountable for defining, evolving and continuously strengthening the technical direction, delivery performance and organisational capability of the P&P engineering organisation across Manchester, Gurugram and Rochester.

The role ensures the portfolio continues to deliver reliably against product and client commitments while modernising technology, improving engineering effectiveness and protecting quality, security, reliability and operational resilience. It connects technical and delivery decisions to product, client and commercial outcomes, balancing near-term commitments with long-term product health and sustainable engineering investment.

• Own and evolve the engineering and technology strategy for the P&P product portfolio, ensuring choices support product strategy, client needs, scalability and long-term commercial outcomes.
• Provide deep technical and architectural leadership across software architecture, data-intensive systems, engineering practices, quality, security, reliability and operational resilience. Maintain sufficient proximity to the technology to assess complex systems, significant decisions, risks and trade-offs independently, and challenge senior technical leaders effectively.
• Shape and lead the technical evolution of the portfolio and its alignment with the wider platform strategy, while protecting service continuity, product health and client commitments.
• Establish and govern a clear approach to technical debt, technology obsolescence, product health and engineering standards, ensuring risks and investment needs are transparent and consistently managed across teams.
• Strengthen technical leadership, shared ownership, succession and knowledge across the organisation so capability is resilient and not dependent on a small number of individuals.

• Be accountable for predictable delivery against agreed product and client commitments, ensuring plans are realistic, evidence-based and owned by the right leaders.
• Establish an engineering operating model that gives clear accountability, decision rights, dependency management and early intervention on systemic delivery risks.
• Maintain visibility of material commitments, dependencies and risks, holding the engineering leadership team accountable for outcomes and intervening where delivery, quality or cost is at risk.
• Continuously improve engineering and delivery practices so they are effective, consistently applied and aligned to reliable product outcomes.

• Develop a deep understanding of the P&P portfolio, retail domain and the business processes it supports, using that insight to shape engineering priorities and decision making.
• Partner closely with the Product Director to shape product strategy, roadmaps, investment priorities and long-term portfolio direction.
• Bring a clear engineering perspective to product and commercial decisions, including feasibility, cost, risk, quality, resilience and long-term implications.
• Manage the allocated P&P engineering budget and workforce plan, making effective investment trade-offs across permanent and partner capacity, technology, operations and modernisation in line with product, client and commercial priorities.
• Align engineering capacity with the highest-value customer, business and technology outcomes, working with Product to balance client commitments, product development, operational needs and technical investment.

• Build trusted, proactive relationships with senior stakeholders within our strategic clients, and with key internal stakeholders across Product, Commercial, and Technology.
• Represent Engineering confidently in strategic discussions, governance forums and key delivery reviews, translating complex technical issues into clear risks, options and decisions.
• Provide timely, credible communication on priorities, delivery confidence, technical choices, dependencies and emerging risks.
• Constructively challenge commitments where scope, capacity, sequencing or technical evidence do not support sustainable outcomes.
• Lead the cross-functional resolution of significant issues across Product, Commercial, Delivery and Engineering, balancing client expectations with sustainable product and engineering outcomes.

• Lead, coach and develop the engineering leadership team, including senior engineering management, engineering managers and senior technical leaders across Manchester, Gurugram and Rochester.
• Create a culture of high performance, constructive challenge, collaboration, accountability and visible leadership aligned to company values.
• Strengthen leadership capability, consistency, succession and organisational health across teams and locations.
• Remain visible and connected to teams, using first-hand insight to improve engagement, ways of working and organisational effectiveness.

• Partner with the Manchester site leader to strengthen engagement, leadership effectiveness and culture across the location.
• Act as a visible senior leader within the Manchester office, contributing to wider site and company priorities and strengthening collaboration across functions.

• Set the technical direction and modernisation agenda for the P&P portfolio, working with architects and senior technical leaders to identify constraints, risks and opportunities.
• Lead through the Technology leadership team, creating clear ownership, decision rights and a consistent operating rhythm across locations.
• Partner with Product to shape strategy, roadmaps, prioritisation and investment choices, ensuring engineering capacity is focused on the highest-value outcomes.
• Oversee delivery confidence for material product and client commitments, using evidence-based planning, dependency management and early intervention where risks emerge.
• Build trusted client and stakeholder relationships, representing Engineering with clarity, commercial judgement and technical credibility.
• Strengthen organisational capability, succession, engagement and cross-location collaboration across Manchester, Gurugram and Rochester.

• Significant experience leading a large complex software engineering organisation through multiple levels of engineering management and technical leadership.
• Substantial software engineering and architecture experience, with the technical depth to assess complex systems independently, challenge senior technical leaders and set technology direction.
• Proven record of leading the modernisation of complex, business-critical product portfolios while maintaining service continuity and delivery commitments.
• Demonstrable success in improving delivery predictability, engineering effectiveness, reliability and operational performance at organisational scale.Strong judgement across architecture, software delivery, technical debt, quality, security, DevOps and production operations.

• Experience leading distributed or international engineering organisations through clear operating models, leadership accountability and effective governance.
• Experience partnering with senior Product leadership to shape strategy, investment, prioritisation and long-term portfolio direction.
• Strong commercial judgement, with experience managing senior client and stakeholder relationships and connecting engineering investment to customer and business outcomes.
• Evidence of building effective leadership teams, developing successors and strengthening organisational capability, engagement and collaboration.
• Credibility, judgement and communication skills to lead decisively through significant technical, delivery, client and organisational challenges.

• Owning the technical vision and delivery discipline that enables P&P to deliver reliably, modernise safely and scale engineering outcomes across locations.
• Balancing enterprise trade-offs between client commitments, product development, technical investment, service continuity and long-term product health.
• Providing clear, credible engineering judgement on complex architecture, delivery, risk and commercial decisions.
• Building leadership capability and accountability across engineering management and technical leadership so the organisation is resilient, connected and high performing.
• Applying a deep understanding of the P&P domain and client operating context to engineering decisions and senior stakeholder conversations, representing Engineering in a trusted, proactive and commercially grounded way.

• You will provide visible, consistent leadership across Manchester, Gurugram and Rochester, creating clarity where there is ambiguity and strengthening confidence in engineering delivery.
• You will build a culture of constructive challenge, shared ownership, collaboration and accountability across engineering, Product and client-facing teams.
• You will make complex technical and delivery issues simple, actionable and decision-ready for senior stakeholders.

We won’t just meet your expectations. We’ll defy them. So you’ll enjoy the comprehensive rewards package you’d expect from a leading technology company. But also, a degree of personal flexibility you might not expect.  Plus, thoughtful perks, like flexible working hours and your birthday off.

You’ll also benefit from an investment in cutting-edge technology that reflects our global ambition. But with a nimble, small-business feel that gives you the freedom to play, experiment and learn.

And we don’t just talk about diversity and inclusion. We live it every day – with thriving networks including dh Gender Equality Network, dh Proud, dh Family, dh One, dh Enabled and dh Thrive as the living proof.  We want everyone to have the opportunity to shine and perform at your best throughout our recruitment process. Please let us know how we can make this process work best for you. 

At dunnhumby, we value and respect difference and are committed to building an inclusive culture by creating an environment where you can balance a successful career with your commitments and interests outside of work.

We believe that you will do your best at work if you have a work / life balance. Some roles lend themselves to flexible options more than others, so if this is important to you please raise this with your recruiter, as we are open to discussing agile working opportunities during the hiring process.

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