Head of Engineering

DEPT® is a Growth Invention company built to help the world’s most ambitious brands grow faster. 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. 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.

Responsibilities

Leadership of Leaders: lead, coach, and mentor Team Leads and Senior Engineers, own their career paths, and empower them to lead their own sub-teams to excellence; AI Change Management: define the roadmap for integrating Artificial Intelligence into the daily engineering lifecycle (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Agentic Workflows) and act as a change agent; Operational Excellence: take full ownership of department's operational performance (resource planning, budget monitoring, utilization) and ensure a profitable and scalable engineering organization; Strategic Partnering: 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 key accounts; Cultural Stewardship: foster an inclusive, motivating, high-performance culture and establish modern department rituals that promote knowledge sharing and innovation

Requirements

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

Benefits

Flexible, hybrid working policy (2 days from the office, depending on location); 25 days holiday with 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; Contribution to health through the OpenUp platform; Choice to work from spacious and barrier-free location in Zurich or small fully equipped office in Bern; Social events and opportunities to connect with colleagues; Certified B Corp since 2021; Opportunity to work with clients of all sizes and across all industries; Training, development and certifications; Global annual DEPT® Cares Month