About IRIS IRIS is one of the UK’s largest privately held software companies, delivering mission-critical solutions to businesses, schools and public sector organisations for over 40 years. With 3,000 colleagues across the UK, Ireland, Romania, North America and India, we are entering an exciting growth phase — scaling through innovation, cloud transformation and strategic acquisition. Our mission is simple: to simplify the lives of organisations through powerful, intelligent software. The Opportunity We are seeking a strategic and technically accomplished Associate Director of Engineering to lead the technology vision, architecture and delivery of our Education-focused SaaS products. This is a senior leadership role responsible for: Leading a 30 person engineering organisation (6 direct reports) Shaping cloud-native SaaS architecture Embedding AI into engineering practices and product development Delivering secure, scalable, customer-centric solutions You will be instrumental in building our AI-first engineering culture modernising tooling, accelerating delivery, and enhancing product intelligence. What You’ll Do Drive Engineering Strategy Define and execute architecture roadmaps aligned to business goals Champion AI and automation across the SDLC Ensure scalable, API-first, cloud-native platform design Prevent platform duplication and optimise reuse Lead & Inspire Teams Build, mentor and scale high-performing engineering leaders Establish strong development frameworks and growth pathways Create a culture of accountability, innovation and continuous improvement Deliver With Excellence Partner with Product to bring AI-enhanced features to market Oversee delivery across multiple concurrent initiatives Ensure operational excellence in deployment, monitoring and resilience Champion Security & Governance Drive secure engineering and compliance (GDPR, SOC2) Ensure risk-aware practices across architecture and delivery Support responsible AI governance What You’ll Bring 10 years in software engineering, including senior leadership experience Proven SaaS delivery on AWS and/or Azure Experience modernising legacy platforms into scalable cloud-native solutions Strong understanding of DevOps, SRE, API architecture and AI integration Demonstrated ability to embed AI tools to improve engineering velocity Commercial awareness and customer-first mindset Why Join Us? Strategic influence in a high-growth division Opportunity to shape an AI-first engineering culture Work on impactful Education technology Leadership scope across architecture, people and innovation Backed by a strong M&A growth strategy If you’re a technologist who can scale engineering with vision, discipline and an AI-forward mindset we’d love to hear from you! Please note: We occasionally close vacancies early in the event that we receive a high volume of applications. Therefore we recommend you apply as soon as possible. INDLOW About IRIS As one of the UK’s largest privately held software companies, IRIS Software Group exists to simplify the lives of businesses, schools and organisations. IRIS provides software solutions and services that substantially enhance operational compliance, efficiency and accuracy, empowering the users of our technology to look forward with certainty and confidence. Over 4 million parents use our software to connect with their child’s school, 18% of UK employees are paid via an IRIS payroll solution, 50,000 SMEs use IRIS cloud bookkeeping and 21,000 firms rely on us for legislative compliance. Our operational software is the invisible but essential beating heart of our customers’ businesses, supporting them in a range of objectives, from maintaining legislative compliance to boosting engagement with stakeholders and enhancing productivity. It’s vital these mission-critical functions work first time, every time. That’s why IRIS helps businesses run the tough stuff, stay compliant and get operational tasks done right first time, every time – so they can focus on productivity and growth. IRIS is a company built on hiring the best people; our people are our greatest assets. They enable us to be the innovative, market-leading, and high-performing company that we are today. We’re delighted to be certified as a Great Place to Work and one of the UK’s Best Workplaces for Women. These accolades confirm that our employees have a consistently positive experience at IRIS, with the certifications considering employee wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, trust in management, effective communication and recognition/reward. IRIS is committed to engaging, rewarding and empowering our employees, and this is central to what we do. This is why we work to create an environment where employees feel like they are part of a team. Why work for IRIS? The Benefits Generous holiday allowance Charity / volunteering days Income protection insurance Life assurance Employee Assistance Program Private healthcare Enhanced maternity pay Additional discount schemes Cycle to work scheme Developing your career We believe in creating a culture of engagement and reward to develop your potential and offer long-term career success. We do this by: Supporting our managers to be great leaders, providing inspirational management resources and offering dedicated management development training. Rewarding individual excellence through dedicated initiatives and Employee Awards for demonstrating our values. Offering regular training and development programmes tailored to each employee’s development needs and providing a commitment to a ‘learning culture’ which shares knowledge, best practice and our long-standing expertise between employees. We’re committed to a culture of continuous improvement and listen to our employees via regular feedback sessions and employee engagement surveys. Our employees love the colleagues they work with. We promote a positive environment where our people feel comfortable, make friends and support each other. Documents