Director of Engineering & Technology
Education FirstReports to: CEO, EF English Live
Location: Budapest, London, or Barcelona. Some travel between EF locations may be required
About EF English Live
EF English Live is the world’s first and largest online English school, founded in 1996 and part of EF (Education First). With over 20 million learners taught, 2 million classes delivered each year, and a 4.9/5 teacher rating, we help working professionals find their voice in English. Our school combines certified teachers and AI technology to deliver a flexible, research-backed learning experience trusted by individuals globally.
The Opportunity
EF English Live is embarking on an ambitious transformation. We are building the capability to embed AI across our product, marketing, and operations — all while sustaining and growing our well-established lead generation and telesales business and moving further into e-commerce. This is a rare chance to own the full technology agenda of a global EdTech business at a genuine inflection point.
Today, the majority of English Live revenue comes via a well-established telesales model. Ecommerce is in its early stages; we are piloting in several geographies and expect it to grow over time, rather than overnight. We are looking for a leader comfortable changing the engine while flying.
Role Overview
The Director of Engineering & Technology owns the technology direction, architecture and delivery for EF English Live and provides senior leadership across the function. Reporting to the CEO, the postholder is the primary technology interface to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).
Working in partnership with the SLT, the postholder translates agreed business priorities into technology roadmaps and execution plans, ensuring the technology organisation delivers initiatives reliably, efficiently and with measurable business impact. The role is accountable for technology delivery, architecture, integrations, operational excellence and the long-term health of the technology estate.
Note: The core online learning platform (content, classroom experience and core LMS) is owned and developed by Efekta’s central product and engineering teams. This role owns the technology, systems and integrations that support EF English Live’s commercial operations, including ecommerce, Salesforce and sales technology, marketing and omnichannel platforms, customer-facing business systems, and the integration and configuration of the Efekta platform for our customers. Product ownership remains with the business and relevant product teams.
Within 12–18 months, success looks like:
A clear, agreed technology roadmap and delivery plan for EF English Live, aligned to business priorities and the commercial plan, and understood across the SLT and key teams.
A functioning ecommerce capability live in priority markets, integrated with Salesforce, payments and customer operations, while preserving telesales performance.
AI-enabled capabilities deployed across key customer, commercial and operational journeys, delivering measurable improvements in conversion, revenue and/or cost-to-serve.
A stable, high-performing technology organisation with clear ownership, engineering standards, reliable delivery practices, and strong partnerships across Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Transformation and Data.
Main responsabilities
Technology Strategy and Planning
Translate agreed business priorities into technology roadmaps, delivery plans and investment recommendations, providing clear visibility on feasibility, dependencies, risks and trade-offs.
Partner with business stakeholders to identify, evaluate and deliver AI-enabled capabilities across marketing, sales, customer experience and operations, while embedding AI-driven ways of working within the technology function.
Lead the evaluation and implementation of technology initiatives, assessing technical feasibility, operational impact, complexity, cost and long-term maintainability.
Architecture & Engineering
Own the overall technical architecture, ensuring it is scalable, secure, cost-effective and fit for a global and AI-driven business.
Own technology delivery decisions, including architecture, platforms, integrations, technical standards and sequencing of work, ensuring resources are focused on the highest-priority business outcomes.
Lead CRM architecture, development and governance, ensuring the platform scales effectively and supports business, operational and customer experience requirements.
Own the data platform and data engineering capability, ensuring data architecture, governance and availability support commercial, operational and customer experience objectives.
Ensure technology platforms, data practices and integrations comply with security, privacy, consent and governance requirements, including GDPR, access control and information security standards.
Delivery Operating Model & CI/CD
Own the delivery operating model — the standards, processes and CI/CD practices the teams work to — rather than running day-to-day sprint mechanics.
Mature CI/CD pipelines, automated testing and release processes to enable fast, safe and frequent delivery.
Set engineering quality, security and technical risk standards, and ensure they are embedded across all delivery teams.
Monitor delivery health at a portfolio level, stepping in on the trade-offs and escalations that require senior technical or strategic judgement.
Business Partnership & Delivery Planning
Build strong relationships with business stakeholders across Marketing, Sales, Customer Success and Operations, ensuring technology initiatives are aligned with agreed business priorities, and communicated clearly and delivered efficiently.
Ensure requirements are appropriately defined, assessed and sequenced, providing clarity on feasibility, dependencies, costs, risks and delivery timelines.
Act as the senior escalation point for technology-related delivery decisions, architecture trade-offs, resource allocation and execution risks.
Executive Stakeholder Alignment
Advise stakeholders on technology opportunities, constraints, dependencies and trade-offs, providing clear recommendations on feasibility, cost, risk and delivery approach.
Work closely with business leaders to ensure technology initiatives support agreed commercial, operational and customer objectives.
Partner with the Head of Data to ensure data architecture, governance and analytics effectively support decision-making across marketing, sales, customer operations and business performance.
Manage strategic technology vendors, implementation partners and platform providers, ensuring technology investments deliver long-term business value and remain aligned with business objectives.
People Leadership
Lead a team of approximately 15across Web Engineering, Data Engineering, Salesforce Administration and Development, Product Ownership, and Marketing Technology, primarily through managers and team leads; including our Senior Product Manager and Head of Technology.
Identify capability gaps and develop the organisational structure, skills and leadership required to support the evolving needs of the business.
Technical Background & Skills
This is an architecture-, delivery- and transformation-led role. We are looking for a leader with the technical breadth and business understanding to define technology direction, make sound architectural decisions, lead complex change initiatives, and earn the trust of both engineers and senior business stakeholders. The role is not expected to write production code day-to-day, but should have sufficient technical depth to guide teams and challenge decisions where needed.
Architecture & Platform Knowledge
Strong architecture credentials, with the ability to define and evolve enterprise and business architecture across customer acquisition, sales, payments, provisioning, service, learning and analytics platforms.
Deep understanding of business systems architecture, integration patterns, APIs and data flows across CRM, ecommerce, marketing technology, payments and operational systems.
Salesforce architecture expertise, including platform capabilities, governance, security, integration patterns and best practices, sufficient to direct development and assure architectural decisions.
Strong understanding of digital experience platforms, experimentation, analytics and marketing technology, and the data flows that connect acquisition, conversion, sales and customer engagement.
Experience with global ecommerce and payment ecosystems, including multi-market, multi-currency and subscription-based business models.
Strong understanding of modern cloud and application architectures, including APIs, event-driven architectures, microservices and enterprise data platforms.
Data, AI & Emerging Technologies
Strong understanding of data architecture, data engineering and analytics platforms, and how they support commercial, operational and customer experience objectives.
Strategic understanding of AI, automation and LLM-based technologies, including where and how they can be applied across marketing, sales and customer operations.
Ability to evaluate emerging technologies pragmatically, balancing business value, complexity, risk and long-term maintainability.
Security, Privacy & Governance
Strong understanding of privacy, consent management and regulatory requirements, including GDPR and related customer data obligations.
Experience designing and governing technology solutions with security, privacy and compliance requirements embedded from the outset.
Understanding of identity and access management, role-based access controls, auditability and data governance practices across enterprise platforms.
Ability to assess and manage technology, security and operational risks associated with third-party vendors, integrations and platform dependencies.
Customer Experience, Analytics & Growth Technology
Strong understanding of experimentation, analytics and measurement frameworks, including attribution, customer journey analysis and conversion optimisation.
Experience with tag management, customer data collection, consent-aware tracking and the technology required to support modern marketing and ecommerce operations.
Understanding of customer journey orchestration, personalisation and engagement technologies across acquisition, conversion, onboarding and retention journeys.
Ability to ensure technology platforms and data flows support effective decision-making, performance measurement and continuous optimisation.
Vendor & Platform Management
Ability to assess and lead procurement processes, vendor evaluations and platform selection decisions, balancing business requirements, technical fit, cost and long-term sustainability.
Experience managing implementation partners, system integrators and external vendors, including governance, delivery oversight and performance management.
Strong understanding of total cost of ownership, platform rationalisation and long-term technology investment decisions.
Engineering & Delivery Excellence
Familiarity with modern engineering practices, including CI/CD, DevOps, automated testing and release management, sufficient to establish delivery standards and operating models.
Experience leading technology teams through platform migrations, system integrations and transformation programs while supporting live business operations.
Experience assessing, selecting and implementing enterprise platforms while managing complex migrations, integrations and change programs in live commercial environments.
Strong understanding of technical governance, security, risk management and operational resilience.
Leadership Experience
Proven senior technology leadership experience within digital, ecommerce, SaaS or EdTech organizations.
Track record of leading engineering, business systems and technology transformation initiatives across multiple teams and disciplines.
Experience leading distributed teams across multiple locations.
Excellent executive stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate business priorities into technology roadmaps, delivery plans and architectural decisions.
Responsibilities
Reports to: CEO, EF English Live
Location: Budapest, London, or Barcelona. Some travel between EF locations may be required
About EF English Live
EF English Live is the world’s first and largest online English school, founded in 1996 and part of EF (Education First). With over 20 million learners taught, 2 million classes delivered each year, and a 4.9/5 teacher rating, we help working professionals find their voice in English. Our school combines certified teachers and AI technology to deliver a flexible, research-backed learning experience trusted by individuals globally.
The Opportunity
EF English Live is embarking on an ambitious transformation. We are building the capability to embed AI across our product, marketing, and operations — all while sustaining and growing our well-established lead generation and telesales business and moving further into e-commerce. This is a rare chance to own the full technology agenda of a global EdTech business at a genuine inflection point.
Today, the majority of English Live revenue comes via a well-established telesales model. Ecommerce is in its early stages; we are piloting in several geographies and expect it to grow over time, rather than overnight. We are looking for a leader comfortable changing the engine while flying.
Role Overview
The Director of Engineering & Technology owns the technology direction, architecture and delivery for EF English Live and provides senior leadership across the function. Reporting to the CEO, the postholder is the primary technology interface to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).
Working in partnership with the SLT, the postholder translates agreed business priorities into technology roadmaps and execution plans, ensuring the technology organisation delivers initiatives reliably, efficiently and with measurable business impact. The role is accountable for technology delivery, architecture, integrations, operational excellence and the long-term health of the technology estate.
Note: The core online learning platform (content, classroom experience and core LMS) is owned and developed by Efekta’s central product and engineering teams. This role owns the technology, systems and integrations that support EF English Live’s commercial operations, including ecommerce, Salesforce and sales technology, marketing and omnichannel platforms, customer-facing business systems, and the integration and configuration of the Efekta platform for our customers. Product ownership remains with the business and relevant product teams.
Within 12–18 months, success looks like:
• A clear, agreed technology roadmap and delivery plan for EF English Live, aligned to business priorities and the commercial plan, and understood across the SLT and key teams.
• A functioning ecommerce capability live in priority markets, integrated with Salesforce, payments and customer operations, while preserving telesales performance.
• AI-enabled capabilities deployed across key customer, commercial and operational journeys, delivering measurable improvements in conversion, revenue and/or cost-to-serve.
• A stable, high-performing technology organisation with clear ownership, engineering standards, reliable delivery practices, and strong partnerships across Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Transformation and Data.
Main responsabilities
Technology Strategy and Planning
• Translate agreed business priorities into technology roadmaps, delivery plans and investment recommendations, providing clear visibility on feasibility, dependencies, risks and trade-offs.
• Partner with business stakeholders to identify, evaluate and deliver AI-enabled capabilities across marketing, sales, customer experience and operations, while embedding AI-driven ways of working within the technology function.
• Lead the evaluation and implementation of technology initiatives, assessing technical feasibility, operational impact, complexity, cost and long-term maintainability.
Architecture & Engineering
• Own the overall technical architecture, ensuring it is scalable, secure, cost-effective and fit for a global and AI-driven business.
• Own technology delivery decisions, including architecture, platforms, integrations, technical standards and sequencing of work, ensuring resources are focused on the highest-priority business outcomes.
• Lead CRM architecture, development and governance, ensuring the platform scales effectively and supports business, operational and customer experience requirements.
• Own the data platform and data engineering capability, ensuring data architecture, governance and availability support commercial, operational and customer experience objectives.
• Ensure technology platforms, data practices and integrations comply with security, privacy, consent and governance requirements, including GDPR, access control and information security standards.
Delivery Operating Model & CI/CD
• Own the delivery operating model — the standards, processes and CI/CD practices the teams work to — rather than running day-to-day sprint mechanics.
• Mature CI/CD pipelines, automated testing and release processes to enable fast, safe and frequent delivery.
• Set engineering quality, security and technical risk standards, and ensure they are embedded across all delivery teams.
• Monitor delivery health at a portfolio level, stepping in on the trade-offs and escalations that require senior technical or strategic judgement.
Business Partnership & Delivery Planning
• Build strong relationships with business stakeholders across Marketing, Sales, Customer Success and Operations, ensuring technology initiatives are aligned with agreed business priorities, and communicated clearly and delivered efficiently.
• Ensure requirements are appropriately defined, assessed and sequenced, providing clarity on feasibility, dependencies, costs, risks and delivery timelines.
• Act as the senior escalation point for technology-related delivery decisions, architecture trade-offs, resource allocation and execution risks.
Executive Stakeholder Alignment
• Advise stakeholders on technology opportunities, constraints, dependencies and trade-offs, providing clear recommendations on feasibility, cost, risk and delivery approach.
• Work closely with business leaders to ensure technology initiatives support agreed commercial, operational and customer objectives.
• Partner with the Head of Data to ensure data architecture, governance and analytics effectively support decision-making across marketing, sales, customer operations and business performance.
• Manage strategic technology vendors, implementation partners and platform providers, ensuring technology investments deliver long-term business value and remain aligned with business objectives.
People Leadership
• Lead a team of approximately 15across Web Engineering, Data Engineering, Salesforce Administration and Development, Product Ownership, and Marketing Technology, primarily through managers and team leads; including our Senior Product Manager and Head of Technology.
• Identify capability gaps and develop the organisational structure, skills and leadership required to support the evolving needs of the business.
Technical Background & Skills
This is an architecture-, delivery- and transformation-led role. We are looking for a leader with the technical breadth and business understanding to define technology direction, make sound architectural decisions, lead complex change initiatives, and earn the trust of both engineers and senior business stakeholders. The role is not expected to write production code day-to-day, but should have sufficient technical depth to guide teams and challenge decisions where needed.
Architecture & Platform Knowledge
• Strong architecture credentials, with the ability to define and evolve enterprise and business architecture across customer acquisition, sales, payments, provisioning, service, learning and analytics platforms.
• Deep understanding of business systems architecture, integration patterns, APIs and data flows across CRM, ecommerce, marketing technology, payments and operational systems.
• Salesforce architecture expertise, including platform capabilities, governance, security, integration patterns and best practices, sufficient to direct development and assure architectural decisions.
• Strong understanding of digital experience platforms, experimentation, analytics and marketing technology, and the data flows that connect acquisition, conversion, sales and customer engagement.
• Experience with global ecommerce and payment ecosystems, including multi-market, multi-currency and subscription-based business models.
• Strong understanding of modern cloud and application architectures, including APIs, event-driven architectures, microservices and enterprise data platforms.
Data, AI & Emerging Technologies
• Strong understanding of data architecture, data engineering and analytics platforms, and how they support commercial, operational and customer experience objectives.
• Strategic understanding of AI, automation and LLM-based technologies, including where and how they can be applied across marketing, sales and customer operations.
• Ability to evaluate emerging technologies pragmatically, balancing business value, complexity, risk and long-term maintainability.
Security, Privacy & Governance
• Strong understanding of privacy, consent management and regulatory requirements, including GDPR and related customer data obligations.
• Experience designing and governing technology solutions with security, privacy and compliance requirements embedded from the outset.
• Understanding of identity and access management, role-based access controls, auditability and data governance practices across enterprise platforms.
• Ability to assess and manage technology, security and operational risks associated with third-party vendors, integrations and platform dependencies.
Customer Experience, Analytics & Growth Technology
• Strong understanding of experimentation, analytics and measurement frameworks, including attribution, customer journey analysis and conversion optimisation.
• Experience with tag management, customer data collection, consent-aware tracking and the technology required to support modern marketing and ecommerce operations.
• Understanding of customer journey orchestration, personalisation and engagement technologies across acquisition, conversion, onboarding and retention journeys.
• Ability to ensure technology platforms and data flows support effective decision-making, performance measurement and continuous optimisation.
Vendor & Platform Management
• Ability to assess and lead procurement processes, vendor evaluations and platform selection decisions, balancing business requirements, technical fit, cost and long-term sustainability.
• Experience managing implementation partners, system integrators and external vendors, including governance, delivery oversight and performance management.
• Strong understanding of total cost of ownership, platform rationalisation and long-term technology investment decisions.
Engineering & Delivery Excellence
• Familiarity with modern engineering practices, including CI/CD, DevOps, automated testing and release management, sufficient to establish delivery standards and operating models.
• Experience leading technology teams through platform migrations, system integrations and transformation programs while supporting live business operations.
• Experience assessing, selecting and implementing enterprise platforms while managing complex migrations, integrations and change programs in live commercial environments.
• Strong understanding of technical governance, security, risk management and operational resilience.
Leadership Experience
• Proven senior technology leadership experience within digital, ecommerce, SaaS or EdTech organizations.
• Track record of leading engineering, business systems and technology transformation initiatives across multiple teams and disciplines.
• Experience leading distributed teams across multiple locations.
• Excellent executive stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate business priorities into technology roadmaps, delivery plans and architectural decisions.