# Head of Engineering [Lightdash](https://gurify.com/jobs?q=Lightdash) · London · Posted 7 months ago Director [Engineering Manager](https://gurify.com/jobs/engineering-manager) [Apply on the original posting → (opens in a new tab)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/lightdash/d624490e-e8e8-49a5-a9d5-8112927c49cb) ## Job description We’re seeking an exceptional Head of Engineering / Engineering Manager to partner closely with our CTO and lead the next stage of our engineering organisation. We want a deeply technical leader who still loves to build, leads from the front, and thrives in high-velocity, high-ownership environments. Your mission: build the fastest engineering team on the planet. ### WHO YOU ARE: You’re a top-tier engineer with proven leadership experience in fast-moving startups or scaleups. You’re comfortable making imperfect decisions quickly, you’ve built products under pressure, and you know that momentum beats perfection. ### You might be: - A seasoned engineer who has already stepped into an Head of Engineering / Engineering Manager role at a venture-backed startup - An ex-founder who has built and shipped products under real pressure - A startup tech lead who thrives on ownership and bold decisions - A pragmatic builder who values time-to-value over “the right way” ### WHAT MAKES YOU PERFECT FOR THIS ROLE: 1. Engineering leadership: You’ve coached and unblocked engineers in high-velocity, high-pressure environments. 2. Deep technical expertise: You have strong architecture instincts and solid security knowledge, but you’ll cut through complexity to keep shipping. 3. Startup operator mindset: You’ve taken products from 0→1 or through hyper-growth and know how to build systems that evolve with the company. 4. Velocity obsession: You believe iteration > perfection, and your instinct is always to get value in front of users as fast as possible. 5. AI-first: You’re bullish on AI, vibe-coding daily, and always looking for ways to push velocity through AI-assisted workflows. 6. DevX focus: You obsess over developer experience because you know great tooling = more speed. 7. Execution focus: Monitoring, observability, and performance aren’t “nice to haves”, they’re how you ship fast without breaking trust. ### WHAT YOU'LL DO - Set the bar for engineering velocity: coaching, mentoring, and unblocking the team every day - Make architectural and security calls fast, balancing speed with long-term resilience - Build and own best-in-class developer experience - tooling and workflows that eliminate drag - Monitor and protect reliability and SLAs, while still moving at startup speed - Establish a culture where iteration is celebrated and perfectionism is challenged ### HOW WE WORK AT LIGHTDASH - We build in public. Open source means moving fast with shared context. - We challenge problems, not people. No blame, just solutions. - We’re highly collaborative. Independent, but we win as a team (and with our community). - We bias hard toward impact. We’d rather ship the wrong thing quickly and learn, than waste weeks polishing what nobody needs. ### OUR TECH STACK: - Primary: TypeScript, React, Node, SQL - Frameworks: Express, React-hooks, Redux, RTK, Mantine - Infrastructure: Docker, GCP, Kubernetes, Tracing, Prometheus While familiarity with our stack is helpful, we value your ability to learn and adapt over specific technical experience. ⚡ We’re deliberately looking for ambitious leaders from startups and high-growth companies. If you want predictability, long roadmaps, and “the right way” over speed, this isn’t the role for you. 👉 Research shows that women and underrepresented groups often don’t apply unless they meet 100% of the requirements. Even if you don’t tick every box, if you have startup experience and a hunger for velocity, we’d love to hear from you. 💜 We believe that to build a product that works for a diverse group of people, we need a diverse team. So, we strongly encourage candidates of all different perspectives, experiences, backgrounds and identities to apply. We’re committed to hiring people regardless of race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability. And once you join us, we’re committed to building an inclusive, supportive place for you to do the best work of your career. **Live in Lightdash’s hiring system.** Read from the company's own applicant tracking system, not reposted from a job board — so it's a real, open requisition rather than an ad that outlived the role. We remove it as soon as it disappears at source. ## More jobs like this - SY [Solutions Engineering Manager](https://gurify.com/job/solutions-engineering-manager-at-synthesia-b65088c1375e) Synthesia · London · last week - SY [Solutions Engineering Manager](https://gurify.com/job/solutions-engineering-manager-at-synthesia-4ae61f413367) Synthesia · London · last week - FL [Engineering Manager](https://gurify.com/job/engineering-manager-at-flowtraders-9cee24a4899f) Flowtraders · London · 4 days ago - EL [Engineering Manager - DevOps & AI Platform](https://gurify.com/job/engineering-manager-devops-ai-platform-at-elliptic-542e7113af20) Elliptic · London, United Kingdom · last week - MO [Software Engineering Manager](https://gurify.com/job/software-engineering-manager-at-moonpig-34f4ae6e7b21) Moonpig · London · last week - SP [Engineering Manager - Experimentation](https://gurify.com/job/engineering-manager-experimentation-at-spotify-bd607e279b1e) Spotify · London · 2 weeks ago ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org/","@type":"JobPosting","title":"Head of Engineering","description":"\u003Cp\u003EWe\u2019re seeking an exceptional Head of Engineering / Engineering Manager to partner closely with our CTO and lead the next stage of our engineering organisation. We want a deeply technical leader who still loves to build, leads from the front, and thrives in high-velocity, high-ownership environments. Your mission: build the fastest engineering team on the planet.\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003EWHO YOU ARE:\u003C/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003EYou\u2019re a top-tier engineer with proven leadership experience in fast-moving startups or scaleups. You\u2019re comfortable making imperfect decisions quickly, you\u2019ve built products under pressure, and you know that momentum beats perfection.\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003EYou might be:\u003C/h3\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EA seasoned engineer who has already stepped into an Head of Engineering / Engineering Manager role at a venture-backed startup\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EAn ex-founder who has built and shipped products under real pressure\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EA startup tech lead who thrives on ownership and bold decisions\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EA pragmatic builder who values time-to-value over \u201Cthe right way\u201D\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Ch3\u003EWHAT MAKES YOU PERFECT FOR THIS ROLE:\u003C/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003E1. Engineering leadership: You\u2019ve coached and unblocked engineers in high-velocity, high-pressure environments.\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E2. Deep technical expertise: You have strong architecture instincts and solid security knowledge, but you\u2019ll cut through complexity to keep shipping.\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E3. Startup operator mindset: You\u2019ve taken products from 0\u21921 or through hyper-growth and know how to build systems that evolve with the company.\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E4. Velocity obsession: You believe iteration \u0026gt; perfection, and your instinct is always to get value in front of users as fast as possible.\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E5. AI-first: You\u2019re bullish on AI, vibe-coding daily, and always looking for ways to push velocity through AI-assisted workflows.\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E6. DevX focus: You obsess over developer experience because you know great tooling = more speed.\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E7. Execution focus: Monitoring, observability, and performance aren\u2019t \u201Cnice to haves\u201D, they\u2019re how you ship fast without breaking trust.\u003C/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003EWHAT YOU\u0026#39;LL DO\u003C/h3\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003ESet the bar for engineering velocity: coaching, mentoring, and unblocking the team every day\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EMake architectural and security calls fast, balancing speed with long-term resilience\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EBuild and own best-in-class developer experience - tooling and workflows that eliminate drag\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EMonitor and protect reliability and SLAs, while still moving at startup speed\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EEstablish a culture where iteration is celebrated and perfectionism is challenged\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Ch3\u003EHOW WE WORK AT LIGHTDASH\u003C/h3\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EWe build in public. Open source means moving fast with shared context.\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EWe challenge problems, not people. No blame, just solutions.\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EWe\u2019re highly collaborative. Independent, but we win as a team (and with our community).\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EWe bias hard toward impact. We\u2019d rather ship the wrong thing quickly and learn, than waste weeks polishing what nobody needs.\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Ch3\u003EOUR TECH STACK:\u003C/h3\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EPrimary: TypeScript, React, Node, SQL\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EFrameworks: Express, React-hooks, Redux, RTK, Mantine\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EInfrastructure: Docker, GCP, Kubernetes, Tracing, Prometheus\u003C/li\u003E\u003C/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile familiarity with our stack is helpful, we value your ability to learn and adapt over specific technical experience.\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u26A1 We\u2019re deliberately looking for ambitious leaders from startups and high-growth companies. If you want predictability, long roadmaps, and \u201Cthe right way\u201D over speed, this isn\u2019t the role for you.\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026#128073; Research shows that women and underrepresented groups often don\u2019t apply unless they meet 100% of the requirements. Even if you don\u2019t tick every box, if you have startup experience and a hunger for velocity, we\u2019d love to hear from you.\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026#128156;\u0026#160;We believe that to build a product that works for a diverse group of people, we need a diverse team. So, we strongly encourage candidates of all different perspectives, experiences, backgrounds and identities to apply. We\u2019re committed to hiring people regardless of race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability. And once you join us, we\u2019re committed to building an inclusive, supportive place for you to do the best work of your career.\u003C/p\u003E","identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"Gurify","value":"head-of-engineering-at-lightdash-1bce05083cc6"},"url":"https://gurify.com/job/head-of-engineering-at-lightdash-1bce05083cc6","datePosted":"2026-02-09","validThrough":"2026-11-04T23:59:59Z","hiringOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Lightdash","sameAs":"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/lightdash"},"directApply":false,"jobLocation":{"@type":"Place","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","addressCountry":"GB","addressLocality":"London"}}} ``` ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Jobs","item":"https://gurify.com/jobs"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"United Kingdom","item":"https://gurify.com/jobs/united-kingdom"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Head of Engineering","item":"https://gurify.com/job/head-of-engineering-at-lightdash-1bce05083cc6"}]} ```