Head of Engineering

Dex; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Dex is partnering with a high-growth Open-Source analytics platform. We are seeking a Head of Engineering who will lead a dozen engineers alongside the CTO, while remaining hands-on to ship code rapidly.

You will drive velocity, set architecture and security direction, own developer experience and tooling, and ensure reliability with fast iteration. This rare role blends leadership with hands-on coding in a dynamic startup environment.

Qualifications

• Led engineers in a fast-moving startup or scaleup while staying hands-on.
• Drove product development from 0 to 1 or through hyper-growth with quick decisions.
• Strong architecture instincts and security knowledge to cut complexity.
• Built tooling and workflows to boost developer speed and experience.

Responsibilities

• Coach and unblock engineers daily to sustain extreme velocity.
• Make rapid architecture and security decisions that reduce complexity.
• Own the developer experience, tooling, and workflows that speed up delivery.
• Stay hands-on and contribute code while driving product delivery in an open-source environment.
• Own reliability and SLAs, balancing trust with rapid iteration.

Skills

Head of Engineering

Hands-on leadership

System architecture

Security knowledge

Developer experience

Observability

Job description

This role is with one of Dex's trusted partner companies. We work closely with their teams to truly understand their culture, goals, and what they're looking for, so we can match you with the right opportunity and give you context about the role before you commit to a process.

The role

This Series A company builds an open-source analytics platform. They help data teams manage metrics as code, turning a dbt project into a full BI solution. The result: everyone in the business gets self-serve analytics. They're backed by leading investors and growing fast.

You’ll lead a dozen engineers, working alongside the CTO. This isn't a pure management role; you'll still be hands‑on, shipping code. Your mandate is velocity: coaching, unblocking, making quick architecture and security calls. You'll own developer experience and tooling, setting the pace for the entire team. Expect to ship fast, learn faster, and own reliability in public.

The work

• Coach and unblock engineers daily, fostering extreme team velocity.
• Make rapid architecture and security decisions that cut complexity, not add process.
• Own the developer experience, tooling, and workflows that define how fast the team can move.
• Stay hands‑on, contributing code and driving product delivery in an open‑source environment.
• Own reliability and SLAs, balancing trust with a mandate for rapid iteration and shipping.

What You Bring

• You’ve led engineers in a fast‑moving startup or scaleup, as a Head of Engineering, EM, founder, or tech lead, and you’ve stayed hands‑on.
• You’ve taken a product from 0 to 1 or through hyper‑growth, making imperfect decisions quickly.
• You have strong architecture instincts and solid security knowledge, using them to cut complexity.
• You treat developer experience as the main lever on team speed, and you’ve built the tooling and workflows that prove it.
• You own monitoring, observability, and performance as part of shipping fast, not as a later cleanup.

This Head of Engineering role is rare: hands‑on, high velocity, and building an open‑source product.