Head of Engineering

We're looking for a hands-on Head of Engineering to build and lead engineering for a new business unit at UNiDAYS. You'll set the technical direction, stay close to the code, and build the team, working closely with Product to turn ideas into products that people use. This is a role for a builder. You'll shape how the unit's engineering works from early on, and the role will grow in scope as the unit grows

Responsibilities

What we need you to do 

• Build the business unit's engineering function: team structure, ways of working and hiring.
• Set the technical direction and architecture for the unit's products, ensuring scalability, security and performance.
• Stay hands-on: contribute code, prototype new ideas, and lead by example in design and code reviews.
• Partner with Product and Design leadership to shape the roadmap, turning business goals into engineering plans and clear trade-offs.
• Own delivery and quality, with healthy engineering practices, observability and incident response.
• Lead, mentor and develop the team, using the career framework to support growth and performance.
• Evolve the team and its structure as the unit grows, and develop future leaders within it.
• Work with Platform and Data teams to use and shape shared tooling, pipelines and infrastructure.
• Represent engineering to senior stakeholders, communicating progress, risk and cost clearly.
• Foster a collaborative and inclusive environment where the team can thrive and innovate.

This role sits at Head of Engineering level on the UNiDAYS Software Engineering Career Framework (people manager track).

• Engineering Core: Influence
• Engineering Craft: Influence
• Quality: Evangelise
• Systems Engineering: Evangelise
• Engineering Strategy: Evangelise
• People Management: Evangelise

We Offer:

• The chance to build a new business unit's engineering and shape its technology and team.
• A collaborative and supportive work environment that fosters innovation.
• A competitive salary and benefits package.
• A role that grows in scope as the business unit grows.

Requirements

What we need you to have done

• Led and managed engineering teams, owning engineering for a product area, business unit or company.
• Built something from an early stage (a new team, product or business) and helped it grow.
• Strong coding skills and a desire to stay hands-on.
• Set technical direction and architecture in a cloud-native environment (e.g. AWS).
• Strong product sense, and effective partnership with Product and Design.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management, including with senior leadership.

Bonus Points:

• Experience with data-heavy products and data pipelines (e.g. warehousing, event streaming).
• Experience building or leading teams that run recommendation engines or personalisation systems.
• Experience taking machine learning pipelines into production (e.g. training, deployment, monitoring).
• Experience building and scaling distributed systems.
• Experience leading engineering managers or leads.

Benefits

This is your opportunity to Join the world’s largest student verification network and help shape the future of how brands connect with the next generation. We engage a community of 23M+ verified students and graduates across 115 markets, making us a truly global platform. Our brand is a powerhouse in the UK, and we’re rapidly accelerating our presence worldwide—especially in the US, Germany, India, France, Canada, and Australia.

We partner with 850+ of the world’s biggest brands, bringing their products and services to the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s professionals—driving engagement, building affinity, and delivering real results.

We offer a fast-paced, fun, and social working environment where you can truly make an impact. We believe work should enhance and complement your life, which is why we provide a hybrid working model. You will work together in person a minimum of 2 days per week and work from home for up to 3 days a week.

We work hard at UNiDAYS, and we believe in fair compensation for that hard work. That’s why we’re proud to offer all employees full access to our comprehensive benefits package.

Our perks include:
25 days holiday per year increasing with length of service, plus bank holidays
Competitive salaries
4pm finishes every Friday
Company pension scheme
Private health insurance (BUPA)
Dental Insurance (BUPA)
Income protection policy
Life assurance policy
Employee Assistance Program
Enhanced parental leave pay
Regular team building activities
£150 pounds towards your home office set up

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability status.