Head of Software Engineering

Adaptyv; Deutschland; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Adaptyv is building an automated biology lab where AI agents design and run experiments via software and hardware. We seek a player-coach who ships code while owning the engineering roadmap and team structure.

You will lead a small, high-output engineering team, stay hands-on, and align architecture across frontend, backend, data pipelines, and lab-integration, ensuring speed without compromising quality.

Qualifications

• Shipped production software for years and still want to build.
• Hired, managed, and developed engineers to form a high-performing team.
• Owned or significantly shaped an engineering roadmap and made pragmatic tradeoffs.
• Made architectural decisions across frontend, backend, data, and infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Own the engineering roadmap and decide what to build, defer, or kill.
• Set technical direction and architecture across frontend, backend, data pipelines, and lab-hardware integration.
• Ship code yourself on high-leverage problems and maintain velocity.
• Hire, grow, and set the bar for a fast-moving team that ships and keeps quality high.
• Embed AI-assisted development practices to gain speed.

Skills

Still building

Team leadership

Roadmap ownership

Technical breadth

AI-native

Biology interest

Job description

Adaptyv is building an automated lab that lets AI agents run biology experiments.

We're entering the era of agentic science where AI models can now design novel proteins, propose hypotheses, and iterate on experimental results. But they can't run the experiments themselves - that's still a manual, months-long process. We're building the infrastructure that gives AI agents access to the physical world.

We are one of the fastest growing biotech companies, trusted by leading biopharmas, frontier AI labs, and the techbio companies pushing the field forward. This is a rare chance to help advance some of the most important work happening in biotech today.

Our automated lab is powered by a deep software + hardware stack: lab instruments worth millions of USD reverse-engineered into API-controllable hardware, dozens of devices orchestrated through complex workflows, full observability on everything that happens in the lab, processing pipelines for messy physical-world data, and AI systems that troubleshoot production results and accelerate assay development.

We’re growing rapidly and are hiring for talented people to scale and support the massive demand for AI-driven wet lab experimentation.

About the Role

You'll be a player-coach — someone who still ships code but also owns the engineering roadmap, team structure, and technical direction. You'll translate company strategy into engineering priorities, make sure the right things get built in the right order, and help a small, high-output team scale without losing speed.

You'll lead a small, technical engineering team that leverages AI to build the software infrastructure for running our automated lab. Your job is to make it the best small engineering team in biotech, and grow it thoughtfully as we scale.

This is not a management-track role where you stop building. You'll stay hands-on, especially as AI agents reshape what a small engineering team can accomplish. We expect you to be deeply technical, opinionated about architecture, and actively shipping — while also being the person who ensures the whole engineering org is pointed in the right direction and moving fast.

Day-to-day, that can mean:

• Owning the engineering roadmap — deciding what to build, what to defer, and what to kill

• Setting technical direction and architecture across frontend, backend, data pipelines, and lab-hardware integration

• Shipping code yourself on the highest-leverage problems, not just reviewing it

• Hiring, growing, and setting the bar for a team that ships fast and holds quality high — our lab runs on this software, so when things break, real experiments fail and real customers are affected

• Building the team's AI-assisted development practices into a genuine speed advantage

What we're looking for

• Still building. You've shipped production software for years and you're not looking to leave the code behind — you want a role where you build and lead at the same time.

• You've built teams. You've hired, managed, and developed engineers, and built a team that ships fast and holds a high bar — at least once before, in a startup or high-growth environment.

• Roadmap ownership. You've owned or significantly shaped an engineering roadmap. You've made the call on what to build, defer, and kill — and you make pragmatic tradeoffs that keep things shipping and stop projects from growing out of scope.

• Technical breadth. You make good architectural decisions across frontend, backend, data, and infrastructure, and you know when to go deep versus when to delegate.

• AI-native. It's 2026 — you already build with AI agents and coding tools as a force multiplier, and you have a real point of view on how they change team structure, tooling, and workflow.

• A genuine interest in biology. No background required, but our product is running biology experiments in the physical world and that should excite you.

• High-autonomy, founder mindset. We share context and vision openly. You figure out what matters most and go work on it.

Application deadline

We are reviewing applicants on a rolling basis.