Head of Applications | Private Equity Backed InsurTech |
Hybrid (4 days/month) | c.£150k + bonus + benefits
This is a newly created leadership role reporting directly to the CTO, with ownership of the full applications landscape across proprietary platforms, core systems, and selected third-party / SaaS services.
The business operates in a regulated environment, with a strong technology backbone and a clear ambition to continue scaling. They have built a differentiated platform in their market and are at a pivotal stage in their journey: modernising core systems, evolving the operating model, and scaling engineering capability without losing delivery pace or quality.
This is not a pure architecture role. It is a leadership role for someone who can build teams, lead leaders, improve delivery, navigate complex systems decisions, and operate credibly with senior business stakeholders.
The opportunity
This role sits at the centre of a major growth and transformation agenda. The technology team is around 30 people today, organised into a small number of delivery teams. The challenge now is not just growth, but scaling well, evolving team structure, leadership capability and delivery discipline so the organisation can increase capacity without increasing complexity or slowing down.
A major part of the environment includes a mix of proprietary systems, SaaS platforms and industry technology, alongside a longer-term migration of complex systems of record. The successful person will play a key role in shaping how the business approaches build vs buy decisions, supplier relationships, platform evolution and delivery accountability.
The business is also actively thinking about how AI-enabled development changes the way software teams operate. This person will not be expected to be an AI specialist, but they should be curious, pragmatic, and ready to drive adoption of better tooling and modern engineering practices across the function.
The role
* Lead application engineering teams across core business domains
* Build and develop engineering leaders (leading leaders)
* Improve delivery performance, structure and accountability
* Own build vs buy decisions and platform evolution
* Work closely with Product, Operations and senior stakeholders
* Lead supplier/vendor relationships and commercial decisions
* Drive adoption of modern engineering and AI-enabled practices
What we’re looking for
* Experience scaling engineering teams in growing environments
* Strong people leadership (not purely architecture-led)
* Exposure to regulated environments (insurance, fintech, FS)
* Experience with complex systems / platforms and migration
* Commercial mindset and ability to operate cross-functionally
* Strong communicator, comfortable at senior stakeholder level
Why this role
* Direct impact on team, platform and operating model
* High-visibility role reporting to CTO
* Opportunity to shape a growing, tech-led business
* Flexible hybrid model
You must be available to travel into the clients South West London Offices x4 a Month. The client cannot offer sponsorship, and we are looking to line up 1st stage interviews from W/C 6th April.