Head of Technology & Product (Director / VP / CTO Level)

Head of Technology & Product (Director / VP / CTO Level)

Location: Nine Elms, London

Working Pattern: Full-time, on-site

About Zapp

Zapp is London's leading premium on-demand retail platform. Founded in 2020, our vision is to reinvent the multi-trillion-dollar convenience retail market through best-in-class, customer-centric technology and fulfilment.

Zapp partners with some of the world's leading brands to offer an exclusive, hand-picked range of products, available 24/7 and delivered in minutes.

The Role

Zapp is looking for an exceptional, commercially minded technology and product leader to own and shape our product and technology strategy, engineering organisation, and end-to-end technology capabilities as we scale.

As Head of Technology & Product, you will have overall accountability for how Zapp uses product and technology to create customer value, improve operational performance, and drive commercial growth. Working closely with the Founder and Executive Team, you will define priorities, shape solutions, and lead the organisation from strategy and product discovery through to engineering delivery, launch, and continuous improvement.

Your remit will span product management, software engineering, technical architecture, cloud infrastructure, and technology operations. You will ensure these capabilities work together to support a reliable, scalable, and commercially effective business.

This is not a role focused solely on managing teams or setting strategy. We are looking for a hands-on leader who can move comfortably between product thinking, technical architecture, engineering execution, operational challenges, and executive decision-making. You will be expected to challenge assumptions, make pragmatic trade-offs, and create the momentum required to deliver meaningful outcomes quickly.

You will build and develop a high-performing product and technology organisation, establish strong standards for quality, security, reliability, pace, and ownership, and ensure technology remains a source of competitive advantage for Zapp.

What You'll Own

Product & Technology Strategy

• Define and own Zapp's end-to-end product and technology strategy in partnership with the Founder and Executive Team.

• Translate business priorities, customer needs, operational challenges, and data into a focused, commercially driven product and technology roadmap.

• Own product prioritisation and ensure investment is directed towards opportunities that deliver the greatest customer, commercial, and operational impact.

• Set the technical direction for Zapp's platforms, architecture, infrastructure, and wider technology ecosystem.

• Make clear trade-offs between speed, scope, quality, scalability, technical debt, and long-term investment.

• Evaluate new technologies, build-versus-buy decisions, and strategic technology investments with sound commercial judgment.

Product Development & Engineering Delivery

• Own the end-to-end product development lifecycle, from opportunity identification and discovery through to solution design, development, launch, adoption, and iteration.

• Lead product and engineering teams to deliver high-quality customer-facing and internal technology solutions.

• Establish clear product ownership, priorities, success measures, and accountability for delivery.

• Create a strong, repeatable delivery rhythm while remaining pragmatic and responsive to changing business needs.

• Remove obstacles, accelerate decision-making, and ensure important initiatives reach customers and operations.

• Measure success through customer, commercial, and operational outcomes rather than simply features shipped.

Engineering & Technology Organisation

• Lead, develop, and scale a high-performing multidisciplinary product and technology organisation.

• Establish clear ownership, effective team structures, strong engineering standards, and a culture of pace, simplicity, craftsmanship, and accountability.

• Attract, retain, mentor, and develop exceptional engineering, product, and technology talent.

• Stay close enough to the technology to challenge architectural decisions, guide teams through complex problems, and make sound technical trade-offs.

• Establish effective development practices across code quality, testing, deployment, documentation, and continuous improvement.

• Build a sustainable technology operating model that supports both immediate business priorities and long-term growth.

AI, Data & Automation

• Make AI and automation practical capabilities across Zapp, applying them where they can materially improve customer experience, operational performance, or employee productivity.

• Drive the adoption of modern AI-assisted engineering practices to improve development speed, code quality, and team effectiveness.

• Partner closely with Data Science and Analytics to strengthen personalisation, forecasting, decision-making, and predictive operations.

• Identify opportunities to automate manual processes, improve workflows, and increase business efficiency through technology.

• Evaluate emerging technologies with commercial judgment, separating meaningful opportunities from hype.

Executive & Commercial Leadership

• Operate as a close strategic partner to the Founder, Executive Team, and leaders across commercial, operations, data, and finance.

• Build a deep understanding of Zapp's customers, fulfilment operations, unit economics, and strategic priorities.

• Own technology planning, budgets, resource allocation, and investment prioritisation, balancing cost, capability, risk, and business value.

• Communicate product and technology priorities, decisions, progress, and risks clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Ensure technology investments and delivery priorities remain aligned with company objectives.

• Bring an owner's mentality: identify opportunities, take responsibility, and drive initiatives through to measurable results.

What We're Looking For

• Significant experience in software engineering and technology leadership, including experience operating as a Head of Technology, Engineering Director, VP Engineering, CTO, or equivalent senior technology leader.

• A proven track record of defining and executing product and technology strategies that deliver measurable customer, commercial, or operational impact.

• Strong product instincts and experience owning product priorities, translating ambiguous problems into solutions, and driving digital products from opportunity through to launch and iteration.

• Deep technical judgment and the credibility to engage with engineers on architecture, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, reliability, security, and modern development practices.

• Experience building, leading, and developing high-performing multidisciplinary product and technology teams.

• Experience operating complex, high-availability production systems, with accountability for performance, scalability, and operational resilience.

• A broad understanding of technology operations, including infrastructure, cybersecurity, internal IT, business systems, and third-party technology providers.

• Strong commercial judgment, including experience prioritising investments, managing resources and budgets, and balancing delivery speed with long-term technology sustainability.

• A practical understanding of AI, data, and automation, with the ability to identify and deliver meaningful business applications.

• Experience in consumer technology, marketplaces, logistics, retail, or similarly operationally intensive environments would be particularly valuable.

• The ability to combine strategic, long-term thinking with urgency, pragmatic decision-making, and hands-on execution.

• Excellent communication skills and the confidence to work directly with founders, executives, partners, and teams across the business.

• High intellectual curiosity, low ego, and a strong sense of ownership.

• A degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

Why Zapp?

This is a genuinely differentiated leadership opportunity: direct access to Zapp's Founder and Executive Team, end-to-end ownership of product and technology, and the mandate to shape the systems, platforms, and capabilities at the centre of our business.

You will have the opportunity to influence company strategy, build exceptional teams, develop innovative products, and strengthen the technology foundations of a fast-moving, operationally complex consumer business.

Your work will be consequential, highly visible, and experienced directly by our customers and operational teams. For the right person, this is a rare opportunity to combine product creation, technology leadership, operational excellence, and company-building in one role.

Benefits

• Competitive salary & equity package.

• Private Health Insurance (Bupa).

• Zapp Credit for testing the Zapp service and experience.

• Extended sick pay and maternity/paternity leave pay.

• 25 days annual leave, excluding UK Bank Holidays.

• Healthy lunch provided four days a week at HQ.

If you are a commercially minded, hands-on technology and product leader who thrives on building high-performing teams, developing exceptional products, and using technology to solve meaningful business challenges, we'd love to hear from you.