Head of Information Technology

Head of Technology – India

Location:

Chennai, India
Reporting To:  CTO / Global Technology Leadership Team
Lead Technology at Scale for a Major FTSE 100 Retail Organisation
We are partnering with one of the UK's most recognised FTSE 100 retail organisations to appoint a  Head of Technology – India , a pivotal leadership role that will serve as the bridge between global technology leadership and a large-scale India engineering organisation.
This is a unique opportunity for an accomplished technology executive to influence the direction, performance and culture of a technology function comprising more than 1,200 engineers while partnering closely with senior leadership across the UK and India.
As the senior technology representative in India, you will play a critical role in driving engineering excellence, strengthening strategic partnerships, leading transformation initiatives and ensuring alignment with the organisation's global technology vision.
The Opportunity
Working closely with the CTO and Global Technology Leadership Team, you will:
Act as the strategic technology leadership representative within India.
Drive the execution of engineering strategy across a large offshore technology organisation.
Strengthen alignment between UK technology leadership and India-based engineering teams.
Build trusted partnerships with senior stakeholders, engineering leaders and strategic technology partners.
Champion engineering excellence, modern software development practices and high-performance technology culture.
Lead governance, operational effectiveness and delivery assurance across multiple engineering portfolios.
Influence large-scale technology transformation programmes spanning platforms, operating models and engineering practices.
Ensure technology operations align with enterprise security, risk and compliance standards.
What We're Looking For
We are seeking a proven technology leader who has built their career through engineering and technology leadership roles and is comfortable operating within complex, large-scale enterprise environments.
You will bring:
Significant experience leading engineering organisations within large enterprise technology environments.
Strong technical credibility and a deep understanding of modern software engineering practices.
Experience managing strategic relationships with global technology service providers and outsourced delivery partners.
A track record of influencing large-scale engineering organisations, ideally supporting teams of 1,000+ engineers.
Experience operating within global delivery, offshore or UK–India technology models.
Success leading engineering transformation, organisational change and performance improvement initiatives.
Exceptional stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
The ability to navigate complexity, ambiguity and competing priorities while maintaining strategic focus.
Highly Desirable

Experience with in retail, consumer, eCommerce or customer-facing digital businesses.
Exposure to building, scaling or leading Global Capability Centres (GCCs) or captive technology organisations.
Multi-vendor technology environment experience.
Previous experience partnering with UK or European technology leadership teams.
Experience driving engineering excellence, governance and operational transformation programmes.
Leadership Profile
The successful candidate will be recognised for:
Strong executive presence and leadership credibility.
The ability to influence at the highest levels of an organisation.
Cross-cultural leadership experience within global technology environments.
A collaborative and people-first leadership style.
Strategic thinking combined with strong operational execution.
A passion for building high-performing engineering organisations and leadership teams.

Why This Role?

This is an opportunity to join one of the UK's most respected retail organisations at a time of significant technology investment and transformation. You will have direct exposure to global technology leadership, influence technology strategy at scale and play a key role in shaping the future of a large international engineering organisation.
Travel
Regular travel to the United Kingdom will be required, including an initial immersion period with UK-based technology teams.
Compensation
An executive-level compensation package is on offer, including a highly competitive base salary, performance bonus and comprehensive benefits package.