Director of Engineering

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Germany.

📋 Description

• Your primary objective will be to lead and expand n8n’s Core Experience engineering organization, assisting a diverse and growing set of product teams in delivering exceptional user experiences, robust technical foundations, and innovative AI-native products.

• To achieve this, you will oversee a significant and growing segment of our engineering organization, supporting various leaders and their teams (AI, Nodes, Community, and Adoption & Retention) while influencing how we create product experiences in a rapidly evolving, AI-native landscape.

• Lead and nurture high-performing engineering teams.

• Manage and develop multiple engineering teams within the Core Experience.

• Structure the organization for scalability across a multi-team area that encompasses established product surfaces and an expanding array of AI-focused teams.

• Cultivate a high-performance, ownership-driven culture where engineers can engage in ambitious projects, accelerate their growth, and remain closely connected to product impact.

• Propel technical strategy and product execution.

• Establish technical direction within your domain, assisting teams in making sound architectural decisions and trade-offs.

• Collaborate closely with Product, Design, and Engineering leadership to convert strategy into clear priorities and actionable steps.

• Ensure teams achieve significant outcomes while balancing speed, quality, and long-term sustainability.

• Shape AI-native product development.

• Support and guide teams in creating AI-powered product experiences, particularly in leveraging LLMs within the product.

• Apply informed judgment regarding the opportunities and challenges of AI product development, assisting teams in moving proactively and responsibly.

• Help define how n8n develops products that utilize AI internally and enable customers to construct powerful AI workflows and agents themselves.

• Foster clarity, alignment, and engineering excellence.

• Establish the conditions for teams to operate effectively through growth, uncertainty, and shifting priorities.

• Mentor leaders and teams towards strong execution, healthy collaboration, and consistently high engineering standards.

• Represent the Core Experience area within the wider engineering leadership team and ensure its direction aligns with company objectives.

⛳️ Requirements

• 🌱 Engineering leadership at scale: You possess several years of experience leading multiple engineering teams and directly managing Engineering Managers in a high-growth product organization.

• 🧭 Technical strategy and roadmap ownership: You have the ability to set direction across a broad product domain and translate technical strategy into clear priorities and outcomes.

• 🏗️ Strong technical credibility: You have a solid engineering background and can make meaningful contributions to architectural discussions and technical decision-making.

• 🤝 Coaching and people leadership: You are recognized for developing leaders, providing clear feedback, and helping teams enhance their ownership, performance, and judgment.

• 🚀 Product engineering experience: You have led product engineering teams that successfully delivered significant user-facing experiences in a dynamic SaaS environment.

• 🤖 AI product exposure: You have experience with AI-native products or have led teams that build AI-enhanced product experiences, enabling you to navigate the opportunities and challenges of this sector.

• 🌐 Distributed leadership experience: You are comfortable managing teams across different countries in a remote-first setting.

• ⚖️ Execution and quality mindset: You have developed systems and workflows that enhance delivery, maintain quality, and keep teams focused on meaningful outcomes.

• 🏢 Experience in growth-stage companies: You have worked in a scaling organization and understand the growing pains associated with building teams and processes rapidly.

• 🧩 Developer tools or workflow automation experience (Nice-to-have): You are passionate about technical products and have experience in developer platforms, automation tools, or related fields.

• 🌍 Open-source or developer tooling interest (Nice-to-have): You are enthusiastic about technical products, builder communities, and the challenges associated with extensible software and automation.

• 🛠️ TypeScript / Node.js familiarity (Nice-to-have): You have experience with JavaScript or TypeScript and can quickly familiarize yourself with our technology stack.

• 💡 Strong product sense (Nice-to-have): You understand how to collaborate deeply with Product and Design and can assist teams in making informed trade-offs in user-facing areas.

🏝️ Benefits

• Competitive compensation 💸 – We provide fair and attractive remuneration.

• Ownership 💪 – Our core value is to “empower others,” and we mean it—you will receive equity in n8n.

• Work/life balance 🏖️ – We work diligently but ensure you have time to recharge:

• Europe: 30 days of vacation, plus public holidays wherever you reside.

• US: 20 vacation days, 8 sick days, plus public holidays wherever you are located.

• Health & wellness 🩺 –

• Europe: We provide benefits in accordance with local country standards.*

• US: Various low-premium, low-deductible medical plans covering individuals and families—plus a no-cost premium HDHP option with a pre-funded HSA—along with dental and vision coverage.

• Future planning 💰 –

• Europe: We offer pension contributions as per local country norms.*

• US: 401(k) retirement plan with a 4% employer match.

• Financial security 🛡️ –

• Europe: We provide benefits aligned with local country standards.*

• US: Company-paid short-term and long-term disability insurance, plus life insurance to support you and your loved ones.

• Career growth 📈 – We recruit rising stars who develop alongside us! You will receive €1K (or equivalent) annually to invest in courses, books, events, or coaching to enhance your skills.

• A passionate team 🤩 – We are enthusiastic about our product, demonstrated through regular hackathons where we compete to build the most innovative projects with it!

• Remote-first 🌏 – Our team operates remotely across Europe, with frequent off-site gatherings for team bonding. Some roles, such as sales in the US, may be hybrid—please refer to the job description.

• Giving back 🤝 – We are strong advocates of open source, and you will receive $100 per month to support projects you care about.

• AI enablement 🤖 – We believe in working smarter—everyone has an unlimited AI budget to explore and utilize the best tools for enhancing productivity and creativity.

• Transparency 🙏 – We ensure everyone knows what others are working on and how the company is performing—the complete picture.

• An ambitious but kind culture 😍 – People enjoy working here—our eNPS for 2024 is 94!