Engineering Programme Manager - CTO Office at Thought Machine

Thought Machine's mission is bold – to properly and permanently rid the world's banks of legacy technology. To achieve this, we have developed the foundations of modern banking through core and payments technology which run natively in the cloud. What we are attempting is hard and means we need great people working together to build great technology.

We have grown rapidly in the past few years – growing our team to more than 550 individuals across offices in London, New York, Singapore, Sydney and our newly established Engineering Hub in Lisbon. We have raised more than £500m in funding and our investors include Molten Ventures, Eurazeo, Intesa Sanpaolo, Temasek, Nyca Partners, JPMorgan Chase Strategic Investments, Standard Chartered Ventures, and more.

We have created a culture that enables our team to produce the best work in the industry while ensuring we have fun along the way. We're regularly cited as having a fantastic workplace culture and have been recognised by Sifted magazine as having one of the highest Glassdoor ratings for a UK fintech company and the industry's most generous employee share package. Named one of the world's most innovative fintechs by Global Finance Magazine, we were also recognised by the Financial Times as one of Europe's fastest-growing companies for two consecutive years—and a UK Best Employer for 2026.

The CTO Office is a strategic team working in lockstep with the CTO to execute cross-cutting initiatives that span the entire Engineering division and the wider company.

In this role, you will report to the Chief of Staff to the CTO and partner directly with Engineering leadership to drive high-stakes strategic initiatives, such as our GenAI Adoption and Quality Programme, while scaling and optimising our engineering operations. You will also collaborate with leaders across the organization on joint ventures, executive-level strategies, and high-profile client engagements.

We are seeking a dynamic, ambitious Programme Manager to join our team. We are looking for someone who is hungry to grow, thrives on the big picture, and is energised by navigating uncharted territories.

By nature, this role requires managing multiple high-priority initiatives simultaneously in a fast-paced, fluid environment. To succeed, you will need a high level of resilience, sharp adaptability, and the ability to seamlessly pivot as the strategic needs of the organization evolve.

The Mentality We Are Looking For

More than anything, we value a proactive mindset where challenges are embraced as opportunities to learn, adapt, and build capabilities.

• A Passion for Learning: We value curiosity. Instead of needing to know everything on day one, we welcome the attitude of, "I haven’t done that yet, but I’m excited to dive in and learn."

• Empowered & Self-Driven: You’ll have the autonomy to make a real impact here. We love proactive thinkers who see potential, suggest new directions, and feel ownership over their work.

• Adaptable & Collaborative: If you enjoy navigating dynamic environments, pivoting when new opportunities arise, and solving creative puzzles as a team, you will thrive here.

Duties

• Optimise Engineering Operations: Own and continuously improve core workflows within Engineering Operations to drive efficiency, agility, and cross-departmental effectiveness.

• Execute Strategic Initiatives: Lead and participate in high-stakes strategic initiatives, taking full ownership of ideation, planning, cross-functional alignment, and final delivery.

• Architect Operational Insights: Design and implement mechanisms, dashboards, and metrics that provide visibility into the Engineering department’s overall productivity, efficiency, and operational health.

• Support Executive Reporting: Partner closely with the CTO and Chief of Staff to synthesise data and streamline company-wide reporting activities.

• Facilitate Executive & Client Engagements: Prepare high-quality briefings, presentations, and strategic materials for key executive meetings and client engagements.

• Act as an Organizational Connector: Bridge communication gaps between teams, remove critical bottlenecks, and rally resources to accelerate project timelines.

• Serve as a Tactical Force Multiplier: Step in where needed to fill gaps or unblock progress.

Requirements

• Proven Adaptability & Execution: A track record of success in high-growth, fast-paced environments where agility, rapid delivery, and hands-on execution are critical.

• Expert Programme Management: Exceptional organizational skills with the ability to manage a high volume of diverse projects, juggle competing priorities, and keep cross-functional teams tightly aligned.

• Strategic Problem Solving: Experience bringing structure to highly ambiguous problems and successfully managing complex stakeholder relationships across the business.

• High-Impact Background: Prior experience navigating fluid, fast-moving environments, such as top-tier consulting firms, major business/technical transformation programs, or a previous role within a CTO Office.

• Technical Literacy & Fluency: Strong technical aptitude with a solid understanding of core engineering and technology concepts. You should possess enough technical literacy to hold your own in deep conversations with engineering leaders.

• AI-Assisted Capability: Highly comfortable leveraging modern productivity and engineering tools, including the ability to write and review code with the assistance of AI.

If you are hungry for rapid growth, love tackling the unknown, and want a front-row seat to technology leadership, we want to hear from you.

Benefits

• Highly competitive salary

• Pension plan (match up to 5%)

• Life insurance - three times annual salary

• Competitive maternity (six months fully paid) and paternity leave (four weeks fully paid)

• Shared parental leave (matched to our maternity leave for the same point in time)

• 25 days holiday and bank holidays

• Flexible working hours

• Cycle-to-work scheme

• Electric car scheme

• Season ticket loan

• Access to outstanding learning materials and courses

• Sports and hobby clubs, subsidised by Thought Machine

• All the latest tech you need

• Start the day properly with fresh fruit and cereals

• Huge range of healthy (and not-so-healthy) snacks, smoothies and drinks

• A talented and experienced team as your colleagues

• An environment where we encourage learning and progress

• Two charity days a year

• Weekly food pop-up

We actively hire candidates who demonstrate technical excellence in their field and welcome people of all ages and backgrounds, providing everyone with equal access to professional development. You are encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't accurately match the job description. We also encourage applications from those with different abilities, including candidates with ADHD, autism, dyslexia or dyspraxia.

We actively hire candidates who demonstrate technical excellence in their field and welcome people of all ages and backgrounds, providing everyone with equal access to professional development. You are encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't accurately match the job description. We also encourage applications from those with different abilities, including candidates with ADHD, autism, dyslexia or dyspraxia.

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