Head of Product Development Railway Technology (f/m/d)

Hitachi Rail Austria GmbH; Wien; Hybrid; EUR 86,000 - 105,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Public transport access

Flexible hours & home office

Holiday on Christmas/New Year’s Eve

Employee discounts

Training opportunities

Stable international employer

Job summary

Hitachi Rail Austria GmbH is seeking an experienced Head of Product Development for railway technology. You will lead an engineering organization across Austria, Hungary, and the Balkans, guiding development from legacy signaling to cloud-native platforms.

You will manage a 100+-strong team with diverse expertise, ensuring safety, quality, and customer focus while driving modernization and performance across the portfolio.

Qualifications

• Several years of successful leadership in a large engineering organization.
• Proven ability to lead leaders, managers and multidisciplinary teams in an international environment.
• Strong people leadership with coaching and talent development experience.
• Experience managing organizational change, transformation and growth.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the product development and engineering strategy for the region.
• Lead, inspire, and develop a multicultural organization.
• Establish a high-performance engineering culture focused on quality and collaboration.
• Balance long-term product evolution with operational delivery commitments.
• Drive modernization across legacy and cloud-native architectures, with security considerations.
• Oversee budgeting, resource planning, and talent management.
• Foster collaboration with product management, operations, and customers.

Skills

Leadership

People leadership

Strategic thinking

Stakeholder management

Tools

Cloud platforms

Cybersecurity frameworks

Systems engineering

Job description

Hitachi in Austria is a full system provider and global supplier of train control technology and traffic management systems (e.g. European Train Control System (ETCS), Electronic interlockings, Operation Control Centers and dispatching systems, field elements).

Shape the Future of Railway Signaling and Digital Rail Solutions

We are looking for an experienced and inspiring Head of Product Development to lead our multidisciplinary engineering organization across Austria, Hungary, and the Balkan region.

In this key leadership role, you will be responsible for more than 100 highly skilled engineers and experts, driving the development, maintenance, and evolution of safety-critical railway technologies ranging from established signaling systems to modern cloud-native platforms. You will lead a diverse organization that combines deep railway domain expertise, software, hardware, cybersecurity and systems engineering to deliver innovative and reliable solutions for rail operators. Is this exactly the challenge you are looking for?

HEAD OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT RAILWAY TECHNOLOGY (F/M/D)

YOUR RESONSIBILITIES

As Head of Product Development, you will have end to end leadership responsibility for the following departments:

• Product Design and Requirements Management
• SW Development (safety critical and non-safety critical)
• Cloud Platform Development
• Engineering Tools & Toolchain Development
• Hardware Development
• Solution Integration & End-to-End System Integration
• Cybersecurity Engineering

YOU WILL

• Define and execute the product development and engineering strategy for the region
• Lead, inspire, and develop a multicultural organization
• Establish a high-performance engineering culture focused on innovation, quality, accountability, and collaboration
• Balance long-term product evolution with operational delivery commitments
• Drive modernization initiatives across a broad technology landscape, from legacy railway interfaces and long-life-cycle systems to cloud-native architectures, and modern software engineering practices
• Ensure compliance with railway industry standards, safety regulations, and cybersecurity requirements
• Oversee resource planning, organizational development, budgeting, and talent management
• Foster close collaboration with product management, operations, certification bodies, customers, and international engineering teams
• Lead the maintenance and continuous improvement of a mature product portfolio, including systems built upon a 30-year engineering heritage

WHAT YOU BRING

Leadership:

• Several years of successful leadership experience in a large engineering organization.
• Proven ability to lead leaders, managers, and multidisciplinary teams within an international environment.
• Strong people leadership skills with a passion for coaching, mentoring, and developing talent.
• Experience managing organizational change, transformation, and growth.

Technical Expertise:

You combine leadership excellence with strong technical credibility.

• Broad engineering background covering software, hardware, systems engineering, or safety-critical product development.
• Experience working with complex product ecosystems spanning both legacy and modern technologies.
• Understanding of safety-critical development environments, ideally within railway, aerospace, automotive, industrial automation, or similar regulated industries.
• Knowledge of cloud technologies, modern software architectures, cybersecurity principles, and large-scale system integration.

Personal Skills:

• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management capabilities.
• Ability to build trust across cultures, disciplines, and organizational boundaries.
• Strategic thinker with strong execution capabilities.
• High degree of ownership, resilience, and decision-making ability.
• Comfortable navigating both executive-level discussions and deep technical challenges

The ideal candidate is not only an outstanding engineering leader but also an exceptional people leader who can unite diverse teams, modernize technology landscapes, and drive innovation while maintaining the highest levels of safety, quality, and customer focus

WE OFFER

• Very good accessibility by public transport (Vienna Handelskai) & subsidies for public transport
• Flexible working hours and, depending on the position, up to 60% home office
• Hitachi Rail gives you holidays on Christmas (24.12) and New Year's Eve (31.12)
• Discounts for employees (canteen, shops, corporate benefits, tickets, etc.)
• Various training opportunities - online, internal and external training courses
• A stable employer in a collegial and international environment

Salary

The salary for this position starts at EUR 95.000 gross p.a. Actual compensation is based on experience and qualification.

WHO WE ARE

A career at Hitachi Rail will help create a legacy. With operations in every corner of the world, our work goes to the cutting-edge of digital transformation and technology. From the multi-cultural strength of our global organisation to the sustainable and innovative ways we work to bring people together, there's something for everyone to get stuck into. And that's where you come in.

At Hitachi Rail, there is a place for everyone. We welcome and value differences in background, age, gender, sexuality, family status, disability, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, and world view. It is our commitment to create an inclusive environment - we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

About this job

Employment type: Full Time (Permanent employment)

Salary: from 95,000 EUR yearly

Seniority level: Project or Team Lead, Senior Position

Work model: Hybrid

Place of work: Wien

Field of work: Executives, Management, IT, Data Processing

Unfilled vacancies: 1 vacancy unfilled for this position

About the company

Employer: Hitachi Rail Austria GmbH

Number of employees: 101 - 500 employees

Locations: Wien

Details about this job

Full Time (Permanent employment)

• Monday to Friday
• 38,5 hours

Place of work

• Wien

Must-have skills

• leadership experience in a large engineering organization
• engineering background
• complex product ecosystems
• safety-critical development environments
• cloud technologies
• modern software architectures
• cybersecurity principles
• large-scale system integration

Benefits

• Good transportation connections very good accessibility by public transport (Vienna Handelskai)
• Transportation allowance subsidies for public transport
• Flexible working hours
• Home office depending on the position, up to 60% home office
• Employee discounts Discounts for employees (canteen, shops, corporate benefits, tickets, etc.)
• Meal allowance
• Education and training Various training opportunities - online, internal and external training courses

All infos regarding your application

Reference number: R0146598-1