If you’re thinking about your next move in product engineering or technology, you probably want more than a list of tools and job titles. You want to know what kind of problems you’ll be solving, how close you’ll be to the business and whether there’s room to keep learning.
For Ruth, Head of Product Engineering at L&G, the interesting work is in turning complex business needs into technology products that teams can build and keep improving. Her teams work across technology products and platforms across Institutional Retirement, from business applications and modelling platforms to AI products and engineering tooling.
Her role is not just to keep technology moving. It is to make sure teams have the right people, skills, tools and ways of working to deliver with the business, not around it.
Building technology around the right problem
There is no typical week in Ruth’s role, which is part of what she enjoys. One day might involve working with engineers on a technical challenge or shaping a product roadmap. Another could focus on strategy, organisational design or how AI can improve the way teams work.
Much of her time is spent helping teams succeed: removing obstacles, creating clarity and making sure engineering decisions connect back to business needs.
“It’s easy to focus on technology for technology’s sake,” Ruth says. “But the best engineers understand the problem they are trying to solve, the value they are delivering and the people affected by those outcomes.”
In financial services, engineering work often sits close to complex business, customer and regulatory needs. Strong solutions rarely come from one viewpoint. They come from engineers, product teams and business colleagues working together early, asking better questions and staying open to change.
Growing into new opportunities
Ruth joined L&G in late 2022 to lead the D365 engineering team. Since then, her role has grown through engineering leadership, product ownership and platform engineering, before moving into her current role as Head of Product Engineering.
Progression has come through stretch opportunities: shaping technology strategy, supporting the move towards a product-led operating model and getting involved in major change programmes across the business.
“The biggest thing that helped me progress was being given opportunities to step outside my comfort zone,” Ruth says. “I’ve been encouraged to take ownership, challenge constructively and get involved in areas beyond my immediate role.”
If you are considering a technology career at L&G, progression does not have to mean following one narrow route. You might deepen your technical expertise, move towards engineering leadership, explore product management or work across architecture, delivery and platform teams.
What Ruth looks for in engineering teams
For Ruth, attitude, behaviours and mindset are just as important as technical capability.
“I look for people who are kind, curious, pragmatic and willing to keep learning,” she says. “Technology changes incredibly quickly, so the people who do well are usually those who embrace the change, iterate and implement ideas, even if they don’t work out being quite right.”
Her point feels especially relevant as AI and automation change how technology teams work. Tools will keep evolving. The useful skill is knowing how to learn, test, adapt and bring others with you.
Communication matters too. Product engineering is not about working in isolation and handing over a finished answer. It depends on understanding different perspectives, explaining technical choices clearly and building trust with colleagues who may not share your technical background.
How to build a product engineering career here
Ruth’s advice is simple: stay curious, keep learning and do not wait until you feel completely ready before putting yourself forward.
“Some of the biggest steps in my own career have come from saying yes to challenges that felt slightly outside my comfort zone,” she says. “Even when I did not feel good enough.”
At L&G, there are opportunities to work on large-scale transformation programmes, learn new technologies, gain professional certifications, move into leadership or build deeper technical expertise. There are also routes for people earlier in their careers, including apprenticeship programmes and roles that support movement across engineering, architecture, product management and delivery.
For experienced engineers, that variety can be valuable. It gives you space to keep developing without having to leave behind the parts of engineering you enjoy most.
Leading teams where people can do their best work
As a leader, Ruth sees her role as creating the conditions for teams to succeed. That means giving people clarity, supporting their development and making sure they can see the purpose behind what they are building.
It also means making room for constructive challenge. Good engineering cultures need people who are comfortable asking why, testing assumptions and improving ideas together.
The scale of the challenge is what attracted Ruth to L&G in the first place: the opportunity to modernise platforms and contribute to change in line with business goals.
What has kept her here is the combination of people, trust and opportunity. “I’ve been trusted to lead significant pieces of work, encouraged to bring new ideas forward and supported in my own development,” she says. “There are kind and talented people here who genuinely want to make things better.”
The person behind the role
The same curiosity shows up outside work too. Ruth has recently got into running and is training for a half marathon. She and her husband Dave also share a love of military history, which often means trips to WW1 and WW2 sites across France and Belgium, including Ypres and Normandy.
At home, there is Pepe, a very spoiled cat, and a team who have learned to live with Ruth’s Harry Potter quotes appearing in meetings without warning. It is a small detail, but a useful one: the people leading technology teams here are still people, with hobbies, quirks and lives outside the work.
Explore technology and engineering careers at L&G
If you are curious about product engineering, platform engineering, AI, automation or technology careers in financial services, explore current technology opportunities at L&G.
Explore technology, digital and data careers at L&G.
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