Head of Engineering

UAB-Online; Utrecht; Hybrid; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

UAB-Online is seeking a Head of Engineering to lead a 10-person in-house team and drive the technical strategy for our SaaS platform connecting vessels, terminals and partners worldwide.

You will own hiring, engineering practices, architecture decisions and the delivery capability across the stack. The role requires hands-on leadership with a focus on scalable, secure, AI-enhanced development and measurable improvements.

Qualifications

• Experience as a Head of Engineering or Engineering Manager leading more than five engineers
• Proven track record coaching engineers and developing people into new roles
• Strong understanding of C#/.NET, Vue.js/TypeScript, and modern DevOps practices
• Ability to guide architectural decisions and raise engineering quality without always coding day-to-day
• Proficiency in English; Dutch proficiency preferred
• Experience working in ISO-certified environments (27001/9001) or similar quality frameworks

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop engineers across levels
• Own hiring, performance reviews, and career development within Engineering
• Build squads with clear ownership and effective cross-team collaboration
• Improve delivery flow, predictability and throughput while maintaining quality
• Set working agreements for readiness, estimation, scope and changes
• Define standards for architecture, testing, maintainability, security and observability
• Review architecture and challenge technical decisions without writing production features daily
• Lead AI-assisted and agentic software development initiatives across design to operations
• Integrate high-value AI workflows across design, implementation and QA
• Measure impact, scale practices and ensure human oversight
• Collaborate with Head of Product and COO on scope, capacity and risk trade-offs

Skills

Leadership

Hiring & mentoring

Agile methods

Architecture review

C#/.NET

Vue.js/TypeScript

Azure

Kubernetes

DevOps / CI/CD

AI-assisted development

Security & privacy

English proficiency

Dutch proficiency

Tools

Azure

Kubernetes

CI/CD pipelines

Git

Docker

Job description

As the Head of Engineering at UAB-Online, you play a key role in how we build and deliver our SaaS platform. Our software connects terminals, vessel operators, and supply chain partners worldwide, helping them collaborate more efficiently across liquid and dry bulk operations. Every day, ships, terminals, traders and surveyors coordinate complex vessel operations through documents, email and phone calls. We bring these stakeholders together in one platform, making liquid and dry bulk operations safer, more efficient and more sustainable.

It is working: 10,000+ users across 100+ terminals have already handled more than 1,000,000 vessel visits on UAB-Online. As we scale internationally, we are looking for a Head of Engineering to develop our teams, strengthen how we deliver software and help shape the future of our platform.

You lead a 10-person in-house engineering team that is also expanding internationally. You own the personal development, structure, delivery capability, architecture and technical quality of Engineering, and you help the organisation evolve.

Our platform is built with C#/.NET and Vue.js/TypeScript, runs on Microsoft Azure and Kubernetes, and is supported by modern DevOps and CI/CD practices. You don't need to be the team's primary coder, but you should have the technical depth to guide architectural decisions and raise the engineering bar across this stack.

A central part of the role is advancing how we build software. We want to move beyond individual coding assistants towards practical, increasingly agentic workflows across the development lifecycle. You turn that ambition into a responsible engineering capability, combining measurable improvements with clear guardrails for security, privacy, quality and human accountability.

hands-on leadership role in a company of around 30 people: close enough to the team to coach and support each engineer, and close enough to the work to keep the bar high.

What you can expect

As Head of Engineering, your work combines leading and coaching people with shaping how software is built. One moment you may be coaching an engineer in a one-on-one, while the next you are reviewing an architecture proposal, agreeing on delivery expectations with Product, or working out how AI-assisted development can be used responsibly across the team.

You can expect a role with a clear mandate: a capable team, visible impact on how we deliver, and room to shape team structure, engineering practices and technical quality in a growing company.

Your work will include:

• Leading, coaching and developing engineers at different levels of seniority

• Owning hiring, performance, feedback, career development and progression within Engineering

• Building squads with clear ownership and establishing effective ways of working across the in-house and remote teams

• Improving delivery flow, predictability and throughput without compromising quality or sustainable pace

• Establishing clear working agreements for readiness, estimation, completion and scope changes

• Setting and upholding standards for architecture, testing, maintainability, reliability, security, privacy and observability

• Reviewing architecture and challenging technical decisions without needing to write production features day to day

• Defining and leading our approach to AI-assisted and increasingly agentic software development

• Integrating high-value AI workflows across design, implementation, testing, review, documentation and operations

• Measuring what works, scaling effective practices and ensuring appropriate human oversight

• Partnering with the Head of Product and COO to make scope, capacity, quality, risk and delivery trade-offs explicit

For this role, we are looking for an experienced engineering leader who combines people leadership with genuine technical depth. You are comfortable setting direction, holding a high bar, and staying close enough to the technology to have real conversations about architecture and quality.

In general, we look for:

• Ownership: you take responsibility for your work, follow through, and actively look for ways to improve results

• Genuine communication: you communicate openly and respectfully, listen well, and say what you mean

• Collaboration: you share knowledge, ask for input, support others, and help the team make better decisions faster

• Experience working in an Agile environment

• Ability to work effectively in a cross-functional team while also being comfortable working independently

• Adaptability in a dynamic environment with changing priorities

• A proactive approach to problem-solving and continuous improvement

• Integrity and professionalism when working with business-critical systems and information

• Comfortable working in an ISO-certified environment, including ISO 27001 and ISO 9001, and following agreed processes for quality, security, and continuous improvement

For the Head of Engineering role, we additionally value:

• Experience as a Head of Engineering or Engineering Manager leading more than five engineers, with responsibility for hiring, performance and development

• Demonstrated success leading a distributed team across a meaningful timezone difference

• Genuine technical depth: you can read code, review architecture, challenge designs and recognise work that falls below the required standard

• Familiarity with our stack, C#/.NET, Vue.js/TypeScript, Microsoft Azure and Kubernetes, and modern DevOps and CI/CD practices, sufficient to guide architectural decisions and assess technical quality without being the team's primary coder

• Direct experience improving agile engineering practices, with concrete examples and measurable outcomes

• A track record of coaching engineers and developing people into new roles

• Strong judgement and communication skills, with the ability to set boundaries and resolve disagreements constructively

• Comfort working in a small, growing company where leaders own outcomes directly

• Practical experience with AI-assisted software development and introducing new tools or workflows into an engineering team

• A responsible approach to AI, with safeguards for quality, security, privacy, intellectual property and human accountability

• Full professional proficiency in English, both spoken and written

• Proficiency in Dutch is preferred

Experience with the following is considered a plus:

• Maritime, logistics, shipping or another regulated B2B domain

• Increasing a team's output without simply increasing headcount

• Working alongside a product leader

• Implementing agentic development workflows or scaling AI-enabled practices across multiple teams

Working at UAB-Online

This vacancy gives you an impression of the role itself. If you would like to learn more about our team, culture, benefits, office, and hiring process, you can find more information on our careers page.