Head of Engineering

Hands-On Technical Lead / Head of Engineering (Full-Stack Focus)

I'm working exclusively with an exciting, high-growth commercial group that's seriously disrupting flexible urban stays across Europe.

They're building a brand-new engineering function and need a pragmatic, sleeves-rolled-up Technical Lead / Head of Engineering who lives and breathes code while steering technical strategy and scaling a team. This isn't a pure management role - they want someone who stays close to the keyboard, leads by example through hands on contributions, and has the leadership chops to grow a talented full stack team over the coming years.

What you'll be doing day-to-day (very hands on):

• Jump straight into the codebase - building new features, crushing bugs, and optimizing performance on a full stack booking & guest platform (heavy React frontend + .NET/C# backend on Azure).
• Own and evolve a robust microservices architecture - designing for scale, resilience, and easy maintenance as traffic and features grow fast.
• Architect and lead complex integrations with third party systems (think payments gateways, channel managers, CRM tools, analytics/marketing platforms).
• Code alongside and mentor your engineers - delivering high quality work, running code reviews, championing automated testing, observability, and best practices.
• Shape the technical roadmap - balancing quick wins for business growth with sustainable architecture, while making smart trade offs on tech debt vs. speed to market.
• Collaborate tightly with Product, Design, Commercial, and Ops teams to ensure engineering delivers real business impact (higher conversions, better guest journeys, etc.).
• Recruit, onboard, and grow the team - hiring top talent, setting engineering standards, and fostering a high performing, collaborative culture as the headcount expands.

You'll thrive here if you bring:

• Deep, current full stack expertise - especially strong in React (frontend) + .NET / C# (backend), with real production experience on Azure.
• Proven hands on track record designing/running microservices at scale.
• Experience building or scaling consumer facing platforms (bonus points for travel, hospitality, e commerce, or high volume booking systems).
• Comfort wrangling tricky third party APIs and integrations without breaking a sweat.
• A history of leading/growing full stack teams while staying technical yourself - mentoring juniors, setting standards, and keeping your hands dirty.
• Pragmatic decision making - you know when to ship fast vs. when to invest in quality, and you use data + business context to guide choices.
• A collaborative, kind, and clear leadership style that inspires engineers in a fast paced environment.

Why join (beyond the tech challenge)?

• Join at the perfect time - help shape and scale a greenfield ish engineering culture in a profitable, expanding business.
• Competitive package with strong benefits (flexible/hybrid working, generous holidays, health cover, pension match, performance bonuses, amazing staff stay discounts for you + friends/family, cycle to work, learning support, and more).
• Real impact - your code and decisions will directly drive revenue and guest love in a booming sector.

If you're a hands on full stack wizard who also gets excited about growing teams and owning big picture tech direction, this could be your next big move. Apply Now for more.