Head of Engineering - Ad Management / Retail (all genders)

F11; Deutschland; On-site; EUR 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Factor Eleven is seeking a Head of Engineering for our AdManagement / Retail unit. You will own the technical engine behind the platform's primary interface and lead an engineering organisation rebuilding modules into a modern, AI-native architecture.

You will collaborate with the Head of Product and peers across tribes and stakeholders to drive architectural guardrails, alignment, and operational excellence in a high-stakes enterprise environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of leadership experience managing Engineering Managers.
• Several years of experience in AdTech product companies.
• 10+ years total software engineering experience with distributed systems and AWS.
• Hands-on experience with Node.js, TypeScript, React, GraphQL.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills with cross-functional peers and commercial leaders.

Responsibilities

• Lead and scale Engineering Managers through coaching and feedback.
• Drive the greenfield rebuild and cloud-native platform modernisation.
• Provide architectural guardrails with AI integration across workflows and product features.
• Build rapid trust across technical and non-technical boundaries and translate roadmaps into strategic value.
• Ensure high-quality, predictable delivery in a fast-paced environment.

Skills

Leadership

Cross-functional leadership

Strategic thinking

People development

Ambiguity tolerance

Tools

Node.js

TypeScript

React

GraphQL

Job description

About Us

Factor Eleven is a leading drive-to-store revenue platform for brick-and-mortar retailers and CPG brands. Our platform automates the entire lifecycle of digital promotion communication - from media planning and ad creation through to campaign delivery, billing, and reporting. Operating as a high-touch enterprise managed service, humans orchestrate our campaign strategy while our platform automates execution.

We're hiring a Head of Engineering for our AdManagement / Retail unit. In this role, you will own the technical engine behind the primary interface of F11's platform. Your mission is to lead, scale, and evolve an engineering organisation tasked with a massive, high-stakes objective: rebuilding these modules into a modern, AI-native architecture. You will act as the technical co-pilot to the Head of Product and collaborate closely with leadership peers across our other tribes and key commercial stakeholders. This is a role designed for a leader who thrives on breadth, loves complex orchestration, and wants to leave a definitive mark on a core enterprise platform.

What You Will Do

• Lead & Scale Leaders: Manage, coach, and develop a team of Engineering Managers. You will foster a culture of high performance, deep psychological safety, and continuous feedback.
• Drive Modernisation: Spearhead the greenfield rebuild and platform modernisation of our four core modules into a distributed, cloud-native system.
• Architectural Guardrails: Provide strong architectural oversight, ensuring key decisions align with our tech stack while actively embedding AI capabilities into both engineering workflows and product features.
• Cross-Functional Alignment: Build rapid trust across technical and non-technical boundaries, translating complex engineering roadmaps into clear strategic value for commercial leaders.
• Operational Excellence: Balance high-level strategic vision with relentless operational execution, ensuring high-quality, predictable delivery in a fast-paced environment.

What We Are Looking For

• 5+ years of leadership experience, with a proven track record of managing and developing Engineering Managers, not just individual contributors.
• Several years of experience in AdTech product companies
• 10+ years of total experience in software engineering, including solid knowledge of distributed systems and modern cloud architecture (AWS).
• Hands-on experience or deep technical familiarity with Node.js, TypeScript, React, and GraphQL.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills with a demonstrated ability to build trust quickly with cross-functional peers and commercial leaders.

What Makes You Exceptional

• High Ambiguity Tolerance: You are comfortable making sound technical and people decisions in environments without clear precedent or pre-defined processes.
• Domain Breadth: You are energised by owning multiple adjacent domains simultaneously, preferring systemic breadth over a narrow, single-domain focus.
• AI-native Mindset: You don't just view AI as a buzzword; you actively look for ways to integrate it into your team's development workflows and the product's feature set.
• Strategic Product Builder: You are an engineering leader who knows exactly when to build fresh and when to optimise, aligning technical execution with market opportunities. You have a sharp instinct for balancing technical debt against fast-paced business delivery.