VP Engineering - AI - First Engineering Leadership - PE Backed - £140k

VP Engineering – AI-First Engineering Leadership Remote (UK) | £130,000–£140,000 + bonus + equity participation Our client is a global, private equity-backed leader in risk management and assurance. It operates in more than 50 countries and is entering its next five-year growth phase, with major investment committed and a significant technology-focused M&A pipeline. They're hiring a VP Engineering to change how their software is built. This is a new role, created to take a talented engineering team of around 30 and turn it into an AI-first function. It comes with the autonomy, budget and executive backing to do it properly. You'll start with a focused team. With large acquisitions in the pipeline, including a sizeable US-based engineering organisation, the function is expected to grow significantly over the next 12 to 24 months. They are ideally looking for passionate & ambitious leaders who are looking for a step up and living/ breathing the world of AI! What you'll do

• Lead the move to AI-first engineering: agentic AI embedded across the full development lifecycle, from requirements through to build, test and release.
• Put the right foundations in place (standards, golden paths, MD files, stage gates, reusable scaffolding) so engineers and AI tooling move fast without sacrificing quality.
• Restructure the engineering function for a product-led operating model, moving from project-based delivery to long-lived, product-aligned teams.
• Set a modern, pragmatic architecture direction: event-driven patterns and "just enough" governance, replacing heavyweight design documentation.
• Build and develop a strong leadership layer, reshaping structure and roles as you see fit.
• Define how engineering performance is measured (DORA, cycle time, time to release) and deliver a clear step-change.
• Shape the engineering side of a multi-year programme to digitise the client experience end to end.
• Integrate and scale engineering teams joining through acquisition.
• Act as the senior engineering voice to the CEO and the executive team. What you'll bring
• Hands-on engineering leadership: you've led teams of 20 or more engineers through leads, and you're still close to the technology.
• Personal, current AI experience. You build with AI tooling yourself, you're across the latest models, and you have recent examples of what worked, what broke and what changed.
• Experience moving a team to AI-assisted or agentic development, with the structure to make it stick.
• A track record of changing how a function builds, not just running or inheriting one.
• A background in product-led environments. Scale-up, startup or high-growth product businesses would be particularly relevant.
• A strong grounding in modern software architecture, cloud and continuous delivery. The stack is Microsoft (Azure, C#, .NET, React), but adaptability matters more than stack.
• Energy, pace and the ability to bring people with you, from engineers to the boardroom. This role suits someone on the way up: an ambitious Head of Engineering or Engineering Director who is ready for a bigger stage. What's on offer
• Base salary up to £140,000, with a 10–15% bonus (potential flex)
• The opportunity to participate in a management incentive plan.
• Fully remote within the UK, with occasional office visits in London or Birmingham.
• Direct access to the CEO and board-level mentorship from an experienced AI and technology founder.
• Real autonomy over structure, ways of working and technical direction.
• A role that will scale significantly through acquisition.