Engineering Head
First seen by Alion on Oct 15, 2026.
Job Description :
The Head of Engineering holds end-to-end ownership of the engineering function, with accountability for technical strategy, delivery governance, engineering capabilities, organisational structure, and the architecture and quality of solutions built and deployed across the organisation.
The role combines engineering leadership with strong technical depth. The ideal candidate will set technical direction, build and scale engineering teams, govern delivery, and remain hands-on in architecture, design reviews, and critical technical decisions.
Engineering Strategy and Function Ownership :
- Define the technical strategy across AI, data and analytics, and product engineering.
- Establish the technology roadmap, platform standards, and architectural principles adopted across the organisation.
- Build and maintain the engineering capability plan, including skill development, team structure, and workforce planning.
- Manage relationships with technology partners and platform vendors, evaluating new tools and platforms for adoption.
- Own engineering budgets, tooling investments, and infrastructure cost governance.
Delivery Governance :
- Own technical delivery across client engagements and internal product development.
- Establish delivery methodologies, engineering standards, quality gates, and release governance.
- Oversee resource allocation, utilisation, and capacity planning across concurrent engagements.
- Monitor delivery health, manage technical and schedule risks, and resolve technical escalations.
- Report engineering performance, risks, and capacity to the Director.
Solution Architecture and Technical Requirements :
- Own solution architecture and data architecture standards across the organisation.
- Approve technical approaches, solution feasibility, and effort estimates for new engagements.
- Contribute directly to architecture design for complex, high-risk, or strategically significant engagements.
- Review and approve the technical content of client proposals and Statements of Work (SOWs).
Technical Quality and Governance :
- Define and enforce code review, design review, and security review standards.
- Retain final approval authority over architecture decisions and technical debt trade-offs.
- Drive the development of reusable frameworks, accelerators, and reference implementations.
Organisational and People Leadership :
- Lead, structure, and scale the engineering organisation across technical disciplines.
- Own technical hiring, including role definitions, assessment frameworks, and interview panels.
- Establish performance management processes, career progression paths, and technical competency frameworks.
- Mentor senior engineers and develop the next level of technical leadership.
Deployment, Security and Compliance :
- Ensure solutions are deployed securely, with appropriate access controls, data privacy measures, and regulatory compliance.
- Define governance for AI systems, including model evaluation, guardrails, monitoring, failure handling, and cost control.
- Establish production readiness criteria and post-deployment support standards.
Client and Commercial Engagement :
- Represent the engineering function in client engagements requiring senior technical authority, including solution workshops, architecture presentations, and escalation management.
- Support pre-sales through technical validation, solution design, effort estimation, and client-facing technical discussions.
Required Skills & Experience :
- 7 - 10 years of relevant experience in software engineering, technology leadership, solution architecture, or engineering delivery.
- Strong understanding of engineering strategy, technology roadmaps, platform architecture, and software development lifecycle management.
- Experience across AI/ML, Generative AI, data engineering and analytics, and product or application engineering.
- Strong expertise in solution architecture, data architecture, system design, and technology evaluation.
- Experience establishing engineering standards, code quality practices, security controls, and architecture governance.
- Understanding of AI system governance, including model evaluation, guardrails, monitoring, reliability, and cost optimisation.
- Experience with cloud platforms, infrastructure management, deployment practices, and production support.
- Strong capabilities in project delivery governance, effort estimation, resource allocation, capacity planning, and risk management.
- Experience building engineering teams, technical hiring, performance management, mentoring, and capability development.
- Ability to manage technology vendors, tooling investments, engineering budgets, and infrastructure costs.
- Strong client-facing communication skills, with experience in technical consulting, solution workshops, and pre-sales support.
- Excellent problem-solving, decision-making, stakeholder management, and leadership skills.
Skills
Engineering Management, Artificial Intelligence, IT Head, IT Strategy, IT Roadmap, Solution Architect, Solution Design, Machine Learning, Generative AI, System Design