Head of Engineering

Think Grow; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 190,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Think Grow is partnering with a leading Australian EdTech business delivering live online tutoring across Australia and New Zealand. We are seeking a Working Head of Engineering to lead a team of 11 across Sydney and the Philippines, spending about 80–85% on delivery and 15–20% on technical strategy, security and governance.

The role reports to the CEO, with a clear path to Head of Technology or CTO within three to four years.

Qualifications

• Experience leading 10+ engineers across multiple stacks and vendors.
• Hands-on AWS full stack and React experience.
• Practical AI experience and ability to bring along a sceptical team.
• Product prioritisation and ability to explain trade-offs to a CEO.

Responsibilities

• Own the engineering roadmap and quarterly delivery plan, ~10 initiatives per quarter, lead sprints, backlog, requirements and releases hands-on.
• Coordinate front end, back end, Salesforce, QA and data to avoid cross-stack delays.
• Move engineers to owner-ship of end-to-end initiatives and run stakeholder playbacks.
• Lead the shift to AI in coding, testing and deployment using existing tools.
• Guide the six- to twelve-month plan toward a unified full-stack, cloud-native team.
• Own architecture and make buy/build/retire decisions, reducing MuleSoft usage over 12–24 months.
• Merge existing codebases into a single platform and deliver frontend and AI pipeline work.
• Maintain platform stability with increasing release volume and uptime management.
• Manage vendors, forecast and control AWS and SaaS spend.
• Be the CEO's technical partner and face of technology to the business.

Skills

AWS

React

AI experience

Leadership

Product prioritization

Stakeholder communication

Security & governance

Cloud native architecture

Tools

Salesforce

MuleSoft

Snowflake

Job description

Sydney (Hybrid, 2 to 3 days in office) | EdTech | Consumer Subscription | Full Time

Think and Grow is a specialist executive search and growth talent partner supporting high growth technology and SaaS businesses across Australia and globally. We work closely with founders and leadership teams to build commercial, product, and operational capability at critical stages of growth.

We are representing a leading Australian EdTech business delivering live online tutoring to school students across Australia and New Zealand. Its edge is its learning data, captured from every tutoring session and used to power an AI-supported learning platform that makes each student's experience more personal. With the product and cost base rebuilt, the business is shipping more than ever and is hiring a Head of Engineering to make delivery predictable.

This role suits a working engineering leader who still understands the code and enjoys running delivery day to day. Reporting to the CEO, you will lead a team of 11 across Sydney and the Philippines, spending around 80 to 85% of your time on engineering and delivery and the rest on technical strategy, security and governance. There is a clear path to Head of Technology or CTO within three to four years.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the engineering roadmap and quarterly delivery plan, around 10 major initiatives a quarter, and run sprints, backlog, requirements and releases hands on
• Coordinate front end, back end, Salesforce, QA and data so projects stop stalling between stacks
• Move engineers from stack specialists to owners of initiatives end to end, including running playbacks with business stakeholders
• Lead the shift to AI in how the team writes, tests and ships code, building on tools already in use like Cursor and Claude
• Assess the team and lead a staged plan over around six months towards a unified full stack, cloud native team, while protecting critical knowledge
• Own architecture and build, buy or retire decisions, including moving off MuleSoft and reducing reliance on the current CRM over 12 to 24 months
• Merge existing codebases into one platform and deliver the front end and AI pipeline work planned for the next three to six months
• Keep the platform stable as release volume grows, owning uptime, incidents and recovery
• Manage technical vendors, and forecast and control AWS and SaaS spend
• Act as the CEO's technical partner and the face of tech to the wider business

What They Are Looking For

• Experience leading 10+ engineers across several stacks and vendors, with examples of projects you got moving again
• Hands on AWS full stack and React experience, with a strong view on keeping a stack simple
• Practical AI experience. You have run real processes with AI and brought a sceptical team along with you
• Product and prioritisation sense, and the ability to explain trade offs plainly to a CEO and business users
• Experience moving off Salesforce, MuleSoft or a similar platform, or leading a stack simplification, highly valued
• Experience leading a split onshore and offshore team highly valued
• Background in subscription, B2C or high volume consumer products highly valued
• Exposure to security and governance, Snowflake or data platforms, a computer science degree or AWS certification a bonus
• Energised by pace and volume, comfortable with good over perfect, and steady when things move quickly
• Ambitious to grow into a Head of Technology or CTO role

This is not the right fit for someone from a mainly infrastructure or IT background, or someone looking for a pure strategy role with no day to day delivery.

If you enjoy running delivery, building ownership in a team and putting AI to real use in a product that helps kids learn, this is a strong opportunity to make an immediate impact.