- Employment
- Full-Time
- Seniority
- Executive
- Department
- IT & Technology Systems
- Posted
- Nov 10, 2026
About Sotheby's
Sotheby’s is an auction house founded in London in 1744. Its specialists work across fine art and collecting categories including jewelry, watches, handbags, wine, design, and classic cars. The house connects collectors through live and online auctions, private sales, and fixed-price purchases. Its work spans specialist research and cataloging, client services, marketing, technology, finance, and operations, supporting the preparation, sale, and movement of objects across its international network.
Sotheby's seeks a Senior Vice President of Engineering to lead the organisation’s technical strategy, engineering teams and delivery across client-facing platforms, operational systems and transactional infrastructure. Reporting to the Head of Product & Technology, the role sets engineering standards, drives scalable and reliable systems, and partners with senior business and technology leaders.
Role & Responsibilities
- Own the engineering organization’s technology vision, strategy and multi-year roadmap, translating business priorities into a coherent technical direction for scalable, client-centric products and platforms.
- Build and lead a high-performing engineering organization by hiring, developing and retaining senior talent, establishing clear career paths, and fostering accountability, craftsmanship and continuous improvement.
- Drive delivery of complex, cross-functional programs across client-facing platforms, internal operational systems and core transactional infrastructure, with a focus on shipping and measurable outcomes.
- Serve as the senior technical decision-maker for architecture, platform and build-versus-buy choices, balancing long-term scalability with pragmatic near-term execution.
- Partner with Product, Data, Design, Infosec and IT leadership so Engineering contributes to product and technology decisions as a unified force rather than a downstream order-taker.
- Establish and uphold engineering standards for code quality, automated testing, security and operational reliability, including 24/7 availability of production systems.
- Champion Agile practices and modern delivery disciplines, including CI/CD, iterative planning and trunk-based development, to maximise team throughput and reduce cycle time.
- Represent Engineering with executive leadership, the board and external partners, communicating trade-offs clearly and advocating for sustainable investment in the technical foundation.
Qualifications
- 15+ years of experience in software development and architecture.
- Experience with one or more general-purpose programming languages, including JavaScript, Python, Go or Java.
- Experience with front-end technologies and/or frameworks; React is preferred.
- Strong communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technical topics for business stakeholders.
- Experience building extremely high-volume, highly scalable web services.
- Experience building highly available systems and operating 24/7 services.
- Extensive Agile development experience, including leading scrums, iteration planning and managing multiple workstreams.
- Experience with continuous deployment and developing CI/CD pipelines.
- Familiarity and prior experience with Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform or Azure technologies.
- General experience with API design and enterprise integration patterns.
- Experience with HTML5 and CSS3 web standards.
- Experience with relational and non-relational databases.
- Experience working with large-scale data warehouses for analytics is preferred.
- Excellent communication skills and experience consistently influencing teams to achieve successful outcomes.
- Ability to think creatively and critically and thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic and often ambiguous work environment.
- Strong problem-resolution and analytical skills; detail-oriented strategic thinking; and a solution-oriented mindset and approach.
- Charisma and a natural ability to connect with others, alongside strong leadership and mentorship skills.
- An agile and organised working style to manage and consistently prioritise key initiatives.
- Intelligence, leadership and humility.
Skills
Experience
15+ years in software development and architecture
Workplace
The successful candidate will be located in London, England, UK.
Explore jobs in England or in the UK.
Culture
Sotheby’s describes its culture in terms of client service, specialist knowledge, curiosity, collaboration, and ethical conduct. Its careers materials emphasize working across disciplines and encouraging employees to explore internal opportunities.
About Cerulean
Cerulean is the definitive career portal for the global luxury industry. We match exceptional professionals with exclusive opportunities at the world's most prestigious brands. From haute couture and fine watchmaking to prestige beauty, hospitality, and boutique retail, Cerulean centralises luxury employment to help you find the career for which you were destined.