VP of Engineering — Cologne (Hybrid)
B2B SaaS · €20M+ funded · Mostly remote · 1–2 days/month in office
The role
We're a well-funded B2B startup on a mission — and we're looking for a VP of Engineering who still loves the craft. Not a career politician. Not a slide-deck leader. Someone who gets genuinely excited by great technology and isn't afraid to roll up their sleeves.
As VP of Engineering, you'll own the entire engineering function — leading multiple teams across product, platform, and infrastructure. You'll report directly to the founders and play a defining role in how we build, hire, and scale. This is a seat at the table, with the autonomy to make real decisions.
But here's what makes this role different: we don't want someone who's fully moved on from the tech. We want a leader who's close enough to the code to command respect, catch problems early, and keep the bar high — even as the team grows.
On flexibility: We're a remote-first team. You'll be based near Cologne and expected in the office once or twice a month — the rest is yours to manage. We care about output and ownership, not face time.
What you'll do
- Lead and grow a team of 15+ engineers across multiple squads, with clear scope to scale
- Set engineering direction — architecture, technical standards, tooling, and process
- Partner with Product and Design to ship things that actually matter to customers
- Recruit, retain, and develop exceptional engineering talent
- Stay hands-on enough to review critical decisions, unblock teams, and occasionally dive into the code
- Own the engineering roadmap and ensure consistent, high-quality delivery
- Build a culture where engineers do their best work
Who you are
- You've led engineering teams before — ideally at a B2B startup or scale-up — and you know what good looks like
- You're technically credible. You may not be writing production code daily, but you can hold a deep architectural debate, spot a bad abstraction, and earn the respect of strong engineers
- You get genuinely excited about technology — new tools, emerging patterns, better ways to build
- You're a natural people leader who also gets things done. You hire well, give honest feedback, and develop engineers into great ones
- You thrive in ambiguity and move with urgency. Startup pace suits you
- You communicate clearly — with engineers, founders, and customers alike
- You don't delegate your way out of hard problems. You're willing to get your hands dirty
Nice to have
- Experience in B2B SaaS — you understand the product dynamics and customer expectations
- You've scaled a team through a growth phase before, ideally Series A to B and beyond
- Familiarity with modern cloud-native infrastructure and development practices
A note on culture
We're past the scrappy phase but still very much a startup. You'll have real influence here — over how we build, how we hire, and how engineering fits into the broader company story. We want someone who sees that as exciting, not daunting.