Deputy Head of Engineering and Delivery

Responsibilities

• Responsible for on-time, quality delivery of product increments.
• Promote the use of agentic AI in everyday engineering practices to improve the prototyping phases but improving the overall quality of the system.
• Ensure Agile/Scaled-Agile processes (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, etc.) are applied effectively, adapting them to new AI-driven development when needed.
• Track delivery KPIs (velocity, cycle time, defect rates, deployment frequency).
• Build and manage the engineering organization (hiring, onboarding, career paths, performance management).
• Define team structures (feature teams, platform teams, enabling teams, etc.).
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration and accountability.
• Ensure that engineering practices (CI/CD, testing, observability, DevOps) are consistently applied.
• Support but do not override the Chief Architect in architecture decisions but act as a pragmatic enabler of the architecture vision.
• Ensure technical debt is managed as part of delivery planning.
• Own engineering budget, resource planning, and vendor/outsourcing decisions.
• Manage delivery risks (resourcing gaps, process bottlenecks, quality regressions).
• Ensure compliance with relevant standards (e.g., safety-critical, security, data privacy).

Requirements

• Education
• Bachelors in Computer Science or Information Technology
• Masters degree in Computer Science or Data Science, if applicable
• Essential Skills/Experience
• Proven track record leading engineering and delivery across multiple concurrent workstreams, from concept through production
• Experience managing and developing multi-disciplinary teams - engineers, architects, QA, and delivery professionals - in a hands-on leadership capacity
• Strong grasp of modern software delivery practices: CI/CD, agile at scale, platform thinking, and how to adapt these in fast-moving, ambiguous environments
• Ability to hold both the strategic and operational view - setting direction while staying close enough to the ground to spot delivery risk early
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with senior stakeholders, translating between engineering realities and business or programme-level expectations
• Experience building or evolving engineering culture: hiring, ways of working, standards, and psychological safety
• Comfortable with ambiguity and iterative discovery - you've delivered in contexts where the problem itself was still being defined
• Financial and resource accountability: budgets, headcount planning, and making the case for investment
• Desirable Skills/Experience
• Familiarity with cloud-native architectures and platforms (e.g. Kube

Additional Information

Thales is a global technology leader trusted by governments, institutions, and enterprises to tackle their most demanding challenges. From quantum applications and artificial intelligence to cybersecurity and 6G innovation, our solutions empower critical decisions rooted in human intelligence. Operating at the forefront of aerospace and space, cybersecurity and digital identity, we're driven by a mission to build a future we can all trust. In Singapore, Thales has been a trusted partner since 1973, originally focused on aerospace activities in the Asia-Pacific region. With 2,000 employees across three local sites, we deliver cutting-edge solutions across aerospace (including air traffic management), defence and security, and digital identity and cybersecurity sectors. Together, we're shaping the future by enabling customers to make pivotal decisions that safeguard communities and power progress. Whom We Are Looking For As the deputy Head of Engineering and Delivery, you own the execution and people side of technology delivery. You ensure teams have the right skills, structures, and processes to deliver high-quality products reliably and at scale. You report to the Head of Engineering and Delivery but also to the directors of the lab. We are looking for a seasoned engineering leader who thrives at the intersection of rigorous delivery and creative ambiguity. You've led multi-disciplinary teams through the full arc of product development - from early-stage experimentation to production-grade systems - and you know how to maintain momentum without sacrificing quality. You bring enough technical depth to earn the respect of engineers and architects, but your real strength is building the conditions in which great work happens: clear ownership, healthy engineering culture, and a delivery rhythm that doesn't crush innovation. You're comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment where requirements evolve, priorities shift, and not every bet pays off - and you help your teams navigate that with clarity rather than chaos. You've likely worked across both established organizations and leaner, more entrepreneurial settings, and you understand the distinct challenges of each. Above all, you're someone who believes that engineering excellence and speed of learning are not in tension - they reinforce each other.

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