Head of Engineering

Join Wattpad as the Head of Engineering, where you will lead and develop the engineering leadership team, shape the technical direction of the company, and foster a culture of technical excellence and collaboration. You will work closely with cross-functional teams and have a significant impact on the user experience and business success.

Lead and develop the engineering leadership team across architecture, client engineering, platform, and data engineering.

Don’t meet all the requirements? Studies show women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs if they do not meet all the qualifications. Therefore, in an effort to build a more diverse workplace, we encourage you to apply anyways. You might actually be the right person or you may be a good fit for a number of other openings we currently have

Strong technical judgment, with the ability to challenge assumptions and help teams make better architectural and systems decisions

Responsibilities

• Shape the technical direction of Wattpad alongside senior technical leaders, ensuring our architecture and systems can support both the experiences we’re building today and where the platform needs to go next.
• Strengthen engineering delivery, planning, estimation, and technical roadmapping as we evolve how our teams work and build together.

Requirements

• Strong people leadership and coaching skills, with experience developing engineering managers and senior technical leaders
• Experience leading a multi team engineering organization across areas engineering, infrastructure, and data
• Proven ability to make sound decisions in ambiguous environments, evaluate tradeoffs, and move teams from problem identification to resolution
• 10+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including 5+ years leading engineering teams and senior engineering leaders
• No specific degree, license, or professional certification is required. Equivalent practical experience is valued
• Strong technical depth and architectural judgment, with the ability to credibly challenge senior engineers and technical leaders
• Experience leading or partnering closely with Data Engineering and a strong understanding of modern data platforms, pipelines, architecture, and analytics infrastructure
• Experience leading through organizational or technical change while maintaining team engagement and delivery
• Demonstrated experience improving engineering operating practices, including planning, estimation, technical roadmapping, delivery, ownership, and incident response
• Strong cross functional leadership skills and experience partnering closely with Product, Design, Data, and other business functions
• A track record of creating engineering rigor through stronger planning, decision making, accountability, and operational discipline without adding unnecessary process
• A proactive problem solving mindset, with experience moving teams from identifying problems to developing options, recommendations, and solutions
• Strong leadership leverage, with demonstrated success developing engineering managers and senior technical leaders and increasing autonomy across the organization

Pay

USD 240,000 - 280,000

Benefits

• Experience building collaborative engineering cultures where Engineering operates as an integrated partner with Product, Design, Data, Content, Trust & Safety, and the broader business