Build and lead a new engineering team on a live UK defence programme

We run a multi-year defence programme from Warminster with real contractual commitments to a UK customer. We are standing up a dedicated, security-cleared engineering team for it — and we are hiring the manager who will build and lead that team.

This is a build role. There is no team to inherit on day one: there is a programme that matters, headcount to fill, and open decisions about how the team should work. Some engineer roles are already in flight; the rest are yours to define and hire.

The role

As Engineering Manager (EM II) you would build a single, technically complex team and then lead it — accountable for its delivery, its health, and the growth of every engineer you bring into it. You would own delivery outcomes that reach into adjacent teams on the programme, work in a demanding stakeholder environment alongside a defence customer, and develop your engineers towards senior and Staff+ technical leadership.

To be straight about the trade-off: a build role gives you unusual influence over who joins and how the team works, and it comes with the pressure of delivering to a customer while you are still hiring. Recruiting security-cleared engineers is slow and the pool is small, so patience and a high bar matter more here than speed.

Technical excellence is foundational at 4C Strategies, on both career tracks, and this is not a post-technical role. We do not expect you to write code every day — our framework is explicit that managers stay technically grounded even when they are not coding daily. We do expect you to still be an engineer in the ways that count: reviewing code properly rather than rubber-stamping it, taking part in architecture and design decisions on the merits, and being able to pick up a piece of the build and ship it when the team is stretched or the problem is genuinely yours to solve.

We also want someone who still finds the technology itself interesting. Curiosity about how systems actually work, what is changing in the field, and why one approach beats another is not a nice-to-have here — it is what makes your judgement worth trusting to the engineers you hire. If you would describe yourself as post-technical, this is the wrong role, and we would both rather know that now.

Our engineering career framework is dual-track: the individual-contributor and manager paths are valued equally, and moving between them is normal rather than exceptional. This role suits someone who built real technical depth as a senior or staff engineer and now wants to build a team and grow the people in it — not someone looking for a title, and not someone looking for a way out of engineering. Management here is a change of craft, not an exit from the one you have.

Day to day you will:

• Build the team: shape the roles you need, hire cleared engineers, and onboard them so they become productive quickly
• Establish how the team works — delivery cadence, code review, quality and operational standards — from a blank sheet rather than an inherited process
• Own the team's delivery commitments to the customer while it is still growing
• Coach and develop each engineer deliberately against our engineering competency framework, including towards Staff+ technical leadership
• Own delivery outcomes that span adjacent teams on the programme
• Stay hands-on where it counts: review code and designs, take part in architecture decisions, and write code yourself when the team needs it — not daily, but not never
• Represent the team to a defence customer, and create the conditions for it to do its best work

What we are looking for

• Experience formally managing software engineers as direct reports, with real accountability for their growth, performance and delivery
• Evidence you have hired well — engineers you recruited, ideally in a market where strong candidates were scarce and the bar had to hold
• Experience setting up how a team works, rather than only running a team someone else designed
• A strong and still-current technical foundation built as a senior or staff-level engineer — enough depth to be credible on architecture and design, to review code properly, and to write it when the situation calls for it
• A genuine interest in the technology itself — you keep up with how the field is moving because you want to, not because a job description told you to
• A track record of delivering software against external commitments and hard constraints
• Evidence you have grown engineers: someone is measurably better because you managed them
• Eligibility for UK security vetting (see below)

Merits, not requirements:

• Existing SC or DV clearance
• Experience standing up a new team, or hiring into a security-cleared or otherwise regulated market
• Defence, simulation, training or another regulated domain

We weight demonstrated people leadership and technical judgement together, and we will probe both. A manager here needs both: the framework expects technical excellence at every level, and a team you are about to build needs someone who can hire and grow it — and who the engineers will respect technically on day one.

Security and eligibility

This role is on a UK defence programme and requires security vetting. You will need to be eligible for SC/DV clearance, or already hold it. As part of the application we ask about nationality, dual nationality, and UK residency history, because those bear directly on vetting eligibility.

We will explain what the process involves early on. Nothing about it should surprise you late.

How we hire

We publish our process, because a good interview should not be a surprise. You will meet:

1. Hiring manager screen
2. System design
3. Leadership and people management
4. Technical leadership
5. Delivery and execution
6. Culture interview
7. Your questions — time set aside for you to ask us anything

Every interview has a written script and a scored rubric, applied the same way for every candidate. We tell you what each session covers before it happens.

What you can expect from 4C Strategies

• Warminster-based, with hybrid working — typically around three days a week on-site at our office or a customer site, the same pattern as the engineers you would hire. Some of the work needs to be done on-site, and the exact pattern can vary with the programme's needs. Easily commutable from Bath, Salisbury, Trowbridge and the surrounding area
• Competitive salary, reviewed annually
• Pension Scheme with 5% employer contribution
• Private healthcare including dental
• Enhanced family leave (maternity, paternity and adoption)
• 25 days holidays (plus bank holidays)
• Life Assurance
• Cycle to work scheme
• Company social events

Why Join 4C Strategies

The work matters: what your team builds helps armed forces, public safety and resilience organisations train, prepare and respond. Building the engineering team for a large, multi-year programme is a rare opportunity — you would shape who joins, how they work, and how the systems get built, alongside experienced engineers and military specialists elsewhere on the programme. And you would do it in an organisation where technical excellence is expected of managers too, and where the individual-contributor track is valued as highly as management.

Application Process

Interested candidates are invited to submit their CV. A short cover note on your experience and motivation is welcome but not required. We review applications on a rolling basis. The process starts with a screening interview with the hiring manager; candidates who progress go through the full Engineering Manager loop described above. Permanent, full-time.