Head of Engineering - Developer Experience & Platform (f/m/d)

Awin is seeking an exceptional engineering leader to shape the future of how engineers build, ship, and operate software at scale. This role owns the developer experience strategy, drives AI-native engineering practices, modernizes cloud platform, and leads teams and tooling.

• Own and evolve Awin's Developer Experience programme – defining the vision, strategy, and roadmap for DevEx improvement across the engineering organisation.
• Identify friction points, productivity blockers, and systemic inefficiencies through data, qualitative research, and direct engagement with engineering teams.
• Drive organisation-wide improvements to technology, tooling, and engineering processes, building consensus with stakeholders.
• Establish and track DevEx metrics and KPIs (e.g. DORA metrics, developer satisfaction scores).
• Own the developer tools portfolio and associated budgets – evaluating, procuring, and retiring tools.
• Lead strategic assessment and rollout of new developer tooling, including CI/CD platforms, IDE capabilities, code quality and security tools.
• Lead Awin's AI engineering rollout – defining strategy, establishing standards, and scaling adoption.
• Evaluate and implement AI-augmented development tools including AI coding assistants, agentic development environments, automated code review, test generation, and intelligent CI/CD pipelines.
• Champion modern AI-native software development best practices and drive continuous evaluation of the evolving AI tooling landscape.
• Design and deliver enablement programmes – training, communities of practice, documentation, and workshops – to accelerate AI fluency.
• Measure and report on the impact of AI adoption on developer productivity, code quality, and time-to-market.
• Lead the strategy and execution of cloud platform standardisation across Awin's AWS estate, establishing golden paths, reference architectures, and platform abstractions.
• Drive cloud migration efforts, infrastructure modernisation initiatives, partnering with Product teams to improve reliability, scalability, observability, and security posture.
• Own AWS cost management and FinOps practices – establishing budgeting frameworks, cost allocation, and optimisation.
• Build out internal developer platform capabilities to abstract cloud complexity and accelerate developer self-service.
• Ensure cloud platform decisions are made with developer experience as a primary consideration.
• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team spanning developer experience, platform engineering, and tooling functions.
• Act as a collaborative, influential engineering leader, shaping Awin's technical culture, engineering standards, and ways of working.
• Contribute to the engineering leadership team, participating in strategic planning, headcount discussions, and broader organisational design.

• Significant experience in and passion for software engineering, with hands-on coding background in one or more major languages (e.g. Java, TypeScript).
• Strong understanding of AI-native software development – including AI coding assistants (e.g. Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot), agentic development workflows, and LLM-integrated toolchains.
• Proven leadership experience in developer experience, platform engineering, developer productivity, or a related engineering leadership role within a mid-to-large scale technology organisation.
• Deep understanding of the software development lifecycle, engineering best practices, and what makes engineering teams highly productive.
• Demonstrable experience leading and improving CI/CD practices, deployment pipelines, and developer tooling ecosystems.
• Strong background in AWS – comfortable with infrastructure-as-code (e.g. Terraform), container platforms, serverless patterns, and cloud-native architectures.
• Experience with FinOps or cloud cost management, including budgeting, tagging strategies, and cost optimisation at scale.
• Track record of successfully delivering organisation-wide change programmes in collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Experience designing and using developer experience metrics frameworks (e.g. DORA, SPACE, DX Core 4) to measure and improve developer productivity.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, inspire, and grow engineering teams in a fast-paced, distributed environment.
• Strong commercial awareness – experience managing budgets, building business cases, and making tool and investment decisions with clear ROI thinking.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on delivery; comfortable operating from vision through to execution.
• Experience working in global, distributed engineering organisations across multiple time zones and cultures.

• Flexi-Week: four-day Flexi-Week (with one lighter or completely disconnected day per week) at full pay, no reduction to annual holiday allowance.
• Flexi-office: International culture and flexibility through hybrid/remote working scheme.
• Work Expense Contribution & Remote Working Furniture: Monthly allowance and furniture package for home workspace.
• Health and Wellbeing: Support and access to various initiatives and sports offers.
• Development: Awin Academy training suite covering a wide range of skills.
• Appreciation: Peer-to-peer recognition programme with vouchers.