Head of Platform Engineering

**The opportunity**:
As the Head of Platform Engineering, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our company's technology infrastructure. Reporting directly to the VP of Engineering and in partnership with the Head of Product, Platform, you will co-lead the Platform hive consisting of PayOps, Site Reliability Engineering, and Data Platform. Together, these teams are dedicated to building and maintaining a robust, scalable, and secure platform that empowers our product and delivery teams to achieve their goals.

Your primary mission is to ensure that our technology infrastructure is a strategic asset, enabling our teams to deliver exceptional products and services to our customers with maximum efficiency and agility. You will oversee all aspects of platform engineering, including cloud strategy and tooling, developer experience, CI/CD pipelines, test automation, and architecture evolution.

In collaboration with the VP of Product and Head of Data, you will take ownership of developing and delivering critical platform capabilities and services, including mobile apps, web platform, partner platform, developer platform & operational tooling, payment gateways, APIs, sales tools, ERP and financial system integrations, invoicing and billing solutions, and cybersecurity.

**Your responsibilities**:

- **Leadership**: Provide strong technical leadership to guide the platform engineering team towards excellence, manage and mentor a high-performing team of platform engineers, and foster a culture of collaboration and innovation within the platform engineering team.
- **Strategy**: Develop, communicate, and execute a platform engineering strategy and tactical plan, enabling the successful execution of the Group's overall Engineering vision..
- **Innovation**: Stay ahead of emerging technologies and lead the development of cutting-edge platform solutions, implement innovative practices and processes within the platform engineering team, and empower platform engineers to experiment with new technologies and approaches.
- **Team Growth**: Attract, develop, and retain a passionate team of platform engineers. Partner with the TA team to implement successful employer branding initiatives.
- **Engineer Happiness**: Empower platform engineers to work on technical projects that improve the platform's overall health. Foster a culture of inclusiveness, respect, fun, and high energy within the platform engineering team.

**What you need to succeed**:

- 8+ years of experience focused on Platform Engineering with a demonstrated track record of success in managing and optimizing platform infrastructure in large-scale environments
- Initial experience leading and mentoring individual contributor engineers of all seniority levels
- Strong understanding of cloud native architectures and experience with GCP
- Proficient understanding and experience with containerization technologies, particularly Kubernetes
- Expertise in designing and building distributed systems, services, and systems integrations
- Deep understanding of cybersecurity
- Strong communication and collaboration skills
- A passion for technology and innovation

**Our offer to you**:

- We're working in hybrid mode offering you flexibility to work onsite and from home
- WorkOUT Life Balance: 30 days paid vacation per year, flexible working hours, free access to our Employee Assistance Program, plus up to 3 months of remote working from anywhere in the EU, desk swap policy allowing additional remote working time from our other European offices
- Regular team events and other initiatives helping employees to stay productive, healthy and engaged during hybrid mode
- Personal development perks including an annual budget for books and online trainings, regular internal trainings, German and English language classes
- Many additional perks including: choice of computer/technology, dog-friendly workplace, fully equipped kitchens with healthy snacks & beverages, employee referral bonuses, private pension with employer contribution, and more
- A free Urban Sports Club L Pro Membership

**_Urban Sports Club is committed to providing a friendly, safe, and welcoming environment for everyone who applies for a position or already works with us, regardless of their sports preferences, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, or religion (or lack thereof)._