Director of Engineering - Bulgaria

CreateFuture is fast becoming the UK's most recognisable digital consultancy, with years of experience building digital products and services for major organisations whilst putting our people first. We have offices in the centre of Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, and London as well as remote employees located throughout the country.

We are a team of creators - whether that's code, project plans, go to market strategies, culture initiatives, marketing campaigns, large language models or people policies. And together, with our clients, we create the future. This has seen us collaborate and partner across a multitude of industries and sectors, with the likes of PayPal, adidas, Natwest, FanDuel and Money Saving Expert, to name just a few.

Our reputation as a partner determined to deliver high-quality, robust and thoughtful products has enabled us to scale to over 500 people in the last couple of years, and it is our amazing people - along with the safe, supportive and friendly culture we have built - that makes CreateFuture a great place to work. Don't just take our word for it though, we have been recognised by Best Workplaces UK multiple years in a row - across a number of categories - and our employee exit rate is astonishingly low.

Join us on our journey… Let's create something awesome, together, today.

About the role and team:
CreateFuture is building a significant engineering capability in Bulgaria.

This is not an offshore delivery centre. We are building a high performing, AI native team that is a core part of how CreateFuture grows, with Sofia as a long term talent hub and an important part of our European presence.

The team is currently around 30 people and we want to grow towards 100 over the next 12 months.

The Director of Engineering will lead that growth. You will be responsible for building the team, developing strong local engineering leadership, maintaining quality as we scale, and helping Bulgaria become one of the strongest engineering locations in CreateFuture.

Our primary sector focus is iGaming, where Bulgaria has deep engineering talent and strong experience across major operators and technology businesses. We are also growing our Financial Services capability, particularly in areas such as payments, KYC, AML, fraud, identity and regulated platforms.

This is not a role for someone who wants to manage from a distance. We need a technically credible leader who is close to their people, close to delivery, and comfortable with clients, pre-sales and the local engineering market.

What success looks like in the role

1. Strong local engineering leadership

Every engineer in Bulgaria should feel the benefit of strong, visible and useful leadership.

You will build a leadership structure that supports growth without adding unnecessary management layers. You will invest in people, develop future leaders and make sure strong performers want to stay and build their careers here.

The culture should feel recognisably CreateFuture, but it should also belong to Bulgaria rather than simply copy what exists in the UK.

Measured by:

• Manager effectiveness
• Retention of strong performers
• Team eNPS and engagement
• Internal progression
• Strength of future engineering leaders

2. Bulgaria becomes genuinely AI native

We want some of the best AI driven engineering practices in CreateFuture to come from Bulgaria.

That means moving beyond simple use of coding tools and building strong approaches to AI assisted software delivery across engineering, quality, architecture and platform work.

You will help teams use AI effectively, safely and practically, and help clients adopt those approaches where they add value.

Measured by:

• AI adoption across the team
• Evidence of AI assisted delivery on client work
• Certification and capability across OpenAI and Anthropic platforms
• AI practices originating in Bulgaria and adopted elsewhere
• Client adoption of approaches introduced by the team

3. CreateFuture becomes known as a great place for engineers in Bulgaria

Growing from 30 to 100 people will require a strong local reputation and a high quality hiring pipeline.

You will work closely with our talent team to attract, assess and hire excellent engineers, particularly from the iGaming market.

You will also help build CreateFuture's presence in the local technology community through events, relationships, content and direct engagement.

Measured by:

• Progress against hiring plans
• Quality of candidates
• Employee referrals
• Hiring success within iGaming
• Retention of new hires
• External presence in the Bulgarian technology community

4. Bulgarian teams are known for excellent client delivery

You will stay close to important engagements and help ensure teams are delivering strong engineering outcomes.

You will support technical leads, help resolve difficult problems, identify risks early and work with account and delivery teams to maintain high standards.

You will also help our consultants improve client environments through credibility and influence rather than simply imposing our own way of working.

Measured by:

• Client feedback
• Repeat work and account growth
• Engineering quality
• Client requests for Bulgarian teams
• Successful resolution of technical risks

5. Bulgaria contributes directly to CreateFuture's growth

This role has a commercial dimension.

You will support important client opportunities, contribute to pre sales, help shape solutions and bring senior technical credibility into client conversations.

You will also help ensure that our hiring and capability plans are aligned with real market demand.

Measured by:

• Contribution to successful pursuits
• Growth of revenue through the Bulgaria team
• Utilisation
• Alignment between hiring and demand
• Client confidence in the capability

What we are looking for

• You will have a strong engineering background and enough technical depth to earn the respect of experienced engineers and architects.
• You will have led significant engineering teams and ideally managed engineering managers as well as individual contributors.
• Consultancy, agency or professional services experience is important. You need to understand client delivery, utilisation, commercial constraints and the difference between influencing a client environment and controlling one.
• You will be comfortable speaking with senior client stakeholders and contributing to technical and commercial conversations.
• You will understand the Bulgarian technology market and ideally already have a strong network within it.
• Experience in iGaming would be valuable, but it is not essential if you can build credibility quickly.
• You should also be comfortable with how AI is changing software engineering and have practical experience of using it rather than simply an interest in the topic.

The kind of leader we want

• You are visible and approachable.
• You are technically credible.
• You are useful to the people around you.
• You give clear feedback and deal with problems early.
• You create structure where it helps, but avoid unnecessary process.
• You care about people and engineering standards equally.
• You are comfortable working at pace and making decisions with imperfect information.
• You are commercially aware and understand that strong engineering leadership should contribute to client success and business growth.
• Above all, you build loyalty by being useful to the people around you.

What this role is not

• This is not an offshore delivery centre management role.
• It is not a purely internal people management role.
• It is not a pure architecture role.
• It is not a pure recruitment role.
• And it is not about recreating the UK organisation in Bulgaria.
• The opportunity is to build something strong locally, make it distinctly CreateFuture, and then contribute that strength back into the wider business.

What we’ll offer you:

We trust people to do their best work. That means flexibility over rigid rules, impact over activity, and real investment in your growth both professionally and personally. You’ll be part of a supportive, and friendly culture, surrounded by smart, curious people who care deeply about what they do.

We offer flexible working, including hybrid and remote options. Our office hubs are located in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, London and Bulgaria, with occasional travel to client sites or CreateFuture offices when needed.

We trust you to manage your time balancing collaboration with client time and focused work. What matters is the impact you have, not how busy you look.

Our hiring process

We try to keep our hiring process clear, fair and respectful of your time. We aim to get back to everyone who applies and we will be upfront about where you are in the process.

It usually looks like this:

• Call with our Talent Acquisition Team 
• Role specific capability interview 

Depending on the role, we might also ask you to do a short presentation, a practical or technical task or have a values focused conversation. We will explain what is involved before anything happens.

Inclusion at CreateFuture 

We believe diverse teams build better workplaces and better products. We want CreateFuture to be a place where people feel able to be themselves and do their best work.

If you need any adjustments or support during the application process, just. We will do what we can to help.

We look forward to your application!