Head of Software Engineering

Join our journey to create a new experience for the National Lottery and help us to power change for the greater good.

About us:

We are Allwyn UK, part of the Allwyn Entertainment Group - a multi-national lottery operator with a market-leading presence in Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus and Italy. We have been officially awarded the Fourth Licence (10 year licence) to operate the National Lottery starting February 2024.

‍We've developed ground-breaking technologies, built player protection frameworks, and have a proven track record of making lotteries better. Our aim is to create one of the UK's most inclusive organisations - where people can bring the best of themselves, to do their best work, every day, for the benefit of good causes.

Allwyn is an Equal Opportunity Employer which prides itself in being diverse and inclusive. We do not tolerate discrimination, harassment, or victimisation in the workplace. All employment decisions at Allwyn are based on the business needs, the job requirements, and the individual qualifications. Allwyn encourages applications from individuals regardless of age, disability (visible or hidden), sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.

While the main contribution of the National Lottery to society is through the funds to good causes, at Allwyn we put our purpose and values at the heart of everything we do. Join us as we embark on a once-in-a-lifetime, large-scale transformation journey to build a bigger, better, and safer National Lottery that delivers more money to good causes.

Role Purpose:

As the Head of Software Engineering, you will lead and manage our software engineering teams to deliver high-quality, scalable, and innovative software solutions in a heavily regulated environment. You will be responsible for setting the technical direction, guiding the team in best practices, and fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement. This role requires strong leadership skills, technical expertise, and a passion for driving results.

• Reporting to the Director, Digital Factory, you will be responsible for the end-to-end delivery of front-end products and services for Allwyn's Web and App and supporting the development and integration to the Backend for Front End (BFF).
• You will provide inspirational and energetic leadership to a team of Software Engineers and Test professionals, be that permanent, contract or delivery partner resources and be responsible for their overall engagement, line management, wellbeing, and performance.
• Confident and demonstrable track record of management of third party delivery partners and executing within agreed contractual terms and budgets.
• Highly results focused, you'll demonstrate the ability to deliver at pace, set and operationalize strategy, set delivery metrics and execute plans to deliver against these.
• You'll demonstrate the ability to build and maintain influential relationships and partnerships with a broad and diverse range of internal and external stakeholders.
• You will create and contribute towards a working environment of positive relations and a culture that is inclusive, collaborative, empowering and delivery focused.
• You'll be obsessive about delivering the right solution for right now, whilst acknowledging that balance is required between near term business value and setting the Digital Factory and Allwyn up for success in the long term.
• You'll be a strong, open and honest communicator, capable of quickly engaging audiences at all levels.
  
  

You will always place customer needs at the heart of the software development process.

Role Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic vision and leadership for the software engineering teams, aligning technology roadmap with business goals.
• Delivery of first-class software solutions that are secure, performant, reliable and help provide an engaging and safe customer experience.
• Provide leadership to the Front End (React), Back End (Java/Spring Boot), Android (Kotlin) and iOS (Swift) coding languages and tech stacks, supporting existing people to transition from historical tech stacks.
• Driving a collaborative, efficient and continually improving software engineering function that complements and works in partnership with engineering and wider teams to ensure the rapid delivery of high-quality products and services.
• Develop and own the engineering strategy in conjunction with the Head of Digital Products, ensuring the utilization of engineering resources is optimized and focused to the delivery of the agreed prioritized roadmap.
• Oversee all aspects of the software development lifecycle, from planning and requirements gathering to design, development, testing, and deployment.
• Build and maintain a high-performing software engineering team by attracting, recruiting, and retaining top talent, lead with a people first approach.
• Foster a collaborative and innovative work environment that encourages continuous learning and development for the team.
• Establish and uphold high coding standards, best practices, and maintainability principles within the engineering team, aiming for things like TDD, CI/CD, shift left practices, etc.
• Define and implement efficient software development methodologies and processes (e.g., Agile, Scrum).
• Manage and prioritise project timelines, budgets, and people effectively.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams (e.g., product, design, engineering, QA) to ensure software solutions meet business needs and user expectations.
• Track and analyse key software engineering metrics to measure performance and identify areas for improvement.
• Communicate effectively with stakeholders at all levels, providing clear and concise technical information.
• Assist architecting and scaling software products.
• Build an active community of engineering practice for the Digital Factory, focusing on the continual improvement of all activities and processes that involve Engineers.
• Working alongside the Head of Digital Products and Head of Digital Operations to build in the key measurement features that allow tracking and reporting of performance and customer journey flow
• Work closely with the Head of Delivery to ensure that effective delivery practices are implemented across the engineering function.
• Contribute to the identification and effective management of engineering and wider Technology risks, taking ownership and driving actions to deliver effective mitigations.
  
  
  

Key Measures of Success:

• Team Alignment - Digital Factory strategy, product roadmap, delivery methodology and controls, and commercial targets
• Team utilization - Resource allocation and cost control (internal and delivery partner)
• Velocity - Delivery throughput, deployment frequency, cycle time
• Software Quality - Change failure rate, code review cycles and intervention Mean time to repair (MTTR), Customer satisfaction and stakeholder feedback inclusion
• People Health - Work distribution and engagement scores
  
  
  

Key Skills and Experience:

• 15 years of experience in software engineering.
• 5 years experience in leading and motivating high-performing software engineering teams in a heavily regulated environment.
• Strong technical background with expertise in software development methodologies, programming languages (e.g., Java, JavaScript), and modern software engineering practices (shift-left, TDD, CI, etc).
• Demonstrated ability to drive results, inspire teams, and foster a culture of innovation and excellence.
• Experience with agile development methodologies and project management tools (e.g., JIRA, Agile, Scrum).
• Experience in defining and implementing technical architecture and infrastructure solutions.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively under pressure and manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Familiarity with cloud computing platforms (e.g. AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerization technologies (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes) are a plus.
• Exposure to mobile development (Swift, Kotlin) is a plus.
• Nice to have experience in Gaming/Lottery sector or other heavily regulated environment.
• Strong analytical and decision-making skills.
• Passion for technology and a commitment to continuous learning
• Must have the ability to deliver software solutions to time and quality and have the track record of doing so using multiple delivery partners.
• Demonstrable experience of managing contractual and commercial relationships with third party delivery partners.
• An ability to nurture and enhance the capabilities of your team, ensuring you grow their skills and support their career development.
• You thrive on responsibility and completing tasks in a timely manner with good, clear communication.
• You are equally comfortable working independently, and in a team to deliver excellence, working across boundaries and also within the Digital Factory Leadership Team.
• Your ability to set priorities and focus teams on what is most important whilst maintaining resilience under pressure will be key for this role.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, able to understand and relay strategic objectives and plans and drive alignment.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, including the ability to explain complex technical challenges in a simple and effective manner.
  
  
  

Here is our list of benefits:

• 34 days paid leave (This includes bank holidays)
• 2 x Life Days
• 4 x Salary of Life Insurance
• Pension: We'll contribute 8.5%
• BUPA
• £500 wellness allowance
• Income Protection
  
  

As part of our onboarding processes, all successful candidates will need to complete both a Pre-Employment Screening process and a Fit & Proper check by the Gambling Commission. These checks include a DBS (an enhanced check, which shows convictions and conditional cautions), credit and social media checks. As part of our application process, you will be asked to identify in advance if you have spent or unspent convictions that we need to be aware of.

Should you not disclose convictions at the application stage, not pass the Fit & Proper Check process or not complete your Pre-Employment Screening then unfortunately you may not pass our probation process.

All data will be handled in accordance with our data policies and treated with utmost confidentiality.