Head of Engineering (Berlin, hybrid)

A little about us

• What we're building: Kittl is becoming the AI-native, operating system for creative businesses. Most businesses don't lose on product, they lose on how they show up. We give small brands the creative firepower to look credible and get from idea to launch-ready, with no agency and no design team
• Rapid growth: 11 million users since 2022
• Diverse team: 120+ people from 30+ countries, with offices in Berlin and Düsseldorf and teammates working remotely
• Truly product-led company: Engineers, Product Managers and Designers sit at the core of what we build
• Backing: Raised ~$50M, led by IVP with Left Lane Capital and Speedinvest. IVP has also backed Figma, Slack, and Dropbox

Learn more: www.kittl.com/career

Your role at Kittl

Kittl's engineering team builds the product 11 million users rely on. As our Head of Engineering, you'll build the organisation behind it: you'll manage engineers directly and turn capable team leads into strong managers. You'll own how we deliver, which means finding what really slows us down, fixing the system and proving it worked, with the team we already have. Reporting to our CTO, Phil, you'll shape engineering strategy with him and work hand in hand with Product and Marketing so our capacity goes where Kittl is heading. If you want the organisation you leave behind to be your best work, this is the role.

Tasks

What you'll do

• Grow your leads: Coach first-time team leads into confident managers, and manage your engineers directly with clear expectations and honest feedback
• Build the people basics: Set fair, consistent standards for performance, feedback, career growth and onboarding, much of it from scratch
• Unblock delivery: Find the real bottleneck, change the system and show that it worked, so delivery gets more predictable with the team we already have
• Own quality: Earn senior engineers' trust quickly and take real ownership of quality, so release decisions no longer depend on the CTO
• Connect up and across: Shape engineering strategy with the CTO, keep leadership updated on progress and risks, and turn strategy into what your teams actually work on
• Stay technically close: Weigh in on architecture and technical direction, and stay close enough to the code to make good calls

Requirements

What you'll need

• Experience: 8+ years in software engineering, including 5+ years managing engineering teams
• Leaders you've grown: You've turned senior engineers or team leads into managers, and can tell us who, how and what changed
• Delivery you've fixed: You've measurably improved how a team ships, without adding people to do it
• Technical credibility: Strong background in software development, architecture and systems design, in a TypeScript, React and Node.js stack. Senior engineers trust your calls
• People-first leadership: You get energy from growing people, and you've built teams others want to join

Interview process

• Recruiter interview (45 min)
• CTO & People interview (70 min)
• Product & delivery interview (45 min)
• Meeting the team (2 × 30 min)
• Bar raiser interview with our Head of Data, plus lunch with the team leads in our Berlin office (45 min + lunch)

Our core tech stack

TypeScript, Python, Node.js, React, Next.js, Postgres, Pulumi, k8s

You'll do well here if:

• You pick up problems nobody assigned you. If something's broken and no one has stepped up, you're the person who does
• You'd rather make the call and adjust than wait until you're certain. Speed is how we win
• You want to own a domain deeply enough that people rely on your judgement in it, whether or not you manage anyone
• You'll argue for your position and commit fully when the call goes the other way
• You care about details other people would call excessive. We hold a higher bar than most, on purpose
• You use AI constantly and still own every word you ship

Every new hire should raise the bar in some meaningful way, not just fill a seat. We hold to that, and it's why you'll be working with the most talented people from all over the world.

Benefits

• Real ownership: You own what you ship, end to end. Whether you lead a team or lead through craft, we back you to work on what matters most
• Work at the edge of AI and design: Kittl sits where AI, design and commerce meet. You'll be learning on the frontier, not reading about it
• Work-life balance: 30 vacation days a year, plus public holidays
• Hybrid working style: 3 days a week in our office in the heart of Prenzlauer Berg, the rest of the week from home
• Remote work: On top of that, work from anywhere in the world for up to 50 days (10 weeks) a year
• VESOP: Enrolment in our Virtual Employee Stock Option Plan. When Kittl grows in value, you share in it
• Lunch: Daily chef-prepared meals in the office
• Mobility: Your monthly BVG ticket, fully covered
• Health & fitness: Urban Sports Club M membership
• Learning & development: Annual L&D budget for your professional growth
• German classes: Online group courses at every level
• Hackathons: Quarterly hackathons to experiment with new ideas, push boundaries and build the next big thing
• Kittl Week: Each year, our global team gathers for a whole week to work, celebrate, get inspired and have fun

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