Software Engineering Team Manager

The Role

As Software Engineering Team Manager, you will establish and lead a UK-based engineering organization that will grow to around 40–50 people across 4–5 squads, combining permanent employees and supplier contractors. The organization will deliver and operate a secure, highly available English-language assessment platform. You will translate product and customer needs into a clear engineering plan, set engineering standards and review practices, and ensure the platform is resilient, scalable and ready to operate effectively. During your first six months, your priorities will be to establish the leadership and squad structure, recruit and onboard permanent and supplier colleagues, agree the delivery roadmap, and put effective governance, monitoring, support, quality and operational-readiness practices in place. You will represent and defend technical decisions, delivery progress and risks with senior external customer stakeholders. The role is UK-based and requires travel to London approximately once a month.

What You'll Own

• Build, lead and develop a UK engineering organization growing to around 40–50 people across 4–5 squads, with a balanced mix of permanent employees and supplier contractors.

• Create an inclusive, collaborative culture that supports accountability, continuous learning, knowledge sharing and rotation of responsibilities.

• Own delivery planning, prioritization, capacity and resource allocation across squads, working with Product Managers, Product Owners and stakeholders to define requirements, scope, timelines and success measures.

• Establish tools, governance and reporting to track delivery, manage cross-squad dependencies and communicate progress, risks and decisions.

• Represent and defend technical decisions, delivery progress, risks and trade-offs with senior external customer stakeholders.

• Lead operational readiness for a secure, highly available service, including quality assurance, monitoring, incident preparedness, service performance and continuous improvement.

• Set and maintain engineering standards, architecture principles and effective review practices, providing clear direction on complex technical decisions.

• Evaluate technologies and engineering approaches that improve scalability, resilience, maintainability and delivery effectiveness.

• Drive practical and responsible adoption of AI and Generative AI across the software development lifecycle, with measurable improvements in velocity and quality.

• Ensure compliance with Pearson security, data-protection, accessibility and engineering requirements. Lead delivery in line with relevant standards and controls, including ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, WCAG 2.2 AA and applicable government service standards.

• Build effective partnerships across Product, Quality Assurance, Operations, Architecture, Security, Site Reliability Engineering, supplier organizations and external customers.

About You

• You have substantial experience leading multi-team software engineering organizations of approximately 30–60 people, including permanent employees and supplier contractors.

• You have a proven record of recruiting, developing and retaining engineers while building effective leadership structures across several squads.

• You bring deep knowledge of software engineering principles, delivery methods, development tools and a relevant modern technology stack.

• You have designed or led scalable, efficient and highly available systems and can balance speed, quality, security and operational resilience.

• You provide credible technical direction across architecture, engineering standards, review practices, troubleshooting and technology selection without becoming a bottleneck.

• You have practical experience applying AI and Generative AI to software development, including AI-assisted coding, engineering reviews, test generation or architecture support, with knowledge of agentic tooling and responsible AI principles.

• You have delivered software for public administration or government bodies, and/or external or enterprise customers, and can work within governance, security, accessibility, procurement and contractual requirements.

• You understand relevant frameworks and standards, including ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, WCAG 2.2 AA and government service standards.

• You communicate clearly with technical and non-technical audiences, including senior external customer stakeholders. You can explain and defend technical decisions, delivery progress, risks and trade-offs while turning complex information into practical priorities.

• You are an inclusive and empathetic leader who motivates others, handles conflict constructively and creates an environment where people can do their best work.

• You use data, delivery metrics and stakeholder feedback to raise standards across team performance, engineering practices and service quality.

• You are adaptable, organized and able to make informed decisions in a changing environment.

What You'll Get

• The opportunity to build a substantial engineering organization and shape its squad structure, culture, operating model and technical practices from the beginning.

• Meaningful ownership of a secure, high-availability platform supporting English-language learners and assessment customers.

• A collaborative role with influence across Product, Architecture, Security, Operations, supplier partners and senior external customer stakeholders.

• The scope to introduce modern engineering methods and responsible AI practices that improve delivery quality and organizational effectiveness.

• A visible leadership role connected to Pearson’s wider assessment and digital technology strategy.

Ready to Make an Impact?