Technical Lead

About Us The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, globally recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy, with a mission to deliver quality information and services worldwide. At the FT, curiosity thrives and ambitious thinking is rewarded. Together, we help audiences stay better informed and deepen their understanding of the world around them. Our Product & Tech teams drive us forward in an ever-evolving digital landscape, delivering cutting-edge products to over one million digital subscribers daily. Our growth relies on a diverse, dedicated and dynamic group of product, tech, delivery and data specialists. With a supportive culture, entrepreneurial spirit and opportunities at every turn, there are no limits to where your FT career can take you. Build a newsworthy career at the FT. Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion We believe in the power of unique perspectives and want all voices in our organisation to be heard, respected and valued. A supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves and operate to their full potential. We are committed to removing barriers for everyone, with a focus on addressing those faced by underrepresented groups. About you You are an experienced senior engineer and technical leader with a strong software engineering background and a track record of providing technical direction across business-critical products and platforms. You combine deep technical expertise with pragmatic engineering judgement. You are comfortable navigating complex systems, shaping architecture, making and facilitating significant technical decisions, and helping engineering teams turn business requirements into secure, resilient and sustainable solutions. You think beyond individual features and solutions to the long-term health of the technology: architecture, reliability, security, scalability, operability, developer experience, technical debt and the ability of teams to evolve their systems sustainably. You are comfortable working with engineers, Product, Programme and business stakeholders, communicating complex technical considerations clearly and making thoughtful trade-offs between immediate delivery needs and longer-term technical investment. You are also motivated by developing engineering capability. While this is not a people-management role, you will mentor engineers, encourage technical ownership, create opportunities for others to develop their expertise and help build a strong engineering culture based on learning, collaboration and constructive technical challenge. About the team Commercial Technology is part of the Internal Products group within FT Product & Technology. We are a multidisciplinary group of Engineers, Product Managers and Business Analysts responsible for building and operating the technology platforms that support the FT’s commercial capabilities across Marketing, Sales, Service and Commercial Data. We are undertaking a significant evolution of our commercial technology landscape, bringing these capabilities together around a more connected Salesforce platform and establishing a strong foundation for how our commercial teams engage with customers and use data. In Marketing & Commercial Data, we are evolving our marketing technology landscape towards Salesforce Marketing Cloud Next and Data 360, while continuing to operate and transition from established platforms including Bloomreach, Marketo and Legacy Salesforce Marketing Cloud products for B2B & B2C marketing. In Sales & Service, we are consolidating several Salesforce CRM orgs with their associated processes and procedures into a leaner Commercial Technology estate, utilising data available to us via Data 360, into a setup that aligns with the FT’s future commercial capabilities and setup. In Commercial Platform, we are establishing a centre of excellence at the heart of the commercial workflow, tasked with ensuring the security, health and viability of our day-to-day commercial operation and providing a primary support route for our business users The Technical Lead will provide technical leadership for one of the engineering capabilities within Commercial Technology, working closely with the Engineering Manager, Product, engineers, other Technical Leads and the wider Commercial Technology leadership team. What you’ll work on As Technical Lead within Commercial Technology, you will provide technical leadership for the engineering capability responsible for the delivery, operation and continuous evolution of the FT’s Marketing & Commercial Data technology. You will be accountable for the technical direction and engineering integrity of the capability, ensuring our technology is secure, resilient, scalable, maintainable and aligned with wider Commercial Technology and FT engineering standards. You will lead architectural thinking, guide significant technical decisions and ensure technical risks, dependencies and opportunities are understood and actively managed. You will help lead the technical transformation of the FT’s commercial technology landscape, shaping the transition from our established marketing platforms towards Salesforce Marketing Cloud Next, Data 360 and the wider Commercial Technology ecosystem while ensuring our existing technology remains sustainable throughout that transition. You will work in close partnership with the Engineering Manager – Marketing & Commercial Data. Together, you will provide the complementary people, delivery and technical leadership required to operate and evolve the capability successfully. The Engineering Manager is primarily accountable for people leadership, delivery, capacity and operational coordination, while you will be primarily accountable for technical direction, architecture, engineering standards and technical sustainability. You will remain close to engineering delivery, working directly with engineers to solve complex technical problems, review and challenge approaches, improve engineering practices and create opportunities for engineers to develop greater technical ownership and expertise. You will also work with the Principal Engineer, Principal Architect and other senior technical leaders on decisions that extend beyond your capability, ensuring local technical decisions contribute to a coherent and sustainable Commercial Technology landscape. You will report to the Principal Engineer for the Commercial Technology domain. Your responsibilities will include Technical Direction & Architecture Own the technical direction for the Marketing & Commercial Data capability, ensuring technology decisions align with the wider Commercial Technology strategy and FT engineering standards. Lead architectural thinking and significant technical decisions across the capability, balancing immediate delivery needs with security, resilience, scalability, maintainability and long-term sustainability. Establish and champion appropriate engineering standards, patterns and practices across the team. Maintain visibility of architecture, technical debt, lifecycle risks, dependencies and emerging technology opportunities. Work with the Principal Engineer, Principal Architect and other Technical Leads on decisions that span multiple capabilities, platforms or technology domains. Identify opportunities to simplify, modernise and improve the technology landscape while avoiding unnecessary complexity and duplication. Engineering Quality & Technical Leadership Provide hands-on technical leadership and guidance to engineers while creating appropriate autonomy for individuals to make decisions and take ownership of the technology they work with. Mentor engineers and technical specialists, helping them develop their technical expertise, engineering judgement and confidence in making technical decisions. Support engineers through complex technical challenges without becoming the decision-maker or implementation owner for every issue. Promote strong engineering practices including testing, automation, observability, security, documentation and sustainable software development. Encourage constructive technical challenge, knowledge sharing and continuous learning across the team. Work with the Engineering Manager to identify technical skills and capability gaps and help develop the engineering capabilities required for our future platform. Delivery & Collaboration Partner closely with the Engineering Manager – Marketing & Commercial Data to ensure technical strategy, people, delivery and operational priorities remain aligned. Provide technical input into roadmaps, planning and prioritisation, ensuring delivery plans are technically achievable and account for complexity, dependencies, technical risk and longer-term investment. Work with Product, Programme and business stakeholders to translate business requirements into appropriate technical approaches and clearly communicate technical considerations, trade-offs and opportunities. Identify technical risks and dependencies early and work with the Engineering Manager and wider Commercial Technology leadership to ensure they are understood and appropriately managed. Work closely with Technical Leads, Engineering Managers and engineers across Commercial Technology to coordinate technical decisions and shared dependencies. Work effectively with external technology partners and delivery vendors, providing technical direction and ensuring solutions align with FT architecture, engineering standards and practices. Operational Excellence & Technical Health Be accountable for the technical health and sustainability of the Marketing & Commercial Data capabilities throughout their lifecycle. Ensure solutions are designed and engineered with appropriate consideration for security, resilience, scalability, observability, maintainability and supportability. Work with the Engineering Manager and Commercial Platform team to ensure new and changed capabilities are operationally ready and can be effectively supported within the wider Commercial Technology operating model. Provide technical leadership during incidents affecting Marketing & Commercial Data capabilities, supporting diagnosis, technical decision-making and sustainable resolution. Ensure technical debt, lifecycle risks and engineering improvements are visible, understood and appropriately considered alongside product and programme priorities. Ensure learning from incidents and operational issues informs architecture, engineering standards and future technical decisions. Change & Platform Evolution Provide technical leadership for the evolution of the FT’s Marketing & Commercial Data technology landscape. Shape the technical transition from established marketing platforms, including Bloomreach and Marketo, towards the FT’s strategic Salesforce-based marketing and data capabilities. Define and evolve the architecture, engineering patterns and technical practices required to support the future Marketing & Commercial Data platform. Work with the Engineering Manager to ensure the team develops the technical skills and knowledge required to own and evolve the future platform sustainably. Work with Commercial Platform, other Technical Leads, the Principal Architect and the Principal Engineer to ensure platform changes integrate coherently with the wider Commercial Technology ecosystem and maintain operational continuity. Our Technology Our Commercial Technology landscape is evolving. Technologies and platforms within or interacting with Marketing & Commercial Data include: Salesforce Marketing Cloud Next (Advanced Edition) Salesforce Data 360 Salesforce Sales & Service Cloud Sales Collaboration & Enablement Tooling Bloomreach Marketo JavaScript / TypeScript APIs and integration technologies AWS Technologies Data platforms and integrations CI/CD pipelines and developer tooling GitHub Monitoring and observability tooling Jira & Confluence You do not need experience with all of these technologies to apply. We are particularly interested in technical leaders who can work across complex technology ecosystems, provide strong engineering judgement and help teams develop the skills required for an evolving platform. Technical and Leadership experience we’re looking for Experience managing, leading or designing a Customer Data Platform, ideally utilising Salesforce Marketing Cloud Next and Data 360. Significant software engineering experience working with complex production systems, platforms or enterprise technology. Experience providing technical leadership across engineering teams or significant technology capabilities. Strong architectural and engineering judgement, with experience making and guiding significant technical decisions. Strong understanding of modern software engineering practices and the design of secure, resilient, scalable and maintainable systems. Experience identifying and managing technical debt, architectural risk, technology lifecycle concerns and cross-system dependencies. Experience working closely with engineers to solve complex technical problems while enabling others to take ownership and develop their expertise. Experience balancing immediate delivery needs with longer-term architecture, engineering quality and technical investment. Strong understanding of operational excellence, observability, reliability and production engineering. Experience working effectively with Product, Engineering, Data, Programme and business stakeholders. Ability to communicate complex technical considerations and trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences. Experience working across teams and influencing technical decisions beyond your immediate area. Experience leading technical change across significant platform or technology transformations would be beneficial. Experience with Salesforce, marketing technology, customer data platforms, enterprise SaaS ecosystems or complex integration architectures would be beneficial, but is not essential Characteristics we value Strong technical judgement and curiosity. A strong sense of ownership and accountability for technical outcomes. Pragmatism when balancing technical quality, delivery needs and operational risk. An ability to make complex technical concepts understandable. Confidence challenging technical approaches constructively. An instinct for enabling and mentoring engineers rather than becoming the person through whom every technical decision must pass. An appreciation for simplicity, reliability and long-term technical sustainability. A collaborative approach to working across Engineering, Product, Data and business teams. Calm and clear technical leadership during incidents and periods of change. Curiosity and a willingness to continuously learn. An interest in how technology and data can enable better customer experiences and commercial outcomes. What’s in it for you? Our benefits Our benefits vary by location, but we are committed to providing best-in-class perks across all our offices. These include generous annual leave, medical cover, inclusive parental leave packages, subsidised gym memberships and opportunities to give back to the community. Full details of our benefits are available here. We’ve embraced a 50% hybrid working model (averaging two to three days onsite) that fosters trust and remote adaptability while encouraging in-person camaraderie and peer learning. Additionally, we are open to accommodating specific flexible working pattern requests for all roles where feasible. Accessibility We are a disability confident employer and Valuable 500 signatory. Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments/personalisation as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements or have any questions, please contact the FT Talent team via email talent@ft.com and a member of our team will be happy to help. Further information At the FT, we embrace innovation and the use of technology and appreciate that individuals may leverage AI tools as part of their job application process. Whilst we are happy for you to use AI to assist with your application, it is essential that all information provided is authentic and accurately represents your skills, experience, and qualifications.