Head of Engineering — Fintech | Berlin
We are supporting a growing fintech client based in Berlin to find their next Head of Engineering. This is a senior leadership hire, taking ownership of a 50+ person engineering department spanning multiple technical disciplines, with a mix of in-house and outsourced delivery capacity.
About our client
Our client is a Berlin-headquartered fintech scaling its engineering function through a period of real growth and change. They're looking for a leader who can bring structure, pace and credibility to a department that's already sizeable and only getting more complex.
The role
You'll take full ownership of how the engineering department is organised, resourced and led — shaping the balance between core platform teams and product-aligned squads, and making sure priorities and ownership are crystal clear across Engineering, Product, Design and the commercial functions. Engineering managers, senior/staff engineers and technical product leads will report to you directly.
What the role involves
- Owning the shape and resourcing of the engineering department as it continues to scale
- Directly leading a team of managers, senior technical staff and technical product leads
- Running planning cycles, milestone tracking, architectural governance and dependency management to keep delivery predictable and on schedule
- Building the next layer of engineering leadership through mentoring, promotion pathways, career frameworks and performance management
- Establishing strong QA and release governance practices
- Creating a transparent, psychologically safe engineering culture
- Representing engineering at exec level — partnering with the CEO, CTO, Finance and Product on budget, headcount and vendor decisions
- Championing modern engineering practice, including AI-assisted development and observability tooling
What our client is looking for
- Proven experience leading a large (50+), technically diverse engineering organisation, ideally within fintech or another regulated/high-growth tech environment
- A track record of designing or restructuring how an engineering department operates
- Experience leading through other leaders rather than purely individual contributors
- Confident operating and communicating at board/executive level
- A history of developing internal talent into leadership positions
- Genuine interest in modern engineering tooling and AI-assisted workflows