Lead Engineering Manager

Expert computing. Modern Tech-Stack. Being Agile.  

Lead Engineering Manager

£80,000 (+ Benefits)

Reports to: Head of Engineering

Department: Chief Operating Office

Contract: 18 month fixed-term contract

Hours: Full time 35 hours per week

Location: Stratford, London. Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office)

Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.

Closing date: 01 October 2024 23:55

This vacancy may close earlier if a high volume of applications is received or once a suitable candidate is found, therefore we strongly recommend that you apply early to avoid disappointment. If you require more time to apply as part of a reasonable adjustment, please contact [email protected] as soon as possible.

Recruitment process: Two competency-based interviews

Interview date: We will be shortlisting on a rolling basis so please do not delay in applying

How do I apply? We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to fully complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.

We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we’re looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you.

Cancer Research UK has an ambitious approach to technology, having built multiple in-house software products, including agile development of web applications and platforms with millions of users. Our Engineering team brings together software engineering, cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, quality assurance, and data engineering to keep the charity at the forefront of the fast-moving technology landscape. 

Ensuring that our Relationship Management (i.e. supporter data stored on CRM) & Marketing platforms support this ambition is a key challenge vital to the organisation’s Engage Strategy. We are undertaking a large-scale refresh of these platforms and there is exciting work to do as we establish a new engineering strategy (including new developer tooling, QA, and deployment automation).

As a Lead Engineering Manager, you will lead the CRM & Marketing Engineering team covering all engineering work in this area. You’ll be part of our Engineering Leadership Team collaborating closely with peers within and outside of Engineering to ensure an excellent customer experience for Cancer Research UK's users, high reliability, and support across our Marketing & CRM platforms (and their connection to other applications). This will involve overseeing and leading both our platforms and team in transitioning to our new Salesforce platform and holding our implementation partners accountable to ensure the platform meets our strategic and user needs.

This role will directly line manage, lead, and motivate our CRM & Marketing Development and Support teams across various disciplines and levels (c. 8 direct reports). This will involve supporting the team to decommission our legacy platforms and develop the skills they need to work with Salesforce, thus setting up their careers for future success.

If you are an experienced Engineering Manager with strong people management and leadership skills, we would love for you to join our mission (rest assured, you do not need to have managed CRM teams before but will require some knowledge of this area). Your legacy by the end of this contract, will be to have successfully led the charity and Engineering team in navigating transformation period. Your impact will be to have contributed to the improvement of our Relationship Management & Marketing platforms and supporter experience, ultimately increasing Cancer Research UK’s income-generating capabilities to fund our life-saving research.

What will I be doing?

• Leading the CRM & Marketing Engineering team, incorporating all necessary disciplines (Development, Environments, and Support) to deliver the priorities defined by the Head of Product Portfolio and the Relationship Management & Marketing Product Managers. This will involve:

  • Balancing the needs of the organisation to ensure development progresses at pace and environments are reliable.

  • Supporting DevOps approaches and Support teams to ensure an excellent service that meets user needs and maintains the platform's data integrity.

• Collaborating closely with the Head of Product Portfolio and Product Managers to:

  • Support the delivery of their priorities while ensuring appropriate levels of governance, platform reliability, efficiency, and quality of delivery.

  • Support the definition of, and implementation of, Engineering and Data Strategies.

• Leading the CRM & Marketing Engineering in transitioning from the legacy monolith Siebel to the new Salesforce.

  • This will include providing technical leadership for decommissioning Siebe ensuring to coach the team while maintaining morale and developing their skills to take on the new platforms.

• Collaborating closely with the implementation partners to ensure the new platforms meet Cancer Research UK’s needs, and that team members are appropriately involved in the implementations.

  • It is crucial that knowledge transfer is taken seriously to avoid long-term dependency on the implementation partner and to build internal capacity for ongoing transformation.

• Defining and delivering the Relationship Management & Marketing aspects of the Engineering Strategy. 

  • This includes optimising the delivery of work through the team in terms of throughput and quality, by promoting and embedding DevOps tools and processes, and Agile methods as appropriate.

• Continually improving the availability, stability, and resilience of our platforms by addressing technical debt, improving support mechanisms, acting on support pain points, and ensuring the voice of the customer is heard in the team.

• Coaching and developing staff in the team ensuring that they are gaining in skill, learning the new platforms, and that they can support each other through cross-skilling.

• Providing expert insight into the ongoing development and delivery of the Relationship Management & Marketing technology elements of Cancer Research UK‘s Engage transformation programme (including strategy and delivery).

Line management:

• Line managing, leading, and developing an inclusive and high-functioning team.

  • As a line manager, you will be responsible for creating a positive culture that recognises success, develops, and drives high performance and rewards results to retain talent within the team and wider function.

  • c.8 direct reports within the CRM & Marketing Engineering team.

• Setting objectives and KPIs (key performance indicators) for the team while monitoring and tracking overperformance with recognition and supporting underperformance through a performance management process.

• Leading the team through a period of profound change which will involve managing the people impact of decommissioning legacy systems while implementing new technologies and ways of working.

What skills will I need?

• Extensive experience in line managing, leading, and motivating technical Development and Support teams (c. 8-10+ direct reports) across various disciplines and levels (this can either be within CRM or non-CRM Engineering).

  • Ideally has navigated teams through periods of ambiguity and transformation (this is desirable, we welcome applicants without this experience)

• Some knowledge of CRM platforms within hybrid environments (on-premise & cloud / SaaS)

  • You do not need to have managed CRM teams before or be a CRM expert – our key priority is finding someone with the management skills to lead CRM specialists.

• Some understanding of Salesforce (e.g., Sales Cloud and Service Cloud).

• Previously managed and transformed the development and operation of enterprise-grade platforms.

• Proven ability to influence, challenge, and engage internal and external stakeholders from a leadership and strategic perspective.

• Knowledge of engineering best practices and DevOps culture, tools and processes. 

What will I gain?

Each and every one of our employees contributes to our progress and is supporting our work to beat cancer. We think that’s impressive.

In return, we make sure you are supported by a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools, policies and processes to enable you to do your job well.

Our benefits package includes a substantial retirement plan, a generous and flexible leave allowance, discounts on anything from travel to technology, gym membership, and much more.

We don’t forget people have lives outside of work too and so we actively encourage a flexible working culture.

Our work – from funding cutting-edge research to developing public policy – will change the world. It’s exciting to be part of our team.

For the full job description and more information about working with us please contact [email protected]

Additional Information

Please note, internally this role is known as a CRM Marketing & Engineering Lead. If you want to know more about this role, here is a full job description. Please note this is a generalist profile used for internal & external purposes meaning we don’t expect candidates to meet all the criteria included (we will be shortlisting based on the essential criteria advertised).

For more information on this career opportunity please visit our website or contact us at [email protected].  

For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: Linked In, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

There’s a place for everyone at Cancer Research UK. Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We're committed to creating an inclusive culture where everyone can be themselves and reach their full potential. 

We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented, and believe that a diverse workforce will help us to beat cancer sooner. 

If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you. We don’t expect everyone to meet all of the criteria listed.

We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen by emailing us at [email protected]. 

Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.