The world is facing a nature crisis. We have lost 85% of the world’s wetlands, 35% of its forests and 65% of its living creatures. Action on nature is the next frontier for sustainability, as the world has to move beyond net zero to a nature-positive future. Natcap is on a mission to accelerate the nature-positive transition by integrating nature intelligence into business decision-making. We support the world's leading companies to prioritise, measure and act on nature impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities.

We’re looking for an exceptional Head of Engineering to lead our Engineering team and deliver nature risk software products that our customers love. This is a senior leadership role reporting directly to the CEO and working closely with the Head of Product, Chief Science Officer, and Head of Delivery. You’ll shape the technical vision, grow and lead a high-performing team, and ensure we deliver secure, scalable, and impactful technology. You’ll need to balance strategic leadership with hands-on execution and bring experience building B2B SaaS products in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.

What you’ll do in this role - 

Engineering:

• Own the technology strategy and execution, delivering secure, performant, effective technology capabilities that support the product, our advisory team, and our scientists

• Recruit, lead and retain a world class technology team across frontend, backend, security & infrastructure software engineering and data science

• Drive effective engineering practices to maintain high delivery velocity & quality

• Manage the technology budget and forecast effectively

Technical Operations & Security:

• Oversee internal IT systems to meet day-to-day needs and scale with growth

• Own and evolve our Information Security Management System (ISMS), aiming for and maintaining ISO 27001 certification

• Collaborate with a fractional CISO to prioritise and deliver security improvements Internal Delivery & Project Management

• Lead delivery & coordination of engineering work within Natcap’s cross functional teams, either developing the product, supporting the delivery team directly or building out infrastructure.

• Implement agile methodologies for continuous improvement, responding rapidly to customer feedback, market changes, and new scientific insights, with a focus on enhancing customer success

Leadership:

• This role reports directly to the CEO. You must be an effective collaborator with executive leadership on direction & vision, building the right organisation structure and team to deliver the plan, and on key prioritisation decisions where there are tradeoffs between product, technology, science and delivery.

• Act as the primary technical representative in executive/board discussions, translating tech vision for business stakeholders and vice versa.

What we’re looking for - 

Must-haves:

• Proven track record and experience as an engineering leader

• Experience in senior product leadership role(s), building B2B SaaS product and have successfully brought novel products to market in a competitive and fast-moving environment

• Exceptional at enabling the delivery of engineering goals

• Experience in a growth-stage startup environment before, and can navigate and lead through periods of ambiguity or uncertainty

• Full stack experience and capabilities across Python, GraphQL, AWS, Terraform, Typescript is a must.

• Interest in being hands-on with execution (e.g. design, programming and code review) as well as strategy

• Exceptional leader of cross-functional technology teams

• Experience in delivering Data Science and AI product capabilities

Nice to have:

• Experience achieving and maintaining ISO27001 security compliance in a B2B SaaS environment

• Bonus points for specific experience in: geospatial data, sustainability, risk, compliance

What you get:

• The opportunity to build a company solving the world’s most urgent sustainability challenge

• A high-impact leadership role in a fast-growing, mission-driven team

• Enhanced parental, carers, compassionate, and emergency leave

• Competitive compensation + equity package

• Chance to quickly grow personally and professionally

• Regular offsites to reflect, plan, and bond as a team

• Dedicated learning & development budget

• Wellness and lifestyle benefits package

• Hybrid working: 3 days/week in our Farringdon office

We believe that working from home unlocks huge productivity, and collaboration is best in person, so this role is hybrid: we’d like you to be able to come to our office near Farringdon station in London for 3 days a week.

Find out more about us at natcapresearch.com