Chief of Staff (to the SVP of Engineering) at Smartrecruiters

As the Chief of Staff (CoS) to the SVP of Engineering, you will become an operational "Swiss Army Knife" and a strategic partner helping to scale the executive's time, attention, and decision-making capabilities. Your mission is to close the gap between business, product, and engineering strategies and day-to-day cross-functional execution across the entire enterprise. Operating as an "air traffic controller" for the Engineering Leadership team, you will work to align priorities, unblock cross-functional dependencies (such as the intersections between Engineering, Product Management, Go-To-Market, and Finance), and translate strategic initiatives into actionable, measurable plans. While operations leaders focus on efficiency, your fundamental mandate is effectiveness: ensuring the engineering organization is working on the right things. Key Responsibilities: Strategic Planning & Goal Alignment • Support the Engineering Strategy creation process. Help with collecting data and aligning Engineering with Product, Design, and Go-To-Market teams • Translate the Engineering Strategy into Actionable Workstreams by breaking it down into departmental OKRs and quarterly initiatives • Own the OKR framework and cadence by designing the annual and quarterly planning process • Enforce organizational focus by limiting and safeguarding strategic WIP • Foster the psychological safety required to set ambitious "stretch goals"Rhythm of the Business & Executive Operations • Design and facilitate the engineering leadership operating cadence • Lead the weekly status calls by setting the agenda, circulating pre-reads, and following up on action items • Capture critical decision logs and translate decisions into action • Manage the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) and OKR grading cascades • Own the cadence, content, and execution of engineering leadership off-sitesStrategic Communications & Culture • Distill complex technical work into clear executive briefs, board-level narratives, and compelling organizational updates • Prepare the SVP for the Executive Team and Board of Directors meetings by synthesizing complex technical progress into exec-ready presentations • Help with building agenda and content for All Engineering and All R&D meetingsFinancial Stewardship & Workforce Management • Partner directly with the CFO, Chief People Officer and Executive Team to secure the overarching engineering budget and determine macro-level organizational design • Support capacity planning and resulting hiring plan design and execution • Partner with the People Team on designing Engineering Performance Management, Compensation Philosophy, and Promotion Processes • Track Business Impact Metrics, including project Return on Investment (ROI), avoided costs, budget variance, and strategic resource allocationCross-Functional & Special Projects • Act as a trusted proxy to resolve escalations and pressure-test assumptions without requiring the SVP's constant presence • Lead ambiguous, cross-functional initiatives such as M&A technical due diligence, cross-departmental restructurings, or new market entry analyses