Vice President of Engineering (m/f/d)

About the Job

As a key growth accelerator, A11 partners with Europe’s most ambitious startups and scaleups, corporates, and SMBs to connect them with top-tier talent ready to make an impact.

We’re looking for an experienced Vice President of Engineering (m/f/d) to join and lead the Engineering team at one of our Ecosystem Companies.

As the Vice President of Engineering, you’ll lead and scale the engineering organization, drive the evolution of the platform architecture, and ensure technology strategy aligns with business goals and customer outcomes.

Join the A11 Ecosystem – A next-generation supply chain platform, the company is redefining how one of the world’s largest industries sources, distributes, and finances materials. Engineered to unlock the full potential of global trade, it harnesses agentic AI and workflow automation to provide seamless, high-efficiency access to premium materials at scale. Since its commercial rollout, the platform has fueled exponential growth, optimizing procurement for thousands of businesses while setting new benchmarks for speed, transparency, and efficiency. Its competitive edge lies in full digitization and AI-driven supply chain management automation, eliminating inefficiencies and creating a direct, intelligent bridge between suppliers and buyers. With a team of 80+ FTEs across Europe (Berlin HQ), China, and India, the company is rapidly scaling toward profitability, driving triple-digit million GMV, and setting new industry standards in autonomous, AI-powered supply chain orchestration.

In this role, you’ll:

Lead and Scale the Engineering Organization

• Lead, grow, and mentor a high-performing engineering organization across multiple teams and domains
• Develop engineering leaders and managers, fostering accountability, ownership, and technical excellence
• Build a strong, inclusive engineering culture grounded in psychological safety and high standards
• Partner closely with Business and Product leadership on roadmap planning, prioritization, and trade-offs
• Represent engineering perspectives in executive and business discussions
• Align technology strategy with company goals and customer outcomes

Drive Platform Evolution

• Ensure continuous improvement, stability, and performance of the existing marketplace platform
• Lead the architectural evolution toward scalable, cloud-native, microservice-based systems
• Balance short-term delivery needs with long-term technical health and scalability

Champion Scalable, AI-First Architecture

• Define and enforce principles for modern, maintainable, and scalable SaaS and marketplace architecture
• Guide the integration of AI/ML capabilities (e.g. LLMs, recommendations, intelligent workflows) into production systems
• Anticipate future technical and platform needs as the business scales

Ensure Operational Excellence and Reliability

• Own system reliability, performance, security, and uptime across all environments
• Strengthen DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and observability
• Drive disciplined engineering processes, metrics, and delivery predictability

Foster Technical Innovation

• Encourage experimentation and thoughtful adoption of new technologies that improve scalability, reliability, and developer productivity
• Create an environment where teams can innovate while maintaining strong operational rigor

Your Profile:

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including senior leadership roles (Director, Head of Engineering, VP) in SaaS, marketplace, or platform businesses
• Proven experience leading teams through platform scaling, architectural transformation, or modernization initiatives
• Strong hands-on background in software architecture, distributed systems, APIs, and data-driven platforms
• Deep understanding of cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), microservices, and event-driven architectures
• Solid knowledge of DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and observability
• Experience operating in AI-enabled or AI-first product environments is a strong plus
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to connect technical decisions to business impact
• A genuine passion for building teams, scaling systems, and delivering technology that creates meaningful customer value
• We value diverse backgrounds and encourage applications even if not every requirement is met

Please note that this position is based in Berlin.

Benefits and Perks:

• Fulfil a role with entrepreneurial freedom and take a pre-validated business model to the next level
• Join an experienced founding team of serial and 2nd-time founders
• Attractive base and bonus compensation program
• Collaborate with top-tier investors and angels (incl. various unicorn founders) as well as leading market experts

If you’re eager to join the A11 Ecosystem and shape what’s next, we want to hear from you!

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

A11 is committed to diverse and equal opportunities hiring for all – applicants, candidates, and employees alike. We value humans – with all our glorious multifaceted backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences – and look forward to your application.