Head of Product Engineering

Role Overview

AIVION develops AI-enabled technology solutions for education, assessment, workflow automation and enterprise productivity. As the company enters its next phase of growth, we are seeking an experienced Head of Product Engineering to lead and strengthen our product engineering capability.

This is a hands-on leadership role combining product thinking, software architecture, full-stack engineering, delivery ownership and team development. The successful candidate will own the engineering strategy and technical foundation of the company’s technology portfolio while remaining directly involved in the design and delivery of critical capabilities.

Working closely with senior leadership and the product and engineering teams, the role will establish a scalable engineering function capable of supporting secure, reliable and high-volume enterprise and institutional deployments.

Key Responsibilities

• Product Engineering Strategy and Ownership
• Own and execute the company’s product engineering strategy.
• Translate product vision, business priorities and client requirements into clear technical roadmaps and delivery plans.
• Partner with product and business leaders to prioritise the backlog based on customer value, technical complexity, delivery risk and commercial urgency.
• Take end-to-end accountability for engineering delivery, product quality, production stability and technical outcomes.
• Provide senior leadership with clear visibility of engineering progress, dependencies, risks, capacity and investment requirements.
• Product Architecture and Scalability
• Own, evolve and document the technical architecture across the company’s technology portfolio.
• Design secure, modular, maintainable and scalable components across frontend, backend, database, API, AI and integration layers.
• Establish architecture capable of supporting multiple organisations, users, roles, workflows, configurations and high processing volumes.
• Lead the design of scalable application workflows, integrations, AI-enabled capabilities, dashboards and reporting components.
• Make pragmatic technology and architecture decisions that support growth without unnecessary complexity or over-engineering.
• Maintain technical documentation, architecture diagrams, integration specifications and implementation plans.
• Hands-on Engineering Leadership
• Lead engineering delivery while remaining hands-on with the design and development of critical or complex capabilities.
• Build and maintain backend APIs, frontend modules, database models, workflow components and third-party integrations where required.
• Work directly with AI and machine-learning APIs, automation services and data-processing components.
• Lead technical debugging and incident resolution, helping the team address complex system, performance and integration issues.
• Review code, solution designs and implementation approaches to ensure maintainability, security and technical quality.
• Engineering Team and Capability
• Build, lead, mentor and develop the product engineering team, creating clear ownership and accountability across the function.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, capacity planning, role definition and performance development as the engineering team grows.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards covering coding, testing, documentation, security, code review and release readiness.
• Create an engineering culture focused on ownership, collaboration, quality, continuous learning and reliable delivery.
• Coordinate effectively with internal engineers, contractors and external technology or delivery partners.
• Production Readiness, DevOps and Governance
• Ensure technology solutions are ready for enterprise and institutional use across performance, availability, security, reliability, observability and maintainability.
• Own and improve CI/CD, source control, environment management, automated testing, release management and deployment practices.
• Establish monitoring, logging, alerting, backup, recovery and incident-management practices appropriate for enterprise deployments.
• Strengthen authentication, authorisation, role-based access control, data protection, audit logging and secure application design.
• Track relevant engineering measures covering delivery predictability, quality, reliability, performance and operational risk.
• Monitor cloud usage, technical vendors and engineering tools to maintain appropriate cost, performance and scalability.
• Client Delivery and Deployment
• Own the technical readiness and delivery of client onboarding, configuration, integration, deployment and production rollout.
• Work with stakeholders to understand requirements and translate them into technical configurations, integration designs or prioritised enhancements.
• Support pilots, demonstrations and proofs of concept, ensuring successful transition into secure and supportable production deployments.
• Lead technical troubleshooting for client-facing issues and ensure clear ownership through resolution.
• Balance client-specific requirements with the integrity, reusability and long-term direction of the core technology platform.
• Cross-functional Leadership
• Act as the bridge between product strategy and technical execution.
• Work closely with product leads, designers, engineers, business stakeholders and delivery partners.
• Contribute technical insight to product planning, client commitments, commercial discussions and delivery decisions.
• Communicate complex technical matters clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Required Skills and Experience

• 8–10 years of experience in software engineering, product engineering, technical architecture or a related discipline, including meaningful technical leadership responsibility.
• Strong hands-on experience in full-stack application design and development.
• Proven experience owning the architecture and delivery of production-grade SaaS or enterprise applications.
• Experience leading, mentoring and developing software engineering teams.
• Experience with modern frontend frameworks such as React.
• Strong backend development experience, preferably with Python, FastAPI, Node.js or comparable technologies.
• Strong knowledge of relational databases such as PostgreSQL, SQL Server or MySQL, including data modelling and performance optimisation.
• Experience designing APIs, modular applications, distributed services and scalable backend systems.
• Experience deploying and operating cloud-based applications on Azure, AWS or GCP.
• Sound understanding of authentication, authorisation, user roles, access control, data protection and secure application design.
• Strong system-design, debugging, problem-solving and technical decision-making skills.
• Experience working in a start-up or scale-up environment where priorities and requirements can evolve quickly.

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Experience building AI-enabled SaaS, education technology, assessment, workflow automation or enterprise productivity solutions.
• Experience with AI and machine-learning APIs, large language models, prompt engineering, RAG, AI agents, document processing or AI governance.
• Knowledge of multi-tenant architecture and configurable enterprise platforms.
• Experience with DevOps, Docker, CI/CD pipelines, GitHub Actions and cloud-native deployment.
• Experience with data security, audit logging, compliance controls and enterprise-grade operational governance.
• Experience supporting institutional or enterprise clients through pilots, integrations and production rollouts.
• Commercial awareness and the ability to balance customer needs, delivery commitments and sustainable technology development.

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will be

• A hands-on engineering leader who can design and build, not simply advise or manage from a distance.
• Comfortable taking ownership of a growing technology portfolio and its technical direction.
• Able to work with senior leadership and convert business ideas and client requirements into production-ready capabilities.
• Practical, delivery-focused and comfortable operating in an early-stage technology environment.
• Strong in engineering fundamentals while remaining product-minded and commercially aware.
• Capable of setting high technical standards while enabling the team to move quickly and responsibly.
• Comfortable balancing strategic leadership, team development and hands-on technical contribution.

Initial Success Outcomes

During the first 6–12 months, success in this role will include

• Establishing clear engineering ownership, standards, governance and delivery processes across the technology portfolio.
• Strengthening architecture and production readiness for secure and scalable enterprise deployments.
• Delivering priority capabilities and client commitments with improved predictability and quality.
• Building a capable and accountable engineering team with clear ownership of day-to-day technical delivery.
• Improving reliability, monitoring, deployment practices, technical documentation and operational readiness.

Why This Role Matters

AIVION is entering its next phase of growth. This role will be central to establishing a scalable product engineering model and strengthening the company’s technical capabilities.

The successful candidate will shape the technical foundation of AIVION’s technology portfolio, build the engineering capability required for growth and play a critical role in supporting wider enterprise and institutional adoption.