Head of Engineering - AI Technology

Head of Engineering - Job Description 
Location: Haverhill (Suffolk) Office 

This is a pivotal leadership role at the heart of 1956 Individuals. As Head of Engineering, you will be the CTO's right hand: owning the day-to-day technical delivery of our multimodal AI avatar platform, leading the engineering team, and shaping the architectural decisions that define how we build and scale. 

• Proven experience leading engineering teams in a fast-paced, product-led environment, ideally in AI, SaaS, or deep-tech. 
• Hands-on expertise with LLM integration and model-agnostic AI architectures. 
• Strong cloud infrastructure skills across Azure, AWS or GCP. 
• Deep knowledge of enterprise API design, workflow engines, queuing systems, and backend integrations. 
• Experience managing multidisciplinary technical teams. 
• Track record of shipping production-grade AI or real-time systems. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP & ARCHITECTURE 

• Own technical architecture of the platform. 
• Make and document key architectural decisions. 
• Evaluate and integrate emerging AI models. 
• Define engineering standards. 
• Act as escalation point for complex technical problems. 

TEAM MANAGEMENT & CULTURE 

• Manage the engineering team. 
• Hire, onboard and retain talent. 
• Foster a culture of ownership and curiosity. 
• Partner with the CTO as the team scales. 

DELIVERY & PRODUCT EXECUTION 

• Own technical delivery of client deployments. 
• Translate requirements into technical solutions. 
• Ensure realistic timelines and risk management. 
• Maintain oversight of active projects. 

PLATFORM & INFRASTRUCTURE 

• Own cloud infrastructure. 
• Champion DevOps and automation best practices. 
• Ensure enterprise integrations meet production standards. 
• Support compliance and security requirements. 

DEPUTISING FOR THE CTO 

• Act as technical decision maker in CTO absence. 
• Represent technical team at board and client level. 
• Contribute to business strategy and roadmap. 
• Grow into CTO role as business evolves. 

KPIs 

• 99.9%+ platform uptime. 
• Predictable sprint delivery. 
• Strong team retention and development. 
• Successful client integrations. 
• Architecture readiness for growth. 
• Security and compliance standards maintained.