Managing Director

At Focused, we move quickly to deliver quality software that achieves client outcomes and anticipates their customers’ needs. We strategically partner with our clients to leverage our expertise at the forefront of agentic development and modern developer workflows, while our clients bring their own essential domain expertise. Whether we are getting new products to market, modernizing legacy systems, or helping teams master the skills needed for the next era of engineering, we collaborate across industries to turn technical complexity into a competitive advantage.

Listen first • We are experts in product practices but life long learners in the domain of our customers. We research, collaborate, and understand.

Learn why • We ask questions and talk to users to understand problem spaces, objectives, and goals, which allows us to deeply invest and drive towards the outcomes of our clients.

Love your craft • We love diving into a variety of domains and solving problems.  We take pride in delivering value, in communicating progress, and guiding our clients to success.

At Focused, our Managing Director is the bridge between visionary strategy and technical excellence. This role is designed for a leader who is as comfortable in a code review or architectural brainstorm as they are in a boardroom. Managing Directors are both practitioners and experts in their craft, owning the P&L for their accounts while playing a crucial role in shaping consulting best practices and ensuring the successful delivery of complex software projects. With clients, we develop trust and influence—we are unintimidated and unintimidating. With colleagues, we set the standard for how we deliver success for clients and sustain the health of our business.

• Direct People Leadership: Managing a dedicated team of our consultants, including engineers, focusing on their professional growth, performance health, and long-term career mapping.
• Client Relationship Management: Serving as the primary executive contact for a portfolio of clients, transforming transactional engagements into enduring strategic partnerships.
• Engagement Oversight: Maintaining "eyes-on" supervision of active consulting projects to ensure work quality meets our rigorous internal standards and technical benchmarks.
• Delivery Governance: Intervening in complex technical or organizational blockers to keep projects on track, ensuring we deliver what we promised—on time and above expectations.
• Client Success Accountability: Defining and tracking success metrics for every engagement, ensuring that our work creates measurable business value for our partners.
• Resource & Capacity Planning: Balancing team utilization with project demands to ensure our consultants are challenged but not burned out.
• AI-Augmented Delivery Evolution: Leading our teams in the pragmatic adoption of generative tools like GitHub Copilot and Cursor to stay at the cutting edge of consulting efficiency. We foster a culture of learning and experimentation to ensure that even as the speed of generation increases, our rigorous standards for TDD and architectural integrity remain uncompromised.
• High-Performance Culture Cultivation: Build and lead a world class team of engineers and designers. Create an environment of "extreme ownership" where teams are empowered to improve how we build while remaining focused on business outcomes.
• Market Expansion & Commercial Strategy: Deepen and scale our business growth across the UK and EU, expanding service offerings and scope, volume and commercial performance over time.

• Have a proven background in technical delivery (Engineering, Product, or Architecture) and have successfully transitioned into a high-level management role.
• Are an expert at navigating difficult client conversations with radical candor and professionalism.
• Possess the learning agility to rapidly master and implement emerging AI tooling, such as LLM-based coding assistants, into a professional engineering workflow.
• Are an expert at navigating difficult client conversations with radical candor and can synthesize complex problems and propose clear, actionable paths forward.
• Have a track record of building high-performing teams where engineers feel supported, challenged, and heard.
• Demonstrate an uncompromising eye for quality; you know what "good" looks like and aren't afraid to coach others to get there.

• Conducted 1:1 career development syncs with senior engineers to align their goals with company needs.
• Rescued a high-stakes client relationship by identifying a delivery bottleneck and pivoting the team’s technical approach.
• Reviewed the architectural roadmap for a new 6-month engagement to ensure it sets the us and the client up for success.
• Partnered with our recruiting team to interview and vet the next wave of consulting talent for the London market.
• Identified an opportunity for significant sell on work or a new piece of business 

• This role requires the ability to visit client sites across the UK and occasionally in the US. Travel is estimated at 25–40% depending on client needs.
• Please note that we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this role in our London office. All applicants must have the permanent right to work in the UK.
• The expected base salary range for this role in London is £160,000 – £210,000, depending on experience, plus a performance-based bonus of up to 30% of base and benefits.