Head of Software Engineering - Post Purchase Experience

We are seeking a passionate Head of Software Engineering who will provide technical expertise, ship thoughtfully and operate with excellence. Being creative, curious, and confident, you will be an integral part of our empowered, self-managing, multi-disciplinary engineering teams - designing, building, releasing, and maintaining products. Working as an equal partner with the Product and Delivery teams you will deliver sophisticated and robust solutions to solve daring problems for our customers and colleagues.

What's in it for you?

Being a part of M&S is exactly that - playing your part to bring the magic of M&S to our customers every day. We're an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and ever-evolving business built on doing the right thing and bringing exceptional quality, value, and service to every customer, whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us.

Benefits:

• 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many third-party brands after completing your probationary period.
• Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days.
• Discretionary bonus schemes awarded based on personal objectives and business performance.
• A generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
• A dedicated welcome to our teams with tailored induction and a wide range of training programmes.
• Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices portal.
• Industry-leading parental, adoption, and neonatal policies.
• Access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support including a 24/7 Virtual GP.
• A charity volunteer day to support a cause you're passionate about.

The Product:

We have a genuine ambition to become engineering first, building and operating an elite digital platform. We are looking for people to join our community of engineers to support this transformation, building a modern digital ecosystem.

Scope:
You will manage the technical teams that build and support the post-purchase experience for customers, including customer service journeys across multiple channels (web, chat, voice, and beyond), and the tools our colleagues use to support them.

What you'll do:

• Lead Software Engineering Managers to build and maintain high-quality and reliable software.
• Responsible for the engineering excellence of their Product Group.
• Line manage and develop Software Engineering Managers.
• Maintain effective relationships with Product and Delivery teams.
• Work with the wider Technology function to implement the technical strategy.
• Lead the development and improvements to M&S standard frameworks and policies.
• Write strategy papers and contribute to designing architecture.
• Coach and guide Engineering managers and engineers.
• Drive DevOps practices to automate the Product development life cycle.
• Foster a culture of experimentation and innovation.
• Ensure products meet their SLI and SLO targets.
• Lead product planning and roadmap with an agile mindset.
• Engage with product colleagues to improve customer value.
• Promote technology, innovation, values, and ways of working.
• Lead recruitment and new starter onboarding activities.
• Own and deliver initiatives to enhance M&S Technology.

Who you are:

• Excellent understanding of system design, software architecture, and engineering methodologies.
• Proven track record in platform and system integrations.
• Experience establishing a strong operational culture.
• Previous experience as a hands-on senior software engineer or solution architect.
• Strong understanding of testing strategies and reliability engineering.
• Excellent people management and communication skills.
• A servant-leadership mentality.

Working for Us Means:

• Hybrid Working.
• Industry leading pension of up to 12% M&S contribution.
• Bonus up to 40%.
• 20% discount on M&S products.
• Learning days and Tech/Ed days.

M&S is ready to push boundaries to lead the industry into a greener, speedier, more inspiring digital era. Join us and make an immediate impact. We are committed to an active Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Policy.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to let us know when completing your application.

Job Post will expire by: 28th March 2025