Head of Engineering at Dept

Head of Engineering Zurich, hybrid DEPT® is a Growth Invention company built to help the world’s most ambitious brands grow faster. Operating at the intersection of technology and marketing, our 4,000+ specialists deliver growth invention services across Brand & Media, Experience, Commerce, CRM, and Technology & Data. We’re 50|50 tech and marketing, partner-led, and first to move. Clients include Google, Lufthansa, Meta, eBay, and OpenAI. We have been certified B Corp and Climate Neutral since 2021. JOB PURPOSE This role is part of our Experience & Engineering team in Germany. We combine technology and experience design to create emotive yet conversion-focused ideas, products, and campaigns at scale and speed. Our specialty is digital experiences and communication that change perceptions and shape new behaviours to make a difference in the market. In this key leadership position, you are responsible for the strategic direction and growth of our Engineering teams. You will lead a team of approximately 7-9 professionals, including Team Leads and Senior Engineers. Your focus shifts from writing code to building systems: you will optimize processes, develop the next generation of leaders, and actively drive the cultural change toward AI-driven development. WHAT YOU’LL DO: • Leadership of Leaders: You lead, coach, and mentor Team Leads and Senior Engineers. You own their career paths and empower them to lead their own sub-teams to excellence. • AI Change Management: You define the roadmap for integrating Artificial Intelligence into the daily engineering lifecycle (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Agentic Workflows). You act as a change agent, transforming our workflows for maximum efficiency and innovation. • Operational Excellence: You take full ownership of your department's operational performance (resource planning, budget monitoring, utilization) and ensure a profitable and scalable engineering organization. • Strategic Partnering: You work closely with Directors and VPs to sharpen DEPT®’s technological vision in the DACH region and act as a high-level technical sparring partner for our key accounts. • Cultural Stewardship: You foster an inclusive, motivating, high-performance culture and establish modern department rituals that promote knowledge sharing and innovation. WHAT YOU BRING: • Proven People Manager: You have a track record of leading teams in a "manager-of-managers" structure or significant experience leading larger engineering departments. • Change Agent: You are passionate about the potential of AI in the software lifecycle and have a clear vision of how modern engineering organizations must evolve. • Frontend Background: You possess a deep technical history in frontend development, allowing you to validate architectural decisions and act as a mentor on eye-level. • Business Acumen: You understand the economic drivers of an agency or consultancy and can translate KPIs into actionable success. • Communication: You are a confident communicator in both German and English, able to present complex technical topics to both stakeholders and clients. WE OFFER: • Flexible, hybrid working policy (2 days from the office, depending on location); • 25 days holiday with the opportunity to take unpaid leave; • Flexible health budget and Wellness & personal day. • Learning & development budget. • Referral bonus program. • Occasional breakfast & lunch at the office, Smoothie Tuesday. • Stay happy and healthy with a contribution to your health through the OpenUp platform. • You can choose to work from the spacious and barrier-free location in Zurich; in Bern you can expect a small but nice and fully equipped office where you can hit the keys in peace. • Social events, plenty of opportunities to connect with colleagues through organised activities and celebrations. • A reputation for doing good. DEPT® has been a Certified B Corp® since 2021 and named ‘Agency of the Year’ at both The Lovies and The Webby Awards. • Awesome clients. Whether big or small, local or global — at DEPT® you’ll get the opportunity to work with clients of all sizes and across all industries. And we celebrate all of our successes together! • The opportunity for possibility. We want to enable you to do what you do best and help you develop your skills further with training, development and certifications. • Global annual DEPT® Cares Month in which employees come together and donate their skills to support local charities. WHY DEPT®? We are a Growth Invention company built to help the world’s most ambitious brands grow faster. Operating at the intersection of technology and marketing, we create what is next by pioneering ideas, acting fast, and moving further because standing still just is not in our DNA. We are drawn to people who stay curious, move with intent, and never stop inventing. Our culture runs on three values: better together, relentlessly curious, and get sh*t done. It is how we work, how we grow, and how we make things that matter. At DEPT®, you will find the freedom to explore, the space to collaborate, and the trust to make a real impact for our clients, for each other, and for the world we are helping to build. DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION At DEPT®, we take pride in creating an inclusive workplace where everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive. We actively seek to recruit, develop, nurture, and retain talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, with varying skills and perspectives. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Apply, and let us decide! Research shows that women and members of underrepresented groups tend not to apply for jobs when they think they may not meet every requirement, when in fact they do. We believe in giving everyone a fair chance to shine. We also encourage you to reach out to us and discuss any reasonable adjustments we can make to support you throughout the recruitment process and your time with us. Want to know more about our dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion? Check out our efforts here.