Head of Engineering

Do you want to lead and transform engineering performance, driving real, measurable impact across productivity, quality, and delivery in a fast-growing technology business? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Why join us

WorkNest, part of the wider Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) division owned by Axiom GRC, is expanding fast. Our group includes experts in Employment Law, HR, Health & Safety, Cybersecurity, ISO and Compliance. We are powered by pragmatic advice and cutting-edge technology.

Recent acquisitions such as Bulletproof, Pentest People, IMSM and Wirehouse have accelerated our growth across UK and global markets. We are now on a mission to reach £250 million in revenue with more than 25% CAGR through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

This role sits at the heart of our technology function, focused on driving meaningful improvements in engineering productivity, quality, and delivery outcomes across our platforms. You’ll play a key role in shaping how engineering delivers value to the business, ensuring strong alignment between technology investment and commercial outcomes.

What We Offer

• Salary: £60,000 - £80,000 per annum (depending on experience)
• Hybrid working: 2 days in the office
• Opportunity to lead and transform engineering performance at scale
• Collaborative team and supportive culture
• Amazing benefits

What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for an experienced Head of Engineering to lead our engineering function and drive significant improvements in productivity, delivery, and quality. This is not a traditional delivery leadership role. You’ll take ownership of how engineering operates as a performance system, introducing modern engineering practices, embedding meaningful metrics, and driving a shift towards outcome-focused delivery. You’ll establish and track key engineering performance metrics such as deployment frequency, lead time for change, change failure rate, and cycle time. You’ll use these insights to identify and remove bottlenecks across the software development lifecycle. A key focus of the role will be leading the adoption of AI-assisted development across engineering teams. You’ll define how tools and approaches are used effectively, identify opportunities to automate repetitive tasks, and measure the impact of AI on productivity and delivery outcomes. Working closely with Product, Commercial, and Operations teams, you’ll ensure engineering effort is aligned to clear business priorities, delivering measurable value such as revenue growth, cost efficiency, and improved client outcomes. You’ll also play a central role in evolving our ways of working, simplifying processes where needed, improving collaboration across teams, and building a high-performing engineering culture with clear accountability and ownership.

About You

• This is a fantastic opportunity for a senior engineering leader who thrives on driving transformation and delivering measurable impact.
• You’ll bring proven experience leading engineering teams within a high-growth SaaS or technology environment, with a strong track record of improving engineering performance and delivery outcomes.
• You’ll have experience implementing and using engineering metrics such as DORA or flow metrics, and you’ll be confident using data to drive decision‑making and continuous improvement.
• You’ll also have a strong understanding of AI-assisted development tools and how they can be used to enhance engineering productivity, along with the ability to lead both strategically and operationally across teams.
• A confident stakeholder manager, you’ll be able to clearly link engineering activity to commercial outcomes, working effectively with senior leaders across Product, Commercial, and Operations.
• Experience in a private equity‑backed or high‑growth environment, or leading engineering transformation initiatives, would be advantageous.

Up for the challenge?

If you share our values - Integrity, Excellence, Teamwork, and Inclusion, we'd love to hear from you.

WorkNest is committed to promoting inclusion and diversity in all we do. If you need adjustments to support your application, please contact our Talent and Recruitment team.

Closing date: 18th April 2026. Please note: Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis. We may look to close the advert early, so please don't delay in submitting an application.

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