John Wakeling

Initiator
DISC Type : Di

Engineering Director at Carwow

Rayleigh, England, United Kingdom

Overview

John Wakeling is an Engineering Director at carwow, spearheading the "Sell My Car" vertical. With over a decade of experience, he focuses on growing and scaling engineering teams, possessing deep expertise in Ruby and automation testing. Colleagues describe him as brilliant, pro-active, and a highly competent manager with a talent for mentoring.

Outside of his primary role, John is a writer and thought leader, authoring blog posts on topics ranging from agile methodologies and team performance to remote work culture and career development. He also has an interest in photography and offers private drone photography lessons in his spare time.

He has created his own Ruby GEMs to streamline test project templates and improve efficiency.

Personality Overview

Friendly Challenger

Impact-Oriented

Confident

They measure a product on its merit but can be influenced by strong testimonials.  They don’t mind taking a stand if they believe in something. They usually prefer to drive the conversation.

Topics They Care About

AI & Machine Learning
He leads an ML/AI squad at carwow and has shown public interest in new AI technologies from companies like Google.
Scaling Engineering Teams
A core focus of his current role and personal brand is driving strategy and growth for engineering departments, managing teams of over 25 people.
Agile Methodologies
He has authored articles on improving agile processes, including unique sprint structures and the challenges of recency bias in retrospectives.

Media Appearances

John has no verified media appearances

Work History

1-2026
Engineering Director at Carwow
1-2022 - 1-2026
Senior Engineering Manager at Carwow
11-2019 - 2-2022
Engineering Manager at Carwow
11-2018 - 10-2019
Software Development Manager at Marks and Spencer
3-2017 - 11-2018
Front-End Tech Lead at Marks and Spencer

Education

2003 - 2008
Education details unavailable from The Fitzwimarc School
2008 - 2009
Information Technology. from DB Training

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 14 Location : Rayleigh, England, United Kingdom Job Level : Mid-senior Designation : Engineering Director at Carwow
URL has been copied!

Insights For Selling To John

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Get them to a point where they are ready to bat for your product internally
  • Acknowledge their status and position during the conversation
  • Keep your pitch focused on the impact but insert some anecdotes into it

DONT's

  • Avoid focusing only on the product or its ROI, keep building trust subtly
  • Don’t be too verbose or overly friendly; a little bit, however, is fine
  • Don’t be very informal even if they are being so themselves

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with John is

  • Belief in the value of the product, relationship and a sense of accomplishment matter the most.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from John

  • They are not shy of saying no if they do not develop trust in your product.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will John move?

  • If they develop confidence in your product and you, then they can make fast decisions.
  • Can John take some risk or not?

  • If necessary, they have the ability to take risky decisions.

You And John

Personality Compatibility


Other Carwow Employees

Explore more public profiles from related professionals at the same organization.

More Profiles

Discover additional public profiles from our index.

Search more profiles

Looking for someone else? Search here for anyone.

Or visit Humantic AI to know more.