Head of Software Engineering - HR
Team
Digital \& Tech
Store
Salford Quays
Location
Salford, Greater Manchester
Contract type
Permanent
Position type
Full Time
Salary
Competitive \+ Benefits
Closing date: 9th July 2026
- Intro
- About the role
- Meet the Team
- People Stories
- Make Your Mark
- Colleague Networks
- Benefits
- How to Apply
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Everyone is welcome at M\&S. No exceptions. It’s your background, abilities and differences that make you, uniquely you. And when you’re part of M\&S, that individuality has the potential to make waves.
About the role
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This section tells you all you need to know about the position and its responsibilities, outlining everything we hope to see in a successful candidate.
All the details
As Head of Software Engineering – Corporate HR, you will lead the engineering teams responsible for a broad and integration\-heavy HR technology estate that supports the full colleague lifecycle at M\&S, from recruitment through to payroll, reward, learning and workforce management.
You will be accountable for the engineering strategy, quality, reliability and operability of a landscape built around key enterprise platforms including Oracle PeopleSoft, SD Worx, Oleeo and Totara, with a large number of supporting specialist systems and third\-party services across recruitment, colleague interaction, reward and wellbeing, learning, analytics, payroll and workforce management.
A major part of the role is managing the many integrations and data flows between these platforms and wider M\&S systems, including finance, identity, access, reporting and external partners. This is not a single\-platform role. It requires strong leadership across a distributed estate with many vendors, interfaces, dependencies and operational hand\-offs.
You will lead 4–5 Engineering Managers and partner closely with HR, Product, Technical Programme Management, Architecture, Security and central platform teams to simplify the estate, improve service quality, and ensure critical colleague services work reliably end to end.
What You'll Do
- Set the engineering strategy and technical direction for Corporate HR, aligned to Central Tech and the wider engineering organisation.
- Lead and develop 4–5 Engineering Managers and support strong software engineering and Software Development Engineer in Test teams.
- Oversee the engineering health of the core HR technology estate, including:
+ SD Worx for payroll
+ JDA for workforce management
+ Totara for learning management
+ Oleeo for applicant tracking and recruitment workflows
- Provide engineering leadership across a wide set of integrated specialist platforms, including systems such as:
+ Oracle HelpDesk / CRM and Anana in colleague interaction
+ PAM Group, Gallagher, Capita, Legal \& General, Reward Gateway, Salary Finance, Equiniti, Zenith and Terryberry in reward and wellbeing
+ SAP WPB, GoodPractice and Guider in learning and development
+ OASIS, OrgVue, Oracle Business Intelligence, ETS and Hallmark PAMS across document management, organisation modelling, analytics and colleague services
- Be accountable for the large number of integrations, interfaces and data exchanges across this estate, including flows between HR, payroll, workforce management, identity and access management, finance, reporting and third\-party providers.
- Ensure systems and integrations are secure, reliable, observable and supportable, with clear ownership, support models, runbooks and service measures.
- Drive strong engineering practices across architecture, documentation, testing, continuous integration and continuous delivery, production operations, incident management and service ownership.
- Simplify legacy technology, reduce unnecessary complexity and manage technical debt across a multi\-vendor environment.
- Shape pragmatic target architectures, including improved application programming interface and event\-driven integration patterns where they are the right fit.
- Work closely with stakeholders across HR and Technology to shape roadmaps, prioritise risk, and make technical trade\-offs visible.
- Experience leading multiple engineering teams through managers in a complex software environment.
- A strong track record of improving engineering quality, service reliability and delivery performance across business\-critical systems.
- Significant experience managing integration\-heavy estates with many third\-party platforms, suppliers, interfaces and operational dependencies.
- Strong knowledge of application programming interfaces, middleware, event\-driven architecture, third\-party SaaS platforms, vendor management and production support models.
- Experience working in HR, payroll, workforce management, finance or other corporate platform domains is valuable.
- A leadership style that values clarity, simplicity, ownership and high engineering standards.
Working at M\&S means being part of something bigger \- helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We’re inclusive, fast\-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.
Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:
- 20% colleague discount on all M\&S products and many third\-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you’ve completed your probation
- Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more
- Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours
- Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future
- Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one
- Exclusive perks and savings through our M\&S Choices portal
- Market\-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave
- 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services
- One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you
We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks \& Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.
We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.
If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.
\#LI\-Hybrid \#LI\-JE1
Meet the Team
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Being an in\-person business
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We're at our best when we're close to customers, and for many of us at M\&S, that means working in store every day.
To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected. It also means we can solve problems as soon as they arise, learn and grow as a team, build trust, and get closer to our colleagues.
Deepak
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Janak
Halford
Deepak
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Janak
Halford
Deepak
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Janak
Halford
At M\&S, we have Data Scientists, Analysts, and Technical Product Managers, who all share a genuine passion for harnessing data to improve people’s lives. And we’re in a unique position where we can actually help many different kinds of people, from our customers to our colleagues in store and in our support centre.
Deepak (He / Him) \| Data Scientist Read full story
I think all engineers just love solving puzzles and problems. At M\&S, we’re constantly learning new things, whether it’s mastering Swift UI or understanding how customers interact with technology. But this is also a business that listens to engineers and values what we bring to the table. That’s different, believe me.
Janak (He / Him) \| Staff iOS Engineer Read full story
Being in third\-party brands, working on things M\&S hasn’t done before… that plays to my sweet spot. I’ve worked in many organisations throughout my career, and it’s rare to see such cause and effect in your work. The way we’re structured means you’re encouraged to solve problems and you have the autonomy to make progress quickly.
Halford (He / Him) \| Head of Technical Program Management Read full story
At M\&S, we have Data Scientists, Analysts, and Technical Product Managers, who all share a genuine passion for harnessing data to improve people’s lives. And we’re in a unique position where we can actually help many different kinds of people, from our customers to our colleagues in store and in our support centre.
Deepak (He / Him) \| Data Scientist Read full story
I think all engineers just love solving puzzles and problems. At M\&S, we’re constantly learning new things, whether it’s mastering Swift UI or understanding how customers interact with technology. But this is also a business that listens to engineers and values what we bring to the table. That’s different, believe me.
Janak (He / Him) \| Staff iOS Engineer Read full story
Being in third\-party brands, working on things M\&S hasn’t done before… that plays to my sweet spot. I’ve worked in many organisations throughout my career, and it’s rare to see such cause a
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