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Head of Engineering
Department: Engineering Employment Type: Full Time Location: UK
About the Role
Reports to: VP of Technology Location: Remote (UK-based)
We're looking for an experienced engineering leader to take ownership of Biorelate’s engineering function. You'll manage six direct reports, including leads for Platform Engineering (including Security), Data Engineering, and Full-Stack Engineering, overseeing a total of around 13 engineers. Your primary responsibility is to ensure the smooth operation of the engineering team—shaping culture, developing processes, and driving project delivery—while also maintaining strong technical influence to make sound decisions, conduct architecture reviews, and handle critical production incidents.
The role involves supporting Biorelate’s mission: accelerating drug discovery by building the world’s largest and most accurate biomedical knowledge graph and ensuring this data reaches those who need it most.
What You’ll Own
You’ll be accountable for the following key areas:
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The Engineering Function as a Whole Ownership of six direct reports and their teams, while delivering against performance, technical quality, culture, and people development goals.
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Technical Leadership Across Three Disciplines While not expected to be the deepest expert in every area, you’ll be responsible for:
- Defining best practices across platform, data, and full-stack engineering.
- Holding credible technical discussions with team leads.
- Making strategic cross-disciplinary decisions.
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People Development & Growth
- Developing your direct reports and fostering growth within the engineering team.
- Influencing recruitment, promotion, and performance decisions.
- Championing wellbeing within the organisation.
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Engineering Practice
- Raising standards for:
- Code reviews and design principles.
- Incident handling and system automation.
- Documentation quality.
- Decision-making processes.
- Leading by example, encouraging alignment and continual improvement.
- Raising standards for:
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Project Delivery
- Collaborating with the Delivery Manager to prioritise, sequence, and execute key initiatives.
- Driving operational and tactical outcomes with the full confidence and support of the VP of Technology.
Who We’re Looking For
This is not a comprehensive list, but the following skills and traits help define the ideal candidate:
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10+ years of engineering experience, with sufficient time spent in data-heavy systems, including:
- Data pipelines, ML platforms, large-scale ETL, knowledge graphs, search, analytics.
- Clear insights into data quality, system observability, and failure modes of complex, high-throughput systems.
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Leadership experience in managing engineering teams or functions, such as:
- Head of Engineering or Senior EM transitioning into a fully accountable role.
- Experience managing function-wide delivery rather than just individual teams.
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Diverse leadership experience, having succeeded in both:
- Startup environments ("ship by Friday" mentality) and:
- Mature organisations ("we need an RFC process")—able to adapt practices accordingly.
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Judgment and wisdom earned through experience—having faced the consequences of past decisions (e.g., architectural trade-offs, process challenges, impactful hires).
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Technical credibility across multiple disciplines:
- Depth in platform/infrastructure, data engineering, or application engineering.
- Breadth to collaborate with domain experts and guide specialists—knowing when to seek expert input while retaining overall project vision.
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High tolerance for ambiguity—requring comfort with:
- A young company with a broad surface area of responsibility.
- Vague lane definitions where structure is still emerging.
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Exceptional written and verbal communication—critical in a remote setting:
- Clear thinking + writing, particularly drafting concise, illuminating explanations of complex ideas.
- Ability to run effective meetings and have difficult conversations when necessary.
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Curiosity about Biorelate’s domain and customers:
- Likely no biomedical background required, but enthusiasm for understanding real impact—accelerating drug discovery to improve patient lives.
- Willingness to engage deeply with how customers apply this data.
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Strong opinions about what 'good' looks like:
- Can distinguish between well-run vs mediocre engineering teams.
- Has concrete views on core practices, including:
- Code review standards.
- Testing, observability, incident response.
- Documentation quality, on-call policies.
- Hiring criteria and career progression frameworks.
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