Lead Product Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United Kingdom.

📋 Description

• Establish the strategic direction and engineering standards for Product Engineering across value-stream application teams.

• Oversee and support all open Staff Engineer and Engineering Manager roles.

• Provide clear expectations, coaching, and accountability to team members.

• Collaborate with R&D Product Managers and domain leaders to convert priorities into a cohesive engineering plan.

• Identify risks at an early stage.

• Ensure effective collaboration between Engineering Managers and Staff Engineers regarding delivery, architecture, quality, and team well-being.

• Foster a robust engineering culture that emphasizes ownership, collaboration, sound technical judgment, and continuous improvement.

• Represent Product Engineering in cross-functional planning and architectural governance discussions.

• Make decisions within the function while appropriately escalating cross-boundary issues.

• Enhance recruitment, onboarding, development, and retention of engineering talent.

• Manage budget allocation and resource planning for the Product Engineering function.

• Define and monitor key performance indicators and metrics related to productivity, quality, and team engagement.

• Identify and prioritize initiatives aimed at reducing technical debt.

• Mentor and develop high-potential engineers and managers.

• Establish clear career pathways and nurture leadership capabilities.

• Assess emerging technologies and engineering practices and recommend their adoption.

⛳️ Requirements

• Significant engineering leadership experience across diverse teams or product areas.

• Technical credibility to engage effectively with senior engineering professionals.

• Proven track record of people leadership, including managing engineering leaders and supporting senior individual contributors.

• Strong judgment in product engineering and delivery.

• Experience in hiring and nurturing engineering talent.

• Ability to set clear standards and foster an environment where teams can excel.

• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills.

• Collaborative and pragmatic leadership approach with the confidence to make decisions, learn, and enhance processes.

• Experience in managing budgets and resource allocation within engineering functions.

• Capability to optimize resource utilization and align them with organizational priorities.

• Proficient in defining, tracking, and responding to engineering metrics and key performance indicators.

• Familiarity with modern software architecture patterns, technical debt management, and system design principles.

• Experience working across organizational boundaries and managing complex stakeholder relationships.

• Ability to engage in cross-functional planning and governance contexts.

🏝️ Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package that includes a generous pension scheme.

• Bonus scheme.

• Private medical insurance.

• Life insurance.

• Up to 31.5 days of annual leave.

• Flexible working arrangements.

• A culture of learning with a wide range of training options available.

• Opportunity to develop and apply your scientific expertise within the chemical industry.

• Chance to collaborate as part of a global team to meet the current and future needs of the agricultural sector.