Head of Platform Engineering

Job Description

This role is key in an important phase of growth for Cellular Origins, with authority over mission critical decisions and chance to have real organisation impact. Cellular Origins has established an Engineering Department to provide the professional homes in which capability, standards and careers are built. Cross-departmental programmes bring those capabilities together around product developments and customer outcomes. You will own the Platform Engineering capability. 

Your mandate spans Engineering strategy and execution: best practice, appropriate process, resources, skills, leadership development and succession. Working alongside those leading Product and Application Development, Customer Delivery and Operations, you will meet urgent programme needs without compromising platform coherence, reliability or scalability. 

What you will own 

This is a hands-on organisational leadership role. You will get close enough to the work to understand what is really happening, ask incisive questions, resolve ambiguity, remove barriers and make sure decisions turn into action. You will need the breadth and judgement to lead experienced specialists and close cross-disciplinary decisions. 

• Set direction and priorities. Translate company and product strategy into a clear platform-engineering strategy, a prioritised roadmap, and credible investment, capacity and resource choices. 

• Leadership. Lead and develop the team leaders for software, hardware, electronics and firmware, robotics and systems integration. Set clear expectations, establish accountability, give direct feedback and build a strong succession plans. 

• Drive delivery. Make priorities visible, demand realistic plans, use meaningful measures, surface risk early, resolve blockers and intervene decisively where work is drifting. 

• Set engineering standards. Establish and continually improve the practices needed to engineer complex systems well, including architecture, design review, integration, verification and validation, configuration and change control, reliability, maintainability and lifecycle support. 

• Protect and evolve the platform. Assure the coherence of the core technology platform and the quality of major technical decisions. Balance immediate customer needs with reuse, modularity, technical debt, product integrity and long-term scale. 

• Make the matrix work. Partner with the Head of Product and Application Development to turn product and application priorities into executable platform plans; with Customer Delivery leadership on commitments, sequencing and resource trade-offs; and with Operations leadership on design for manufacture, supply, installation, service and support. 

• Represent platform engineering externally. Lead critical technical conversations with customers, partners and suppliers, building confidence through clarity, sound judgement and reliable delivery. 

• Build future capability. Work with others to evolve the department to meet the needs of the business, creating talent plans, skill strategy, professional development, knowledge sharing and succession so the department is ready for the next stage of the business. 

Qualifications

• Leadership. Proven experience leading a substantial multidisciplinary engineering department through senior managers or discipline leaders, with clear evidence of improving delivery and organisational performance through coaching, setting a high bar, handling performance directly, shaping organisations, hiring well and building skills and succession. 
• Relevant system complexity. Experience taking integrated automation, robotics, electromechanical systems or other complex capital equipment from concept through integration, deployment and support. 
• Technical breadth and systems judgement. Credibility across software, embedded systems, electronics, hardware, controls, robotics and integration; able to challenge experts and close cross-disciplinary decisions . 

• A platform mindset. Experience balancing architecture, modularity, reuse, technical debt and lifecycle needs with the immediate demands of products, applications and customer programmes. 

• Engineering rigour. A practical command of quality, safety, design assurance, verification and validation, configuration and change, reliability and continuous improvement. 

• Commercial and customer judgement. The ability to balance scope, cost, resources, timescales and technical risk, and to represent engineering credibly with customers, partners and suppliers. 

• Clear communication and influence. The ability to create alignment across technical and non-technical groups, explain complex choices simply and build confidence with senior stakeholders. 

• Useful context, not a narrow pedigree. Experience in a regulated, safety-critical or high-reliability environment would be valuable. Life sciences or GMP experience is helpful but not essential. 

The leadership style we value 

You listen widely, then decide. You are direct, fair, calm under pressure and low ego. You stay close enough to delivery to see reality and remove blockers, but you build leaders and systems that do not depend on you for every answer. You are proactive, curious and relentless about follow-through. 

Additional Information

Cellular Origins is based at Melbourn Science Park, just 10 miles south of Cambridge. Our newly renovated premises offer modern office, laboratory and engineering spaces, surrounded by green spaces. We foster an entrepreneurial and collaborative culture, where ideas are encouraged, innovation thrives, and everyone has the freedom to do their best work.

Our employee benefits include:  

• Annual bonus  
• 25 days holiday  
• Employer pension contribution of 10% of salary 
• Private medical insurance for employees and dependants  
• Subsidised lunches
• Enhanced family friendly leave  
• Life insurance worth 6x salary  
• Electric car leasing scheme  
• Cycle to work scheme 
• Season ticket loan