Head of Engineering

Who are we looking for? As our Head of Engineering, you'll be a hands-on technical leader who stays deeply connected to the codebase while guiding architectural decisions that directly impact our team's daily work. While we want you to conduct communication with stakeholders and strategic technical direction, we need someone who can jump into code reviews if need be, and make concrete technical and architectural decisions that unblock the team and accelerate delivery. You'll help us shape our AI and backend systems, frontend experiences, and cloud infrastructure through both strategic vision and tactical execution. Tasks Your area of responsibility Hands-On Technical Leadership: Maintain active involvement in the codebase through code reviews, architectural prototypes, and stepping in to tackle complex technical challenges. Be the go-to person when the team faces difficult implementation decisions or production issues. Practical Architecture & Design: Make concrete architectural decisions that directly improve developer productivity and system reliability. Design patterns, choose technologies, and establish conventions that the team uses daily. Balance theoretical best practices with pragmatic solutions that ship. Team Enablement & Mentorship: Lead by example, mentoring engineers through pair programming, technical discussions, and collaborative problem-solving. Remove technical blockers, provide clear technical direction, and help the team level up their skills through hands-on guidance. Engineering Excellence: Drive code quality through active participation in reviews, testing strategies, and deployment practices. Establish lightweight processes that enhance productivity without adding bureaucracy. Champion automation and tooling that makes the team's daily work more efficient. Technical Decision Making: Own critical technical decisions from API design to infrastructure choices. Provide clear, actionable guidance on technology selection, architectural patterns, and implementation approaches. Make decisions quickly to keep the team moving forward. Requirements Must have skills 7+ years of hands-on software engineering with significant recent coding experience, plus 3+ years leading engineering teams while remaining technically engaged. Active coding skills in our stack: Node.js backend, React frontend, with the ability to contribute production-ready code when needed. Deep cloud architecture experience (AWS preferred) with hands-on infrastructure-as-code implementation (Terraform). Proven track record of making architectural decisions that scaled systems and improved developer productivity. Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills - comfortable diving into production issues across the full stack. Excellent technical communication - ability to write clear ADRs (Architecture Decision Records), technical specs, and documentation that developers actually use. Bias for action - ships code, fixes bugs, and improves systems rather than just talking about it. Collaborative coding practices - experienced with code reviews, pair programming, and mentoring through actual development work. Fluent in written and spoken English. Benefits Why us? Competitive salary with equity participation (VSOP) Best-in-class development hardware and software Quarterly team off-sites worldwide Personal annual budget for technical training and conferences Work directly with experienced engineers on cutting-edge AI systems Flat hierarchy where technical merit drives decisions Environment that values shipping code over endless meetings This role requires someone who loves being in the code as much as leading the team. If you're looking for a purely management position without hands-on technical work, this isn't the right fit. We need a leader who codes.Himala is rethinking how we start our day. Founded in Hamburg in 2020, our mission has evolved from synthetic media to something even more personal and essential: clarity. With our new product — a smart, AI-powered Daily Briefing — we help individuals and small teams cut through digital noise, surface what really matters, and take back control of their day. Our diverse, team in Hamburg of 20+ people spans more over 6 nationalities. Most of us are engineers, builders, and product thinkers who believe in simple, powerful tools that work quietly in the background. With a consistent 4.8* Glassdoor rating, himala (formerly Oxolo) is one of the most sought-after companies for top-tier talent. If you're excited about crafting the future of personal AI and want to build something that people actually look forward to using every morning, we’d love to hear from you.