Hybrid Head of Software Engineering

at Zodia Custody

• Job title: Head of Software Engineering
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Lead
• Salary: Not specified
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Tech skills: AWS, Cloud, Cyber Security, Distributed Systems, Docker, Gradle, JUnit, Kubernetes, Microservices, Postgres, SDLC
• Location requirements: Hybrid, London, United Kingdom

About the role

• Head of Software Engineering leading Zodia Custody’s software engineering organization. Scaling systems for institutional investors in digital assets from London with a hybrid work model.

Responsibilities

• Lead and scale the software engineering organisation, including recruitment, mentoring, and professional development of engineers.
• Define and implement the engineering strategy, technical roadmap, and modern, best practices to support business growth in the era of AI.
• Oversee the full, modernized software development lifecycle (SDLC), including architecture, coding, testing, deployment, and support.
• Drive the development of secure, high-availability, and high-performance digital asset wallet platform solutions tailored to wallets, yield opportunities, trading and more.
• Collaborate with Product and the business to align technical delivery with client needs and regulatory requirements.
• Champion modern engineering practices such as CI/CD, DevSecOps, cloud-native architectures, and automated testing.
• Establish and enforce robust software engineering governance, including coding standards, documentation, and peer review.
• Ensure systems are designed and maintained with security, scalability, and operational resilience as core principles.
• Manage technology budgets and vendor relationships, including third-party integrations and security partners.
• Stay at the forefront of emerging technologies in blockchain, digital assets, and cybersecurity, advising the executive team on innovation opportunities.
• Act as a senior technology leader, representing Engineering to key stakeholders.

Requirements

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2 years in leadership roles (Head of Engineering, Director of Engineering, or equivalent).
• Direct practical experience in institutional digital asset platforms and a track record of building and scaling secure, mission-critical platforms in financial services and digital assets.
• Deep technical expertise in distributed systems, cryptography, APIs, cloud-native development, and enterprise-grade architecture.
• Strong understanding of blockchain technologies, custody models, key management, and digital asset security protocols.
• Experience designing/leading a team that is API-forward and has built distributed scalable, systems using OpenJDK, Gradle, Intellij, Postgresql, JSON, JUnit, Quartz, JWT, JOOQ, Liquibase, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS Cloud Stack, Confluent and more.
• Hands-on experience with modern engineering tools and practices (e.g., Kubernetes, microservices, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, DevSecOps).
• Proven expertise in building RESTful services and understanding of concurrent, multi-threaded, distributed application environments.
• Practical experience leveraging AI-tooling to increase programming productivity, efficiency and accuracy.
• Experience operating in regulated environments with audit, security, and compliance requirements.
• Deep expertise in cloud‑native, event‑driven architectures.
• Strong leadership and team-building skills, with the ability to inspire, coach, and grow high-performing engineering teams.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills working across teams to deliver high-value products.
• Strategic mindset with the ability to balance innovation, delivery, and operational excellence.

Benefits

• Competitive employer contribution pension scheme
• Private health care
• Critical Illness cover
• Life Insurance
• Flexible bank holidays (can chose whether to work on bank holidays and use the leave elsewhere in the year)