Head of Engineering

Role Description

We're creating the role of Head of Engineering, reporting directly to the CTO. This is a new function-level leadership role, built as we scale engineering across three product tribes: Growth, Payments, and Assets Under Management, each run day-to-day by an Engineering Manager.

• You own how engineering operates: the standards, the practice, the people, and the delivery.
• You give the engineering function a single accountable leader for how we build software and for the bar we hold it to.
• You set engineering standards across the function and own the unified Software Development Lifecycle end to end.
• You own how material backend changes are reviewed, approved, and audited.
• You own the engineering tech-debt roadmap and the people leadership of the Engineering Managers.
• The authority to set the engineering bar sits with this role and so does the accountability for the result.
• We measure the function on predictable delivery: consistently shipping committed scope on committed dates, with a 90% target as the bar.

Responsibilities

• Delivery predictability across the engineering function.
• Engineering standards and practice.
• People management of Engineering Managers.
• Unified SDLC ownership.
• Backend change management.
• AI-first engineering standard.
• Blocker clearance.
• Engineering incident response and post-mortems.
• Tech-debt roadmap.
• Capacity planning.
• Cross-department standard execution.
• Engineering OKR ownership.
• Cross-functional initiative delivery.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering, with at least 3–4 years in an engineering leadership role.
• A track record of owning delivery predictability at function level.
• Hands-on experience building and running engineering practice.
• Strong people leadership.
• A clear, evidence-based point of view on AI-assisted development.
• Solid understanding of backend distributed systems.
• Data-driven.
• Strong communicator across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience in a regulated environment (fintech, banking, payments, or equivalent).

Nice to have

• Background in crypto, Bitcoin, custody, or blockchain-adjacent engineering.
• Experience working in a Team Topologies organisational model.
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tooling.
• Experience with observability tooling in an incident response context.
• Multi-tribe or multi-squad coordination at function level.
• Contributions to engineering culture externally.
• Experience in mobile-first organisations.

Other requirements

• A dedicated workspace.
• A reliable internet connection with the fastest speed possible in your area.
• Alignment with Our Values and the Xapo Values-Driven Leadership principles.

Benefits

• Impact Globally, Work Remotely.
• Shape the Future: Improve lives through cutting-edge technology.
• Great work-life balance: Set your own work schedule and make use of a flexible PTO plan.
• Expect Excellence: Collaborate, learn, and grow with a high-performance team.