What’s the role about?

Leading the direction and directly influencing the future success of the Technology Profession and engineering at the John Lewis Partnership, this role requires engineering leadership with a strong technical background. Finding the balance between standardisation and freedom to experiment, creating and encouraging technical excellence in key engineering areas that will differentiate us from our competitors and enable us to quickly change direction and focus within an ever changing retail environment, with a relentless focus on improving our skills, and using innovative ways to share learnings across the organisation will all be within your control. 

The work will be as varied as it will be challenging - you could be shaping the identity and reputation of engineering both internally and externally, whilst also helping engineers to discover and implement best practices that work for them and their teams. Working as part of a multi-skilled leadership team, you will have opportunities to get involved in many topics, not just those that you have previously specialised in. 

What you’ll be doing as an Engineering Lead:

While part of your role will be to maintain your own strong technical skills, a key part of your role will be to devise strategy and drive initiatives to not only build the Technology Profession and create an industry-leading community of engineering, but also to ensure that we experiment and deliver outstanding innovative solutions that delight Customers and Partners. 

As well as working collaboratively with highly skilled software engineers and other engineering leaders, you will also influence a wide range of other stakeholders such as Architects, Product Managers, Delivery & Operations Managers and Programme Managers.

You will have a leading role in sharing knowledge and ideas across all engineering teams, celebrating learnings and helping to develop the skills of our in-house software engineers.  We have a vibrant set of communities of practice, we are looking forward to your fresh outlook to boost these further.

Why do our Engineers love working for us?

I love working in the Partnership because there’s always something new to learn, often with cutting edge technology being applied in relevant and impactful ways. The culture supports me in trying new things, challenging when something doesn’t seem quite right, and collaborating with people whose opinion and skill I value and respect. - Software Engineer, John Lewis Partnership

The work I do is diverse and is leading in retailing. I've been involved in some really exciting pieces of work such as the JLDP Platform, we've won awards, we've met challenges like Covid head on, powering 100% of the business. I've not been pigeonholed into any one role and developed a variety of skills over time, from testing to operations to product owner. - Software Engineer, John Lewis Partnership

What you’ll have:

• Significant experience in designing, delivering and supporting complex technology solutions in a Lean & Agile environment.

• Significant experience of working across different teams, functions, business areas and technologies.

• Significant experience of delivering using recent technologies, frameworks, patterns and engineering best practices. 

• In-depth practitioner experience across a number of the following areas: Kotlin, Java, cloud technologies especially using Kubernetes, delivering microservices and breaking down monoliths.

• Experience of influencing leaders and people outside of your immediate sphere, building lasting relationships quickly.

• Outstanding communication skills and an ability to communicate with people on a non-technical basis.

• A clear passion for innovation and change with demonstrable evidence of leading and delivering innovative change/disruptive thinking.

• A desire to constantly keep your skills and knowledge up-to-date, with a keen interest in what is going on in the industry.

• A core skill set in software or platform engineering.

What else you could bring:

• Experience of evaluating and making commercial decisions on technical direction.

• Ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment.

• Strong attention to detail with an analytical mind and outstanding problem-solving skills.

• Experience in People Management and helping build the skills of technical engineers.

• Ability to coach others.

Additional Information:

We occasionally close vacancies early in the event that we receive a high volume of applications. Therefore we recommend you apply as soon as possible.

We have a number of different ways to work flexibly so at your interview feel free to talk about what flexibility means to you. There are no guarantees, however, it may open the door to not only a new role but a new way of working.

We positively celebrate Diversity & Inclusion in the John Lewis Partnership. Our aim is to become the UK’s most inclusive business - for our Partners and for our customers, reflecting and connecting with the diverse communities that we serve. We want people from all walks of life to feel valued for their individuality, thrive in our business and share a sense of belonging. To find out more about D&I in the John Lewis Partnership click here.