Lead Product Engineering

Job Description

About the role 

As Lead, Product Engineering, you will lead the function responsible for value-stream applications that deliver outcomes for R&D. You will set direction across Product Engineering, partner with R&D Product Managers and domain leaders, and manage all currently open Staff Engineer and Engineering Manager positions in the function. This is a senior engineering leadership role with accountability for people, technical direction, and delivery across the function. 

What you will do 

• Set the direction and engineering standards for Product Engineering across its value-stream application teams. 

• Manage and support all currently open Staff Engineer and Engineering Manager positions, providing clear expectations, coaching, and accountability. 

• Partner with R&D Product Managers and domain leaders to translate priorities into a coherent engineering plan and surface risks early. 

• Ensure Engineering Managers and Staff Engineers work together effectively on delivery, architecture, quality, and team health. 

• Build a strong engineering culture focused on ownership, collaboration, practical technical judgement, and continuous improvement. 

• Represent Product Engineering in cross-functional planning and architectural governance, making clear decisions within the function and escalating cross-boundary issues appropriately. 

• Strengthen the function's ability to recruit, onboard, develop, and retain excellent engineering talent. 

• Manage budget allocation and resource planning for the Product Engineering function, ensuring optimal utilization and alignment with organizational priorities. 

• Define and track key performance indicators and metrics to measure engineering productivity, quality, and team engagement, using data to drive continuous improvement. 

• Identify and prioritize technical debt reduction initiatives, balancing short-term delivery with long-term system health and maintainability. 

• Mentor and develop high-potential engineers and managers, creating clear career pathways and fostering leadership capabilities within the function. 

• Evaluate emerging technologies and engineering practices, making informed recommendations on adoption to enhance competitive advantage and team capabilities. 

Qualifications

What you will bring

• Strong engineering leadership experience across multiple teams or product areas, with the technical credibility to engage with senior engineers.

• Proven people leadership experience, including managing engineering leaders and supporting senior individual contributors.

• Strong product engineering and delivery judgement: able to connect customer and product priorities with sustainable technical execution.

• Experience hiring and developing engineering talent, setting clear standards, and creating an environment where teams can do their best work.

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, able to explain trade-offs clearly to product, science, and technology partners.

• A collaborative, pragmatic leadership style with the confidence to make decisions, learn, and improve.

• Experience managing budgets and resource allocation for engineering functions, with demonstrated ability to optimize utilization and align resources with organizational priorities.

• Demonstrated ability to define, track, and act on engineering metrics and key performance indicators to drive productivity, quality, and team engagement improvements.

• Knowledge of modern software architecture patterns, technical debt management, and system design principles to balance short-term delivery with long-term maintainability.

• Experience working across organizational boundaries and managing complex stakeholder relationships in cross-functional planning and governance contexts.

Additional Information

Jealott's Hill International Research Centre UK is situated in pleasant semi-rural surroundings between Bracknell and Maidenhead and is the place of work for approximately 800 Syngenta scientists and support staff. Jealott’s Hill is one of the main global research and development sites and key activities include research into discovery of new active ingredients, new formulation technologies, product safety and technical support of our product range. 

What we offer 

• Extensive benefits package including a generous pension scheme, bonus scheme, private medical & life insurance. 

• Up to 31.5 days annual holiday. 

• Flexible working 

• We offer a position which contributes to valuable and impactful work in a stimulating and international environment.   

• The opportunity to develop and apply your science within the chemical industry. 

• The chance to work as part of a global team to address the current and future needs of the agricultural sector. 

• Learning culture and wide range of training options. 

Syngenta has been ranked as a top 5 employer and number 1 in agriculture by Science Journal.   

Syngenta is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or any other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. Learn more about our D&I initiatives here: https://www.syngenta.com/careers/working-syngenta/diversity-and-inclusion   

Company Description

Syngenta is a global agriculture company. Crop Protection R&D IT (CP R&D IT) is the IT function that serves Crop Protection R&D. We operate a modern engineering organisation where Product Management owns the “what” and Engineering and Technology owns the “how”.