Head of Engineering

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Head of Engineering based in Switzerland. As Head of Engineering, you’ll help transform a strong engineering team into a scalable, structured, and high-performing technology organisation. You’ll sit between senior technology leadership and engineering teams, translating business priorities into realistic plans while strengthening delivery predictability and ownership. The role combines people leadership, organisational design, strategic planning, and enough technical depth to guide complex engineering decisions. You’ll shape leadership layers, hiring plans, engineering standards, and processes as the organisation enters an ambitious phase of growth. Your work will directly influence reliability, product delivery, team development, and the ability to scale sustainably. This is a high-impact opportunity for an experienced engineering leader who thrives in founder-led, fast-moving, remote-first environments. Lead and scale the engineering organisation, with a strong focus on people leadership, organisational structure, accountability, and predictable delivery. Own engineering delivery at an organisational level, including capacity planning, prioritisation, roadmap feasibility, resource allocation, and dependency management. Directly manage and develop engineering leaders, including Tech Leads and QA Leads, while evolving leadership structures as the organisation grows. Partner closely with senior technology, product, and business leaders to translate strategic priorities into clear engineering plans, realistic timelines, and informed trade-offs. Establish clear standards for architecture, quality, reliability, security, and engineering practices, enabling teams to operate with increasing autonomy. Maintain accountability for overall service reliability by establishing clear ownership, escalation processes, monitoring, and continuous improvement practices. Lead engineering hiring, onboarding, performance management, succession planning, and career development to support sustainable growth. Build additional engineering capabilities beyond feature teams, including architecture, security, compliance, platform engineering, and other cross-functional technical disciplines. Strengthen engineering processes, decision-making frameworks, and accountability mechanisms to reduce dependency on individual contributors and founders. Support financial and headcount planning across the engineering organisation. Foster a culture of clarity, ownership, collaboration, continuous improvement, and high-quality execution. Remain technically engaged enough to understand complex topics, challenge assumptions, support sound decisions, and provide guidance when required. Requirements: 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including hands-on experience building and operating production web-based systems. 4+ years of engineering leadership experience in roles such as Engineering Manager, Head of Engineering, or Tech Lead with significant people-management responsibility. Demonstrated ownership of people leadership, engineering delivery, capacity planning, prioritisation, and organisational development. Strong experience leading senior engineers and technical leaders and helping them develop into broader leadership roles. Proven experience working closely with founders or executive leadership during periods of organisational growth and transformation. Strong background in delivery leadership and planning within SaaS, product-focused, or similarly fast-paced environments. Experience with engineering financial planning, headcount planning, and resource allocation. Strong communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across technical and non-technical stakeholders. Solid understanding of security fundamentals and secure software delivery practices. Good understanding of software architecture and produc