Director of engineering at Seccl

This is a hybrid role requiring two days a week in our London office, and quarterly travel to Edinburgh or Bath. ABOUT US Seccl is the Octopus-owned embedded investment platform that’s on a mission to helping more people to invest – and invest well. We’re B-Corp certified with an amazing product-market fit, impressive early traction and the potential to transform an outdated industry, for the better. We've been growing fast and will scale even faster over the next few years. We’re also proud to be part of Octopus, the £multi billion group that's on a mission to breathe new life into broken industries, through companies like Octopus Energy, Octopus Investments and Octopus Money. Check out the Seccl website [Upgrade to PRO to see link] for the latest on our products and our mission [Upgrade to PRO to see link] to shape the future of investments. THE ROLE - Lead the long-term technical strategy, organisational design and engineering excellence for the Accounts domain — the foundation of every investor journey on Seccl. - Provide collaborative leadership across architecture, risk, delivery and team growth in one of Seccl’s most business-critical and regulated domains. - Report directly to the CTO and partner closely with the Group Product Manager for Accounts in a dual-leadership model. - Guide the technical direction for 4–6 squads, ensuring scalable architecture, engineering quality and reliable delivery. - Develop and enable Engineering Managers, embedding a culture of Ownership and shared accountability through a ‘build it, run it’ approach. - Operate within a domain with deep regulatory responsibility, technical complexity and a broad product footprint — spanning backend services, event-driven flows, APIs and customer-facing UI. IN 12–18 MONTHS, YOU’LL HAVE… - Delivered a clear multi-year Accounts technical roadmap aligned to product and compliance priorities. - Improved DORA and reliability metrics, reducing operational risk. - Strengthened the Engineering Manager, Staff and Principal engineering bench with clear succession depth. - Scaled organisational design to sustain flow, autonomy and effective delivery as Seccl grows. ON A TYPICAL DAY YOU WILL… - Set and communicate the technical vision and strategy for the Accounts tribe, shaping direction 6–18 months ahead. - Guide architectural decisions that ensure scalability, resilience and compliance. - Work with Staff and Principal Engineers to define and evolve architectural guardrails, patterns and platform capabilities. - Partner with the Group Product Manager to align technical and product priorities for maximum customer impact. - Lead and coach Engineering Managers, enabling their growth and technical leadership. - Advocate best practices and frameworks (e.g., AWS Well-Architected Framework) across squads. - Ensure operational excellence and reliability in delivery, embedding a ‘build it, run it’ culture. - Design, refine and evolve the organisational structure of the Accounts tribe to ensure long-term flow, autonomy and Ownership. - Build succession plans, strengthen leadership pipelines and uplift engineering management capability. - Influence company-wide engineering standards, frameworks and technical strategy as part of the Engineering Leadership Team. - Drive safe, measurable adoption of AI-assisted engineering (UI acceleration, test generation, migration tooling), with appropriate governance for IP, security and compliance. - Promote continuous improvement in processes, tooling and engineering culture. - Partner with Compliance, Risk, Security and Operations to embed robust engineering governance, technical controls and audit readiness. - Shape and manage cloud spend, operational cost-to-serve and vendor relationships across the Accounts domain. THIS ROLE’S FOR YOU IF YOU… - Have experience leading multiple engineering squads in a high-growth, cloud-native environment. - Have experience leading 20–40+ engineers through managers, Staff engineers and senior individual contributors. - Have owned multi-year technical and organisational strategies, ideally within regulated or high-integrity domains. - Understand AWS/serverless architecture and modern engineering practices. - Enjoy shaping operating models, delivery frameworks and engineering cultures. - Can operate across horizons: from long-term architectural direction to diving into technical detail when needed. - Build strong partnerships across product and engineering, Influencing at all levels. - Have a track record of improving delivery processes and driving operational efficiencies. - Are comfortable navigating ambiguity and rapid growth, using data to guide decisions. THIS ROLE ISN’T FOR YOU IF… - You’ve never led engineering teams or scaled technical organisations. - You lack experience in cloud-native architectures or modern engineering practices. - You prefer highly prescriptive, top-down environments rather than autonomy. - You find fast-changing or ambiguous environments challenging. WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU… We offer a generous mix of benefits for the things that really matter to our people, including: 💰 A salary dependant on experience + reviewed annually 🌴 27 days holiday + bank holidays (some can be flexible) + day off on your birthday + three days (full time) per year for Dependant leave 💙 Two volunteering days per year 🌎 Option to work abroad for up to six weeks a year 🌟 Secclbrate - our recognition programme that offers a mix of flexible rewards including extra pay, additional holiday and increased learning budget 🏅 Length of service award – one month paid sabbatical at eight years ✅ 6% employer pension contribution, and life assurance 🏥 Private medical insurance with AXA Health 👪 Enhanced Parental leave 💻 MacBook and up to £500 home office set up budget 📖 £750 per person learning budget 🌻 Health and wellbeing initiatives including free therapy via Wellness Cloud, mental health support via Headspace 🌱 Strong financial wellbeing focus including access to Octopus Money [Upgrade to PRO to see link] Octopus Share Incentive Plan and will writing offering via Octopus Legacy 🎁 Perkbox [Upgrade to PRO to see link] – Flexi-points giving you a range of discounts and perks including free weekly coffee, gym and retail discounts 🚲 Access to initiatives like Cycle to Work and Octopus Electric Vehicle Leasing OUR CULTURE We're proud to put people first, creating a culture where we truly listen to what matters most to them. Our transparent and inclusive environment encourages diversity of thought, challenge and experimentation. Check out our Glassdoor [Upgrade to PRO to see link] page for the latest reviews or our LinkedIn [Upgrade to PRO to see link] for company updates and insights from the team. Interview process Interviewing is a two-way thing, and we want you to have the time and opportunity to get to know us, as much as we are getting to know you. Our interviews are conversational, so come with questions and be curious. ⏳ We’ll only close this role once we have enough applications for the next stage. Please submit your application as soon as possible to make sure you don’t miss out and you should expect to hear back from us within one to two weeks of applying. 🌈 Our aim is to build a diverse and inclusive company of awesome people, with unique skills, passions and experiences. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to age, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or parental status, national origin, or veteran, neurodiversity or disability status. If this sounds like your kind of thing, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t tick every box. We’d love to hear from you!   #LI-hybrid #LI-VS1