Head of Software Engineering

Software Engineering Strategy & Leadership

• Define and execute the software engineering strategy aligned to certification timelines (2028), production ramp (2030), and long-term commercial sustainability.
• Own the software engineering roadmap, balancing speed, quality, safety, and regulatory compliance.

Engineering Delivery & Platform Ownership

• Lead the delivery of software systems supporting engineering, airworthiness, flight test, manufacturing, and operations.
• Establish strong engineering practices across development, testing, deployment, and support.

Architecture, Quality & Compliance

• Work closely with Solution Architects and enterprise architecture teams to ensure coherent, scalable, and compliant software designs.
• Ensure software solutions meet certification, safety, cybersecurity, and regulatory requirements.

Organisation & Capability Building

• Build and lead a high-performing software engineering organisation across multiple disciplines and domains.
• Define the operating model, engineering standards, tooling, and vendor/partner strategy.

This role is critical to enabling safe aircraft certification, production ramp-up, and long-term operational performance for electric aviation, helping pioneer zero-emissions aircraft that will set new safety standards for navigating the sky.

• Senior leadership experience in software engineering or technology roles within complex, regulated, engineering-led environments.
• Proven track record of building and scaling software engineering teams and platforms.
• Strong understanding of software development in safety-critical or certification-driven contexts (aerospace experience highly desirable).
• Credibility at executive level, with the ability to influence across technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• 26 days holiday plus bank holidays
• 5 extra days per year to buy or sell
• 5 extra days holiday for marriage or civil partnership
• Additional 4% of salary to spend on extra benefits
• Award-winning digital health and wellbeing service (Help@Hand)
• Company performance-based bonus
• Company Share Scheme open to every employee
• Company Pension Scheme with 5% matching
• Daily breakfast provided

Vertical Aerospace is pioneering electric aviation with their eVTOL (electric, vertical, take-off and landing) 'zero emissions' aircraft called Valo, which aims to set new safety standards for navigating the sky and achieve airliner-level safety certification by 2028.