Renaissance® is a global leader in education technology, helping schools and school groups worldwide with educational assessments, practice and intervention solutions, and data analytics. Renaissance now incorporates GL Assessment, a leading provider of educational assessments.
We support over 18 million students in more than 100 countries.
We’re looking for a Director of Engineering to lead our cross‑functional delivery teams as we evolve toward an AI‑enabled, platform‑centric operating model serving international markets.
Location: Hybrid role based out of our Houghton Le Spring office – the team comes together a couple of times a week, with occasional travel to other offices.
Applications will be reviewed from week commencing 22nd June.
What you’ll be getting up to with us:
Lead & Develop Teams
- Build and coach high‑performing engineering and QA teams in an inclusive, collaborative environment
- Drive career development, succession planning, and talent retention
- Foster psychological safety, ownership, and continuous learning
Manage Resources & Budget
- Own workforce planning, organisational design, and capability development
- Manage budget planning, forecasting, and operational expenditure
- Optimise engineering efficiency while maintaining quality and team wellbeing
Drive Delivery Excellence
- Ensure predictable, high‑quality delivery across multiple teams
- Establish effective processes and remove blockers
- Balance delivery pace with quality, security, and maintainability
- Partner with Product, Architecture, and business stakeholders
- Work closely with US‑based and international technology teams
- Coordinate across Infrastructure, Security, Data, and QA functions
- Support global platform initiatives and localisation efforts
- Establish engineering standards and metrics
- Drive adoption of modern practices including AI‑enabled engineering, DevOps, and automation
- Promote operational excellence and service ownership
Experience we’d love to see includes:
- Proven experience leading engineering organisations and managing engineering/QA leaders
- Strong track record building high‑performing, diverse teams
- Experience with workforce planning, budget management, and resource allocation
- Success delivering complex software products in agile/product‑led environments
- Experience with modern QA practices, test automation, and quality governance
- Understanding of DevOps, CI/CD, and operational reliability
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
- Experience with international, distributed teams and organisational transformation
Benefits:
- 25 days holiday a year plus bank holidays (3 to be used for our Christmas shutdown)
- A day off for your birthday
- 5 volunteering days a year to use for causes of your choice
- Access to a benefits and discount platform with access to thousands of discounts at retailers, leisure attractions and restaurants
- BUPA Healthcare, life assurance, permanent health insurance
- Pension scheme with enhanced employer contribution – up to 8%
- Season ticket loan and Employee Assistance Programme
Unfortunately we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.
We have an ongoing commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and have taken strides to become a more welcoming and inclusive workplace, including the introduction of our DEI Matters Network which is owned and driven by our staff.
We’re an equal opportunities employer. We encourage and welcome applications from all underrepresented groups, as we believe and strive for community representation within our organisation.
If you have a disability and would prefer to apply in a different format or would like us to make reasonable adjustments to enable you to apply or attend any interview, please contact us and we will talk this through with you.
All your information will be kept confidential according to GDPR guidelines. Please note that we can only consider applicants who already hold a full work permit.
This role is subject to DBS and background checks.
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