Salary: c £115,000
Bonus: Discretionary
Location: Kings Cross, London (Tuesdays-Thursdays - 3 days in our office, Monday + Friday - anywhere)
Employment Type: Permanent, full time
Closing date: Sunday 6 September 23.59
About ARIA
ARIA is a new R&D funding agency built to unlock technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. We fund scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of the possible.
From climate change to AI, society faces enormous challenges and opportunities that can be uniquely addressed by science and technology. ARIA was created to activate the UK’s world-class R&D in new ways, so we can meet these head on.
Our success is shaped by one question: how will ARIA transform the lives of the UK’s future generations? Whether that’s a life-changing new technology or a burgeoning new industry, it should be obvious that ARIA played a catalytic role.
If you want to help make breakthroughs like these possible, come and build ARIA with us.
Learn more here.
Role summary
ARIA’s success depends on our ability to intelligently leverage technology, data and AI to accelerate how the organisation operates, learns and innovates. As the Head of Technology & Engineering, you will lead ARIA’s Data & Tech function within the COO portfolio, building the organisational capability, technical foundations and ways of working needed to support ARIA’s ambitions. You will lead a multidisciplinary team, enabling teams across ARIA to experiment, automate and build safely at scale.
Your function will both enable distributed innovation across ARIA and directly build, operationalise and scale high-value organisational products, workflows, automations and technical capabilities. You will balance rapid innovation with strong architectural governance, security and long-term sustainability, ensuring technology solutions remain strategically aligned and resilient.
This role is one of two complementary technology leadership roles at ARIA. Working in partnership with the Head of IT Operations, you will ensure that ARIA’s Data & Tech capabilities are designed, built and operated securely and sustainably. The Head of IT Operations is responsible for ARIA’s IT services and estate and cybersecurity within the CFO portfolio, including SaaS platforms, end-user technology and network infrastructure. This role leads data, engineering, internal technology products and AI enablement within the COO portfolio, building products and capabilities that integrate with and build on that estate. The two roles will jointly contribute to cross-organisational technology governance, standards and investment decisions.
Function Leadership & Capability Development
- Continue to shape ARIA’s Data & Tech function as an internal product, engineering and enablement capability: helping teams across ARIA identify opportunities, design effective solutions and deliver lasting organisational value.
- Lead and grow a multidisciplinary team spanning product management, engineering, data, platforms and AI enablement, developing the capability mix, talent and leadership needed as ARIA evolves.
- Evolve the function’s operating model, including clear interfaces, shared ways of working and effective joint governance with IT Operations.
- Define how Data & Tech work is discovered, prioritised and resourced, drawing on internal capability, external partners and specialist support.
- Embed and continuously improve the product, delivery and engineering ways of working that enable the function to move from experimentation to reliable, scalable organisational capabilities.
- Foster a culture that combines user-centred thinking, technical excellence, pragmatism and responsible innovation.
Organisational Technology Enablement
- Shape and deliver ARIA’s strategy for technology-enabled organisational improvement, data and AI enablement, identifying opportunities to improve organisational effectiveness.
- Establish clear and effective ways for teams across ARIA to engage with the Data & Tech function, helping them identify the right approach, whether through internal capability, partners or other solutions.
- Enable teams across ARIA to experiment and automate through well-designed platforms, tooling, reusable services and architectural guardrails.
- Partner with leaders across ARIA to understand organisational needs, identify technology opportunities and make informed trade-offs that deliver meaningful outcomes.
- Provide clear technical direction on data, internal products, engineering and AI-enabled technologies, ensuring ARIA makes effective choices about how these capabilities are designed, built and evolved.
Architecture, Platforms & Governance
- Lead the design and stewardship of the architecture for ARIA’s data, internal products, integrations and engineering platforms, ensuring solutions remain interoperable, secure and sustainable.
- Establish technical standards, governance frameworks and deployment patterns that enable innovation without creating fragmentation or unmanaged risk.
- Oversee platform engineering, technical lifecycle management, providing the foundations needed to develop, deploy and operate internal solutions effectively.
- Partner closely with IT Operations to ensure Data & Tech capabilities meet ARIA’s security, resilience and operational requirements.
Product, Engineering & Data
- Lead the development of product management practices, ensuring technology opportunities are shaped around user needs, organisational priorities and measurable outcomes, from discovery through to delivery and ongoing improvement.
- Oversee the design, build and operationalisation of internal products, workflows, automations and integrations, balancing speed of delivery with long-term sustainability.
- Establish and evolve product, engineering and data-development practices that enable ARIA to develop and maintain high-quality technology solutions.
- Ensure successful prototypes and experimental solutions evolve into scalable, secure and supportable organisational capabilities where appropriate.
- Lead the responsible adoption and development of data- and AI enabled products and workflows.
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An experienced technology leader who has steered and developed multidisciplinary Data & Tech capabilities, bringing together product management, engineering, data, platforms and AI enablement.
- You have a strong grounding in engineering for internal products, automations and platforms, with the technical judgement to assess solution design, engineering quality, delivery approaches and technical risk.
- You are able to build and lead a growing engineering capability: setting appropriate standards, recruiting and developing technical talent, and putting in place effective technical assurance and design-review practices.
- You are broadly fluent across product management, data, platforms and AI-enabled technologies, and can bring these disciplines
together into coherent organisational products and capabilities. The role requires breadth, sound judgement and the ability to work effectively with domain specialists, rather than deep specialism in every area.
- You are a strong people and functional head, able to grow teams and evolve the operating model, practices and culture needed for a high-performing internal product, engineering and enablement function.
- You have experience helping organisations discover, prioritise and deliver technology-enabled improvements that meet genuine user needs and deliver meaningful organisational outcomes.
- You are comfortable partnering with diverse stakeholders to translate complex or ambiguous opportunities and technical
challenges into clear priorities, decisions and outcomes.
- You are experienced in guiding blended capability models, making sound decisions about the use of internal specialists, external partners and vendors, and building effective interfaces with complementary technology and operational functions.
How to apply
Please submit your current CV and a cover letter detailing your suitability. We pride ourselves on reviewing every application personally. A cover letter is required to be considered.
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27 days annual leave provision, with the option to buy/sell additional days
- Hybrid working arrangements; 60% in office / 40% at home
- Supportive environment for learning and development opportunities
- Enhanced family leave arrangements
- A free and confidential 24/7 employee assistance programme
- Life Assurance
- 2 days of paid volunteer days
- 5% defined contribution pension scheme with Smart Pension
- Cycle to Work scheme
- An excellent office location in Kings X, London
Not sure you meet 100% of our criteria? Don’t worry! If you believe that you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply. We want to attract the broadest array of candidates, including those with diverse workplace experiences and backgrounds. Whether you’re new to the field, returning to work after a gap in employment, simply looking to transition, or taking the next step in your career path, we will be glad to have you on our radar. Please use your cover letter to tell us about your interests and what you hope to bring to this role.
If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please notify us and we will make every effort to accommodate you. Disclosing any requests are intended to provide ARIA with the best opportunity to support candidates and will have no negative impact on your recruitment process.
ARIA adopts a highly considered approach to ethical and social responsibility. You can read our policy here. Our research and development activity will abide by the 3Rs principle. You can read about those here.
