Head of Engineering (Hands-On)
Conovo Ltd · Slough, England, United Kingdom (Hybrid) Full-time · Permanent · UK Skilled Worker visa sponsorship available
About Conovo Ltd
Conovo Ltd is a UK-registered, ISO 9001 & ISO 27001 certified software development firm building AI automation, agents, and full-stack web, mobile and game products. Our vision is to be the most trusted technology partner for founders bringing new products to market.
Building software since 2014, Conovo has delivered 200+ projects for clients across edtech, healthtech, gaming, fintech, logistics and blockchain — from early-stage MVPs to scaling enterprise platforms. We are research-led, radically communicative, and built for founders who've been let down before.
Position
*** We provide UK Skilled Worker visa sponsorship for this role ***
Who Are We?
Founded in 2014, Conovo Ltd has grown into a top-rated UK software development firm with a 100% in-house delivery team and daily overlap with clients across the UK, Europe and the US. We are now launching an exciting new vertical: building MVP apps for first-time founders at low cost and on short timelines — taking entrepreneurs from idea to launched product in weeks, not months. We are hiring the hands-on engineering leader who will make this vertical work at scale.
Visa Sponsorship
We welcome applications from candidates who require sponsorship to work in the UK. This role offers full UK Skilled Worker visa sponsorship for a suitably qualified software professional, and we will support you throughout the application and relocation process. Applications from sponsored candidates will be considered alongside all other applications.
The Team
Our engineering team is collaborative, low-ego and quality-obsessed. Engineers work in small, cross-functional pods alongside designers, QA and dedicated project managers, with weekly demos and direct client access built into every engagement. We believe quality is everyone's responsibility, favour collaborative development, and invest in raising the whole team's capability through code review, pairing and internal training.
The Role
As Head of Engineering (Hands-On), you will spend most of your time designing and building software — while also leading and training our existing tech team and setting the engineering standards everything is built to. You will be the technical authority our founder-clients trust, turning half-formed ideas into scoped, buildable, fundable products.
What you'll do:
- Architect and build web applications and cross-platform mobile apps from the ground up through to production
- Design the reusable architecture, boilerplates and tooling that let us ship founder MVPs in weeks at a price point first-time founders can afford
- Build and operate our AI engineering capability — integrate self-hosted LLMs into production systems and design RAG pipelines and agentic AI features into client products
- Own cloud and Firebase implementations (auth, Firestore, cloud functions, notifications)
- Manage operational email setup — transactional email, deliverability, DNS/SPF/DKIM/DMARC and provider configuration
- Lead, mentor and train the existing tech team through code review, pairing, internal training sessions and reusable playbooks
- Set and enforce engineering standards: architecture review, CI/CD, testing, documentation and security practices
- Contribute to game and gamified product builds alongside our existing game development practice
- Work directly with founder-clients on scoping and v1 definition
Here are a few of the tools and technologies we utilise:
- Frontend: Vue, React, React Native, Flutter
- Backend: .NET, Flask (Python), Node.js, Laravel (PHP)
- AI: Self-hosted LLMs (Llama, Mistral, vLLM/Ollama), RAG pipelines, agentic AI, vector stores, MCP, Claude Agent SDK
- Infrastructure: AWS, Azure, GCP, Firebase, Docker, CI/CD
- Games: Unity, Unreal, web and mobile game frameworks
- Ways of working: Agile pods, code review culture, weekly demos, dedicated PMs
We're Looking for an Engineering Leader With
- Significant experience in a startup environment with real ownership of outcomes
- A hands-on track record of building web applications and cross-platform mobile applications from scratch through to production
- Strong full-stack capability across several of: Vue, React, .NET, Flask, Node.js and Laravel
- Experience in game development or gamified product builds
- Proven experience leading, mentoring and training an engineering team while remaining hands-on
- Cloud expertise (AWS, Azure or GCP) plus practical Firebase experience
- Experience setting up and managing email infrastructure and deliverability
- Extensive experience integrating self-hosted LLMs into production systems
- A deep working understanding of RAG and agentic AI architectures
- Excellent communication skills — you'll be talking to non-technical founders daily
- Comfort with ambiguity, tight budgets and short timelines
Benefits
- £54,700 – £62,000 per year, depending on experience
- UK Skilled Worker visa sponsorship and relocation support
- 25 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays
- Hybrid working from our Slough office, with excellent transport links to London
- Learning and development budget, plus Udemy and educational reimbursements
- Hardware of your choice
- Genuine ownership of engineering standards and a new business vertical, with a growth path as it scales
About Us
We are an ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified software development firm delivering AI automation, web, mobile and game products for ambitious teams worldwide. Since 2014 we've doubled down on one idea: offshore delivery should feel in-house — radically communicative, research-led and human-centred.
We celebrate diversity, promote entrepreneurialism and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, and we are happy to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process. A career at Conovo is empowering, inspiring and fun. Join us and help shape the future of how startups are built.
Pay: £54,000.00-£62,000.00 per year
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Slough (Berkshire, South East Region)
