VP, Engineering
1. Full-time
2. Employment Status: Full-Time
Company Description
Hi! We're UW. We’re on a mission to take the headache out of utilities by providing them all in one place. One bill for energy, broadband, mobile and insurance and a whole lot of savings!
We’re aiming to double in size as we help more people to stop wasting time and money. Big ambitions, to be delivered by people like you.
Got your attention? Read on…
We put people first. It’s all about you..
It's an incredibly exciting time at UW as our business continues to scale and this role is critical in bringing our North Star to life for our customers. We believe utilities shouldn't be complex and our proposition turns that perception on its head - but to deliver it at scale, we need a commercially-minded Technology leader, to lead a large engineering provide a clear technical vision and strategy for Engineering at UW. You’ll be a seasoned people leader and a proven track record of operating in complex, multi-product, scaling environments.
Here’s the key skills, behaviours and experience we’re looking for you to bring:
3. You're a seasoned people-leader, having directly led large (100+) Engineering teams in a scaling, multi-faceted business. You’ll be comfortable managing managers and building effective organisational structures.
4. You can demonstrate the ability to develop and drive the delivery of a complex technical roadmap in a fast-paced environment.
5. You are a technology evangelist with a deep understanding of modern architectural patterns, cloud-native technologies, and how to leverage tech for business enablement. Our stack includes Go, React, ReactNative, Kubernetes, Kafka.
6. Previous experience in the utilities and/or regulated industries is valued but not essential.
7. Strategic Thinking: You provide long-term vision while remaining flexible enough to adjust course based on evolving circumstances.
8. Commercial Acumen: You understand the financial and business drivers that impact the organisation’s and function’s success.
9. Relationship Management: You engage effectively with internal and external stakeholders to align expectations and support outcomes.
10. You role model our Leadership Belief: You put people first by really knowing your people. You are adaptable and trust people to do the right thing and work together. You deliver progress through driving performance and achieving results.
We work together. Your team and the people you will work with…
The VP, Engineering will report to the Chief Product & Technology Officer and will lead a team of 175 engineers. You’ll be a key member of our Business Leadership Group.
We deliver progress. What you’ll do and how you will make an impact.
As VP Engineering, you will be responsible for driving technical excellence, fostering innovation, and building world-class products that delight our customers, partners, and internal users. This is a pivotal leadership role that combines strategic vision with technical leadership in a complex, fast-paced environment.
The key responsibilities for this role will include:
Leadership
11. Lead, mentor, and develop a diverse engineering organization of ~175 people including software engineers, engineering managers, and heads of engineering.
12. Build and maintain a high-performance culture that attracts, retains, and develops top engineering talent. Drive performance management, goal setting, and regular feedback processes
13. Establish clear career progression paths and ensure continuous learning and professional development across all levels
14. Foster collaboration, innovation, and technical excellence throughout the organization
Technical Architecture & Strategy
15. Own and evolve the overall technical architecture and engineering strategy for UW
16. Drive architectural decisions for our event-sourced backend systems built with Go
17. Ensure scalability, reliability, and performance of our distributed systems running on Kubernetes
18. Oversee the evolution of our frontend and mobile applications built with TypeScript, React, and React Native
19. Guide the strategic use of technologies including Kafka, event sourcing patterns, and emerging technologies
20. Balance technical debt with feature delivery and long-term architectural goals
Developer Productivity & Engineering Excellence
21. Own and drive developer productivity, ensuring engineering teams are focused on delivering the right things, in the right way
22. Establish and embed engineering standards, best practices, and coding guidelines across all teams
23. Implement tooling, processes, and automation that accelerate development cycles and improve code quality
24. Drive standardization efforts where beneficial while maintaining flexibility for innovation
25. Establish metrics and KPIs to measure and improve engineering productivity and system reliability
26. Champion DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure as code
Cross-Functional Partnership
27. Partner closely with Product, Data, and Design leadership, as well as the wider business leadership, to translate business requirements into technical solutions
28. Collaborate on product roadmap planning, ensuring technical feasibility and optimal resource allocation
29. Work with Data teams to build scalable data pipelines and analytics capabilities
30. Role model cross-functional working, inspiring the engineering teams to integrate and embrace working with colleagues across the UW organisation
31. Participate in executive decision-making and strategic planning initiatives
So why pick UW?
We’ve got big ambitions so there’s going to be plenty of challenges. There are also a lot of benefits:
32. An industry benchmarked salary. We’ll share it during your first conversation.
33. Share Options and a Save as You Earn scheme.
34. Hybrid working, with 2 days in the office. (We’re definitely open to discussing flexible working arrangements)
35. Electric Car salary sacrifice scheme through Tusker
36. Discount on our services and you get our coveted Cashback Card for free. You’ll also get access to 100s of rewards and discounts through Perkbox
37. A matched contribution pension scheme and life assurance up to 4x your salary. You can also access free mortgage advice and a financial wellbeing tool.
38. Family-friendly policies, designed to help you and your family thrive.
39. Discounted private health insurance, access to an Employee Assistance line and a free Virtual GP. Our wellbeing app Unmind supports your mental health.
40. Belonging groups that help UW shape an even more inclusive future.
41. A commitment to helping you develop your career journey through learning, coaching and new experiences