Engineering Director

About Us:

Now part of WGSN, the world's leading trend forecaster. IWSR is the global authority on beverage alcohol data and intelligence. For over 50 years, the world's leading drinks businesses have relied on IWSR as an integral part of their strategic planning and decision-making.

We're unique in how we work: combining proprietary longitudinal market data, consumer insights, and AI-enhanced data science with genuine on-the-ground human intelligence across 160 markets. That combination is what lets us tell our clients not just what the numbers say, but what's actually happening in the global beverage alcohol market.

Our clients span the full breadth of the industry, multinational spirits, beer, and wine producers; packaging and ingredient manufacturers; distributors; and financial institutions, all using our data to plan strategy and investment with confidence.

About the role:

The Engineering Director leads IWSR's technology function. You'll own the technology roadmap, be responsible for its delivery, and work closely with our Chief Product Officer and internal stakeholders to shape what gets built and why. You'll bring strong technical judgement, enough to make good architectural decisions, hold the team to a high standard, and speak credibly with engineers and non-engineers alike.

This isn't a pure people management role. The team has strong engineering management in place already. What it needs from its director is technical leadership, strategic clarity, and the ability to build trusted relationships with a demanding set of stakeholders.

What you will be responsible for:

Technology strategy and roadmap

• Own the technology roadmap in partnership with the CPO, working through the implications of commercial priorities, research cycle requirements and platform capability

• Contribute to roadmap definition beyond the immediate horizon, identifying where technology can create new product opportunities or unlock efficiencies

• Represent the technology function in leadership discussions, translating between commercial ambition and delivery reality

Delivery

• Hold overall accountability for technology delivery across our product portfolio: the client platform, internal researcher tooling (Collector), data pipelines and emerging data products

• Work closely with programme management and product to ensure delivery is well planned, dependencies are visible and risks are surfaced early

Stakeholder relationships

• Maintain a close working relationship with the CPO on client platform requirements, involving genuine product management, not just execution

• Work with the internal product manager for internal tooling to ensure the research team's needs are heard and prioritised

• Build direct relationships with the research team, particularly the Head of Research and senior researchers, to understand how the research process works

AI and engineering practice

• Champion the adoption of AI within the engineering organisation, not as a side project but as a core change to how the team works, including AI-assisted development, code review, documentation and testing

• Drive our broader AI enablement programme so the business can take practical advantage of AI in research, data processing and client-facing workflows

• Stay close to the evolving AI landscape and make informed bets on where investment will have the most impact

Team and culture

• Support the engineering lead in maintaining a high-performing, well-supported team

• Set and communicate clear engineering standards, ensure architectural decisions are made deliberately and documented

• Contribute to hiring and team development as the function evolves

What we are looking for:

• Strong technical background, comfortable discussing architecture, infrastructure and engineering trade-offs even if you're not writing production code day to day

• Experience leading technology delivery in a data-heavy or research-heavy environment, familiar with the challenges of products where data quality is the product

• Excellent stakeholder management, this role sits at the intersection of research, product and engineering

• A genuine interest in AI, not as a buzzword, with experience applying it in an engineering context strongly preferred

• Comfort operating in a relatively small team, hands-on in some areas even while leading strategically

Useful context:

IWSR is part of the WGSN group. The engineering function has a close relationship with WGSN's technology organisation, and part of this role involves navigating that relationship, understanding what IWSR needs to build itself versus what it can draw from shared group capability.

Benefits: In addition to a competitive salary, IWSR offers

Generous time off: 25 days holiday plus bank holidays and a company-wide end-of-year break.

Flexible work environment: Hybrid working model with flexible hours.

Comprehensive perks: Annual bonus scheme, pension, regular social events, and a volunteering policy.

Growth opportunities: Lots of learning and development opportunities