Head of Engineering (f/m/d)

About the role

As Head of Engineering (f/m/d), you will be the driving force behind our technical strategy, overseeing the entire software lifecycle and the implementation of all products and features. Your role is pivotal in determining the technical direction for good software engineering practices, product development and resource allocation across various projects. This position offers an opportunity to lead a rapidly growing team, and to shape the future of our engineering efforts.

What you'll do

• Team Leaders hip: Personnel responsibility and full ownership of the day-to-day function and management of a team of engineers. The team has gone through a phase of growth that is expected to continue. Coach and mentor team leads and individual contributors, with the help of Employee Experience, to develop talent within the team and work on performance improvement when required.
• Strategic Technical Leadership: Drive the overarching technical vision for our suite of products to provide value to customers, ensure maintainability and achieve the company’s business goals. Foster innovation while being robust, scalable, and fit-for-future. Anticipate industry shifts and adapt our technological directions proactively. Work alongside senior team members to define and weigh in on core technical decisions and architectural changes. Drive continuous improvement of software engineering processes and best practices across the organization, ensuring high standards of code quality, efficiency, and maintainability. Champion a culture of engineering excellence and continuous learning.
• End-to-End Software Lifecycle Ownership: Bear end-to-end responsibility for the technology stack, components and services, and influence the overall system architecture in coordination with the Software Architecture team. Lead the evolution and implementation of robust software development lifecycle methodologies and best practices, from technical design and code review to testing, deployment, and incident response. Continuously optimize processes to maximize productivity, enhance quality, and ensure the performance and reliability of our systems.
• Collaborative Operations: Facilitate communication between cross-product teams and stay on top of resource allocation and activities to ensure that projects run on time. Collaborate with your peers in Software Architecture, Support, Product Management, Product Design, Data Platform and IT Operations on cross-cutting projects.
• Resource Allocation: Work closely with product management on engineering resource capacity planning and allocation and that work estimates are realistic and achievable with attainable goals. Own and oversee the engineering budget, which includes but is not limited to software licenses, R&D hardware and team travel expenses.

We are looking for someone with

• Minimum 5 years of experience managing engineering teams, including managing and mentoring team leads and individual contributors, and guiding groups through periods of strategic and technical change.
• A proven track record of managing large engineering teams and shipping user-facing products, preferably in a cloud platform.
• Demonstrated success in identifying, implementing, and optimizing software engineering processes and best practices (e.g., CI/CD, automated testing, DevOps principles, agile methodologies) to improve team efficiency, product quality, and system reliability.
• A proven ability to analyze current engineering practices, identify areas for improvement, and strategically implement scalable best practices and innovative solutions tailored to Cropster’s evolving needs.
• The Ability to balance business needs and technical challenges, and communicate tradeoffs effectively and with empathy.
• Passion to understand customer needs and a strong motivation to solve their problems rather than focusing on technology as an end in itself.
• The Ability to take decisive short and long-term decisions and actions under uncertainty.
• A people-first mindset complemented by a strong drive to implement and champion clearly defined, transparent, and continuously improving software engineering processes.
• Strong verbal, visual, and written communication skills with the ability to explain approach to all levels in the organization.

At this point, Cropster will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in Austria for this opening - now and in the future. For Non-EU applicants: please attach your work permit to your application.

What you can expect

The salary range for this position is € 85K to € 95K gross/year and we look at factors like your experience and individual qualifications to determine our offer, which includes benefits like an educational and wellness budget, remote work possibilities, and working from home, flexible working hours, paid time for volunteer work, an endless stream of really great coffee, and much more. We also make our best possible offer upfront—no games.