Director of Engineering - Auctions & Sourcing

Posted 5 days 9 hours ago by Sotheby's

Permanent
Not Specified
Other
London, United Kingdom
Job Description
THE ROLE

Lead engineering for our Auctions & Sourcing platforms, driving outcomes through hands-on technical leadership and strong product partnerships. You'll guide teams in building our auction systems and sourcing platforms while fostering a culture of ownership and engineering excellence.

RESPONSIBILITIES
  • Drive engineering outcomes across auction management and consignment sourcing platforms through direct technical contribution and team leadership
  • Partner with product teams to deliver high-value, cost-effective solutions
  • Build highly cohesive teams that own their development processes while meeting product needs
  • Drive pragmatic technical decisions that favor proven, scalable solutions and managed services
  • Make technical decisions backed by metrics and system data
  • Actively participate in technical decisions through direct code reviews and system design discussions
IDEAL EXPERIENCE & COMPETENCIES Technical Leadership
  • 12+ years of engineering experience, 5+ years leading teams.
  • Experience building and retaining high-performing engineering teams.
  • Ability to set clear expectations and provide actionable feedback.
  • Strong hands-on capabilities in distributed systems and cloud infrastructure.
  • Proven track record deploying and maintaining large-scale user-facing applications.
  • Experience modernizing critical business systems.
  • Track record of building reliable, cost-effective solutions.
Working Style
  • Proven track record of delivering measurable business impact.
  • Demonstrates intellectual curiosity and collaborative problem-solving approach.
  • Balances strong opinions with openness to alternative approaches.
  • Drives technical alignment while minimizing meeting overhead.
Product Partnership
  • Proven ability to translate business needs into technical solutions.
  • Experience balancing technical debt against product delivery.
  • Track record of improving engineering-product collaboration.
  • Skill in representing engineering considerations in product planning.
  • Experience with gRPC and GraphQL is a plus.
  • BS or MS in Computer Science or related technical field.
  • This remote-first role requires excellent communication skills and building trust across globally distributed teams.