Head of Engineering

Head of Engineering

JOB PURPOSE

This role is part of our Experience & Engineering team in Germany. We combine technology and experience design to create emotive yet conversion-focused ideas, products, and campaigns at scale and speed. Our specialty is digital experiences and communication that change perceptions and shape new behaviours to make a difference in the market.

In this key leadership position, you are responsible for the strategic direction and growth of our Engineering teams. You will lead a team of approximately 7-9 professionals, including Team Leads and Senior Engineers. Your focus shifts from writing code to building systems: you will optimize processes, develop the next generation of leaders, and actively drive the cultural change toward AI-driven development.

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

• Leadership of Leaders: You lead, coach, and mentor Team Leads and Senior Engineers. You own their career paths and empower them to lead their own sub-teams to excellence.
• AI Change Management: You define the roadmap for integrating Artificial Intelligence into the daily engineering lifecycle (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Agentic Workflows). You act as a change agent, transforming our workflows for maximum efficiency and innovation.
• Operational Excellence: You take full ownership of your department's operational performance (resource planning, budget monitoring, utilization) and ensure a profitable and scalable engineering organization.
• Strategic Partnering: You work closely with Directors and VPs to sharpen DEPT®’s technological vision in the DACH region and act as a high-level technical sparring partner for our key accounts.
• Cultural Stewardship: You foster an inclusive, motivating, high-performance culture and establish modern department rituals that promote knowledge sharing and innovation.

WHAT YOU BRING:

• Proven People Manager: You have a track record of leading teams in a "manager-of-managers" structure or significant experience leading larger engineering departments.
• Change Agent: You are passionate about the potential of AI in the software lifecycle and have a clear vision of how modern engineering organizations must evolve.
• Frontend Background: You possess a deep technical history in frontend development, allowing you to validate architectural decisions and act as a mentor on eye-level.
• Business Acumen: You understand the economic drivers of an agency or consultancy and can translate KPIs into actionable success.
• Communication: You are a confident communicator in both German and English, able to present complex technical topics to both stakeholders and clients.

WE OFFER:

• Flexible, hybrid working policy (2 days from the office, depending on location);
• 25 days holiday with the opportunity to take unpaid leave;
• Flexible health budget and Wellness & personal day.
• Learning & development budget.
• Referral bonus program.
• Occasional breakfast & lunch at the office, Smoothie Tuesday.
• Stay happy and healthy with a contribution to your health through the OpenUp platform.
• You can choose to work from the spacious and barrier-free location in Zurich; in Bern you can expect a small but nice and fully equipped office where you can hit the keys in peace.
• Social events, plenty of opportunities to connect with colleagues through organised activities and celebrations.
• A reputation for doing good. DEPT® has been a Certified B Corp® since 2021 and named ‘Agency of the Year’ at both The Lovies and The Webby Awards.
• Awesome clients. Whether big or small, local or global — at DEPT® you’ll get the opportunity to work with clients of all sizes and across all industries. And we celebrate all of our successes together!
• The opportunity for possibility. We want to enable you to do what you do best and help you develop your skills further with training, development and certifications.
• Global annual DEPT® Cares Month in which employees come together and donate their skills to support local charities.