How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Head of Engineering
Leading a Scaling SaaS Engineering Team as Future CTO
MRJ have partnered with a scaling SaaS company based in Manchester to help them find a Head of Engineering, with a clear pathway to CTO in 12 months, following the current CTO/Founder.
The Role
We’re hiring a Head of Engineering to:
- Lead an AI-first engineering team (currently 13 engineers).
- Play a key role in shaping and scaling an AI-first SaaS platform at a pivotal growth stage.
This role is structured as a transition pathway to the CTO position, with a 12-month transition plan and ongoing partnership with the CTO/Founder.
Key Transition Milestones
- First 12 months:
- Work closely with the CTO/Founder to take ownership of engineering delivery.
- Raise engineering standards and drive strategic technical direction.
- After 12 months: Transition fully into the CTO role.
Key Responsibilities
First 6 Months: Hands-on Leadership
- Improve engineering delivery practices, team effectiveness, and standards.
- Establish scalable ways of working for a growing, distributed team.
- Support the team in delivering high-quality product outcomes while balancing speed and quality.
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
Next 6 Months: Strategic Leadership
- Own the engineering roadmap and long-term technical direction in partnership with the CTO/Founder.
- Define and implement an AI-first engineering approach aligned to product goals.
- Build a scalable platform mindset across:
- Architecture
- Reliability
- Observability
- Security
- Drive best practice in cloud engineering on AWS for robust, secure, and scalable systems.
- Partner with Product and other stakeholders to align engineering execution with business priorities.
- Hire and scale the team as the business grows, ensuring the right structure and capability.
12 Months +: Full CTO Responsibilities
- Assume all above responsibilities as the new CTO.
Person Requirements
- Proven experience:
- Leading cross-functional and remote-first engineering teams in a SaaS environment, ideally through growth scaling.
- Engineering leadership:
- Hands-on when needed, particularly early in the role.
- Cloud expertise:
- Operating in modern cloud environments with strong AWS knowledge.
- Delivery improvements:
- Track record of improving standards, processes, quality, reliability, and team performance.
- Technical direction:
- Setting strategic technical direction with pragmatic decisions for product delivery and platform health.
- Distributed collaboration:
- Comfortable with UK/Europe distributed, cross-border teams.
- Stakeholder management:
- Excellent collaboration skills with the CTO/Founder and across the business.
- AI passion:
- Passion for AI-first engineering, including AI’s influence on product/engineering workflows.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
Next Steps
If you’re an engineering leader who:
- Enjoys building high-performing teams.
- Raising the bar on engineering delivery.
- Seeks a clear route into a CTO seat.
We’d love to hear from you.
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Skills