Director of Engineering (InfraOps)

ABOUT IRIS

IRIS Software Group is one of the UK's largest privately held software companies, trusted by 100,000+ businesses, schools and accountancy firms to keep their operations running. Our software pays 1 in 6 UK employees, supports over 12,000 schools, and is relied on by 91 of the top 100 UK accountancy firms.

We're a Great Place to Work® certified employer, recognised for our commitment to well-being, inclusion and development - and we're growing fast.

The Opportunity

As Director of Engineering (InfraOps), you will lead a central function of approximately 45 engineers responsible for Federated InfraOps, Core Infrastructure, Datastores, Service Desk operations, and near 24/7 incident support.

This is a leadership role, not a technical-authority role. You will be accountable for the organisational capability, service delivery, operating model, budget, and long-term effectiveness of the InfraOps function. Technical direction is provided through Principal Engineers and specialist technical leaders; your focus is ensuring the organisation, people, processes, governance, and commercial arrangements enable engineering teams to succeed.

You will be responsible for creating a predictable, well-governed, and trusted service organisation that supports a large and complex software estate while balancing cost, operational resilience, and service quality.

Key Responsibilities:

Function Leadership & Operating Model

You will:

- Own the shape and operating model of the InfraOps function, its structure, roles, service offering and ways of working. - Define and evolve the organisational structure across Federated InfraOps, Core Infrastructure, Datastores and Support. - Establish clear service ownership, routing and escalation paths to remove ambiguity and single points of failure. - Define service boundaries and accountabilities between InfraOps and product engineering teams. - Set objectives, priorities, performance measures, and service expectations aligned to wider Engineering goals. - Escalate ownership, funding and operational risks appropriately to Engineering leadership.

People Leadership & Organisational Capability

You will lead a distributed organisation spanning the UK, US, India, and third-party partners.

Responsibilities include: