Interim Head of Engineering

Who are we?

StoryToys, an independent subsidiary of Team17 Group plc, is a premier, award-winning developer and publisher of interactive educational apps designed to help children learn, play, and grow. We collaborate with the world’s most recognizable entertainment giants—including The LEGO Group, The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Entertainment, Mattel, and BBC Studios—to bring beloved characters like Bluey, Peppa Pig, and Barbie into engaging digital worlds.

Our global success spans all major distribution networks, amassing over 300 million app downloads and reaching millions of active families worldwide in up to 28 different languages. While headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, our internal team of over 130 professionals operates alongside a vast, highly agile global network of creators.

About the role

The Interim Head of Engineering is responsible for defining and executing the engineering strategy, capability and delivery model across the organisation during a critical phase of growth. Leading multiple engineering teams, this role combines technical leadership, operational excellence and people leadership to ensure the delivery of scalable, secure and high-quality products. The role partners closely with Product, Design, Production, QA and Executive stakeholders to align technology investment with business objectives, build high-performing teams and drive continuous improvement. 

Main Duties & Responsibilities  

Engineering Strategy & Technical Vision 

• Strategy Alignment: Define and own the engineering strategy aligned to core company objectives.
• Technical Direction: Establish long-term system architecture and technology roadmaps.
• Governance Frameworks: Define engineering standards, compliance, and quality metrics.
• Risk & Speed Balance: Drive technical decisions that balance delivery speed, code quality, scalability, and risk.

Leadership & People Management 

• Talent Development: Lead, mentor, and grow engineering managers, principal engineers, and senior talent.
• High-Performance Culture: Build a collaborative, accountable culture focused on continuous learning.
• Workforce Planning: Oversee hiring pipelines, succession planning, and performance management.

Delivery & Operational Excellence 

• Delivery Outcomes: Own end-to-end execution and project delivery across all engineering teams.
• Predictable Execution: Ensure effective planning processes and highly predictable roadmap execution.
• Productivity Optimization: Remove organisational blockers and improve developer velocity using performance metrics.

Architecture, Quality & Security 

• System Resilience: Ensure production systems are highly scalable, resilient, and easily maintainable.
• Security & Quality: Establish rigid standards for code quality, rigorous testing, DevOps, and security infrastructure.
• Platform Health: Oversee technical debt management, optimization strategies, and overall platform health.

Cross-Functional Leadership 

• Executive Partnership: Partner with Product, Design, QA, and Production leadership to drive business outcomes.
• Technical Translation: Translate complex technical concepts into clear, executive-level recommendations.
• Strategic Influence: Leverage technology insights and industry innovation to directly influence company strategy.

Innovation & Department Growth 

• Emerging Tech: Identify emerging technologies to capture distinct competitive market advantages.
• Modern Workflows: Drive organizational adoption of advanced engineering practices, automation, and AI-enabled workflows.

Key Skills, Knowledge & Experience 

Core  

• 10+ years of software engineering experience with at least 5 years in engineering leadership. 
• Proven experience leading multiple engineering teams and managers. 
• Strong understanding of software architecture, cloud platforms, DevOps and modern development practices. 
• Track record of delivering complex products at scale. 
• Experience establishing engineering KPIs, delivery metrics and quality standards. 
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication and strategic planning skills. 
• Experience managing budgets, hiring plans and organisational growth. 
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Software Engineering or related field, or equivalent experience. 

Preferred 

• Experience within gaming, digital products or SaaS environments. 
• Master's degree in a relevant discipline. 
• Experience scaling organisations through periods of rapid growth. 
• Experience with AI-assisted development tooling and platform modernisation. 
• Experience leading distributed or international engineering teams.

• Define and own the engineering strategy aligned to core company objectives. • Establish long-term system architecture and technology roadmaps. • Lead, mentor, and grow engineering managers, principal engineers, and senior talent. • Own end-to-end execution and project delivery across all engineering teams. • Ensure production systems are highly scalable, resilient, and easily maintainable. • Partner with Product, Design, QA, and Production leadership to drive business outcomes. • Identify emerging technologies and drive organizational adoption of advanced engineering practices. • 10+ years of software engineering experience with at least 5 years in engineering leadership. • Proven experience leading multiple engineering teams and managers. • Strong understanding of software architecture, cloud platforms, DevOps and modern development practices. • Track record of delivering complex products at scale. • Experience establishing engineering KPIs, delivery metrics and quality standards. • Bachelor's degree in computer science, Software Engineering or related field, or equivalent experience.