Head of Engineering

OpenUp

Amsterdam

Hybrid

EUR 100,000 - 130,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Monthly internet/phone contribution

Healthy vegetarian lunch

Weekly yoga and meditation classes

Flexible work model

27.5 vacation days

Free family access to products

Job summary

A mental well-being services company based in Amsterdam is seeking a Head of Engineering to lead a skilled team through a transition to AI-driven practices. The ideal candidate will have over 5 years in engineering leadership, experience with AI/ML in product features, and a passion for mentoring. This full-time position offers a dynamic work environment with perks including flexible working arrangements and health benefits.

Qualifications

5+ years of experience in engineering leadership.
Experience leading teams through technical transformations.
Demonstrated ability to mentor and coach engineers.

Responsibilities

Lead and grow a talented team of engineers.
Pilot new AI tools and champion workflow improvements.
Develop a roadmap for embedding AI in products and practices.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Mentoring and coaching

AI/ML integration

Software engineering fundamentals

DevOps and Infrastructure

Tools

Node

.Net

React

Job description

OpenUp Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands

Overview

OpenUp is on a mission to make mental well-being accessible to everyone – anytime, anywhere. We support companies, their employees, and their families with a wide range of mental well-being services, all from one platform. Through OpenUp, people gain access to well-being check-ins, self-guided online courses, articles, videos, interactive group sessions, mindfulness sessions, and a team of certified psychologists and lifestyle experts. We take a holistic approach to health by integrating nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management.

The Role

As our Head of Engineering, you'll lead and grow a talented team of engineers and tech leads through OpenUp’s transition to an AI-first company. You’ll partner closely with product and data teams to integrate AI into our user experience and champion the adoption of AI-driven tools and workflows throughout the engineering organization.

You’ll lead by example: piloting new AI tools, championing workflow improvements, and upskilling the team. You’ll also ensure we continue to deliver quality software at a predictable, sustainable pace as we ramp up our use of AI. If you love guiding teams through change, enjoy technical coaching, and want to help define what AI-first engineering looks like in practice, this is your chance.

What AI-first means at OpenUp

AI as product: We are building user-facing features powered by the latest in AI/ML (LLMs, generative AI, intelligent coaching, etc.).
AI in workflow: We’re committed to piloting and gradually adopting AI-driven tools (for code generation, automated testing, bug triage, and more) to help our engineers build and ship faster, with higher quality.
Pragmatic transformation: AI is a core strategic focus, but we know not everything can or should be automated overnight. We value leaders who can balance experimentation with pragmatism, and help bring the whole team along for the ride—your leadership will be critical in charting this course and ensuring meaningful adoption across the team.

About You

5+ years of experience in engineering leadership (e.g., Head, Director, or Engineering Manager) in a SaaS or tech product environment.
Experience leading teams through technical or workflow transformations (e.g., adopting new tools, frameworks, or methodologies).
Proven ability to mentor, coach, and develop engineers and tech leads—especially in times of change or upskilling.
Demonstrated experience integrating or shipping AI/ML-powered product features or engineering tools.
Deep technical expertise in software engineering fundamentals (cloud, CI/CD, security, code quality) and a strong interest in the evolving AI tool landscape (e.g., LLMs, MLOps, code generation, open-source and commercial AI platforms).
Analytical, metrics-driven approach to engineering management and continuous improvement.
Excellent communicator and collaborator across functions.
Strong preference for candidates with DevOps and Infrastructure experience.
Knowledge / experience with Node, .Net, React is a great plus.
Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing engineering team (10–15 engineers, 2 tech leads), ensuring delivery of roadmap goals and technical excellence.
Own and optimize engineering practices—velocity, quality, reliability, and scalable SDLC.
Set clear standards and use metrics to drive continuous improvement in delivery, quality, and developer productivity.

AI-First Engineering Leadership

Develop and communicate a clear vision and roadmap for embedding AI in both our product and engineering practices.
Be a technical “first-mover”—pilot, validate, and introduce new AI tools and workflows, guiding adoption and scale.
Partner with tech leads and engineers to identify areas where AI can have the highest impact on our codebase, processes, and developer experience.
Lead upskilling and knowledge-sharing efforts to build team capability in AI/ML and modern software engineering.
Work closely with Product, Data, and Design teams to deliver cohesive, user-centric AI-powered features.
Communicate technical vision, progress, challenges, and learnings to company leadership and the broader team.
What success looks like: The team delivers robust, user-facing AI-powered features and continuously improves engineering velocity and quality.
AI tooling is adopted pragmatically: Starting with pilots and iterating based on impact and learning for full scale adoption.
The engineering team’s skills and confidence in using AI steadily increase: with knowledge-sharing and upskilling as a regular part of team culture.

What you can expect

Joining OpenUp means being part of a fast-growing company that's doing something meaningful. You'll work with a diverse and international team. We like to have fun together with many team-building activities like our weekly borrels and after-work sports classes, the yearly ski-trip, and our Padel tournament. This makes our work fun, challenging and dynamic. Apart from this, we offer:

Monthly home internet/phone contribution
Daily healthy and vegetarian lunch at our office
Weekly office yoga, meditation classes or breathing exercises
Flexible work model (hybrid and options for remote work)
Monthly drinks and company wide summer fest and other fun activities
27.5 vacation days per year
Free and unlimited access for you and your family to all our products, including our psychologists

Seniority level