Associate Director, R&D Software Engineering

About the role

As Associate Director, R&D Software Engineering at Clario (part of Thermo Fisher Scientific), you will lead the end-to-end software development function, covering architecture, development, testing and release management for products in a regulated healthcare context. You provide leadership across several development teams, balancing the sustainment of validated products with new initiatives, while keeping quality, compliance and scalability embedded throughout the software lifecycle.

Key responsibilities

• Define and execute the technical and management strategy, including budgeting, to sustain existing products and deliver new initiatives.
• Partner with Product Management to turn product requirements into delivery plans within an Agile framework, with clear milestones.
• Monitor progress, document outcomes and report variances in scope, timeline, cost or quality.
• Work with Software Development and Software Quality Engineering to maximise test automation and share integration responsibilities.
• Own development team capacity planning and manage productivity, quality and unplanned work against planned velocity.
• Ensure effective communication and documentation with Quality Assurance, Service Delivery and Product Management for customers, leadership and validation.
• Serve on the Engineering senior management team and contribute to corporate strategy and long-term goals.
• Identify technical and delivery risks, maintain development metrics, and partner with HR on hiring, onboarding, performance management, coaching and succession planning.
• Lead organisational development, change management, leadership development, diversity and continuous improvement, and build high-performing teams.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Extensive experience (10+ years) in software development in the medical device industry or another highly regulated global industry such as life sciences, diagnostics, clinical technology or regulated SaaS.
• Demonstrable experience leading software teams delivering regulated products, with validated development, documentation standards, controlled releases and audit readiness.
• Proven senior people leadership experience managing development organisations of 10+ engineers across multiple levels, disciplines and technologies.
• Experience developing and managing budgets, business cases and cost-benefit analyses for complex software portfolios.

Required skills

• Strong understanding of Agile development in regulated environments.
• Deep knowledge of modern software architecture, including multi-tier systems, multi-tenant SaaS, performance, reliability, scalability and data integrity.
• Solid understanding of data modelling, process modelling and database design in enterprise and regulated contexts.

What we offer

• Competitive compensation.
• Leadership opportunities within a global healthcare technology organisation.