Zapp
Vice President, Product Engineering
Get notified of more jobs like this · No spam, ever
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Vice President, Product Engineering
Location: Nine Elms, London Working Pattern: Full-time, five days per week on-site
The Role
Zapp is looking for an exceptional product-minded engineering leader to shape and deliver the next generation of our platform.
As VP of Product Engineering, you will own how Zapp turns customer, operational, and commercial opportunities into high-quality products. You will work closely with the Founder and Executive Team to set priorities, shape solutions, and lead teams from idea through to launch and iteration.
This is not a role focused solely on managing an engineering organisation. We are looking for a hands-on leader who can move comfortably between product strategy, technical architecture, team leadership, and execution. You will be expected to get close to our customers and operations, challenge assumptions, make thoughtful trade-offs, and create the momentum required to ship valuable products quickly.
Alongside delivering products, you will build and scale a high-performing engineering function with strong standards for quality, reliability, pace, and ownership.
About Zapp
Zapp is London’s leading premium convenience retail platform. Founded in 2020, our vision is to reinvent the multi-trillion-dollar convenience retail market through best-in-class, customer-centric technology and fulfilment.
Zapp partners with some of the world’s leading brands to offer an exclusive, hand-picked range of products, available 24/7 and delivered in minutes.
What You’ll Own
Product and Technology Direction
- Define Zapp’s product and technology direction in partnership with the Founder and Executive Team.
- Translate business priorities, customer needs, operational challenges, and data into a focused product and engineering roadmap.
- Identify the highest-value problems to solve and make clear trade-offs between speed, scope, quality, and technical investment.
- Ensure our architecture and technology choices support both near-term delivery and Zapp’s long-term ambitions.
Product delivery
- Take accountability for turning ideas into products that are launched, adopted, measured, and continuously improved.
- Lead teams through discovery, solution design, development, launch, and iteration.
- Create a strong, repeatable delivery rhythm while remaining pragmatic and responsive to changing business needs.
- Remove obstacles, accelerate decision-making, and ensure important initiatives reach customers and operations.
- Define success through customer, commercial, and operational outcomes—not simply features shipped.
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.
Engineering Leadership
- Lead, develop, and scale a multidisciplinary engineering organisation.
- Establish clear ownership, high standards, and a culture of pace, simplicity, craftsmanship, and accountability.
- Stay close enough to the technology to challenge architectural decisions, guide teams through difficult problems, and make sound technical trade-offs.
- Build reliable, secure, and scalable systems that protect the customer experience as Zapp grows.
- Attract, retain, and develop exceptional engineering talent.
AI, data, and automation
- Make AI and automation practical capabilities across Zapp, applying them where they can materially improve the customer experience, operational performance, or employee productivity.
- Use modern AI-assisted engineering practices to improve development speed, code quality, and team effectiveness.
- Partner closely with Data Science and Analytics to strengthen personalisation, forecasting, decision-making, and predictive operations.
- Evaluate emerging technologies with commercial judgment, separating meaningful opportunities from hype.
Cross-functional leadership
- Operate as a close partner to commercial, operations, data, finance, and other business leaders.
- Build a deep understanding of Zapp’s customers, fulfilment operations, economics, and strategic priorities.
- Communicate priorities, decisions, progress, and risks clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Bring an owner’s mentality: identify opportunities, take responsibility, and drive work through to measurable results.
What We’re Looking For
- Significant software engineering experience, including experience leading engineering teams at VP, Head of Engineering, Engineering Director, or equivalent level.
- A strong record of personally driving meaningful digital products from opportunity or idea through to launch and iteration.
- Evidence of building products that delivered measurable customer, commercial, or operational impact.
- Deep technical judgment and the credibility to engage with engineers on architecture, reliability, security, and development practices.
- Strong product instincts, including the ability to understand users, frame ambiguous problems, prioritise effectively, and make pragmatic trade-offs.
- Experience building and developing high-performing, multidisciplinary engineering teams.
- Experience operating complex, high-availability production systems; experience in consumer technology, marketplaces, logistics, retail, or similarly operational environments would be valuable.
- The ability to combine long-term thinking with urgency and hands-on execution.
- Excellent communication and the confidence to work directly with founders, executives, partners, and teams across the business.
- High intellectual curiosity, low ego, and a strong sense of ownership.
- A degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field—or equivalent professional experience.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
Why Zapp?
This is a genuinely differentiated leadership opportunity: direct access to Zapp’s Founder and Executive Team, ownership of a technology organisation at the centre of the business, and the mandate to shape and ship products with visible customer and commercial impact.
Your work will be consequential, fast-moving, and experienced directly by our customers and operational teams. For the right person, this is a rare opportunity to combine product creation, technical leadership, and company-building in one role.
Benefits
- A genuinely differentiated career opportunity: direct access to the Founder and Senior Leadership Team of one of London's most ambitious startups, combined with full ownership of the engineering organisation that sits at the core of the business. Your work will be visible, consequential, and fast-moving. For the right person, this is the fastest way to combine strategic thinking with real technical leadership in a high-growth environment.
- Competitive salary & equity package.
- Private Health Insurance (Bupa)
- Zapp Credit for testing the Zapp service and experience
- Extended sick pay and maternity/paternity leave pay.
- 25 days annual leave, excluding UK Bank Holidays
- Healthy lunch provided 4 days of a week at HQ
If you are a hands-on leader who thrives on building high-performing teams and delivering exceptional technology at scale, we encourage you to apply!
“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
Location