Head of Engineering (Remote - Work from Anywhere)

Position overview

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, working in close partnership with Architecture, Quality Engineering, Security, Frontend Engineering, and Platform Engineering.

This is a true function head, not a senior IC with a management title. 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 who run delivery in each tribe. The authority to set the engineering bar sits with this role and so does the accountability for the result.

That accountability is concrete. We measure the function on predictable delivery: consistently shipping committed scope on committed dates, with a 90% target as the bar. Hitting it is not the job in itself, it's the output of an engineering organisation that estimates honestly, surfaces risk early, and clears blockers with discipline. Building and running that organisation is the job.

We are a Bitcoin-native, regulated bank. A defect here can move customer Bitcoin and customer Dollars, under the scrutiny of two regulators. That raises the bar on everything engineering does, change management, incident response, observability, and audit-readiness are not overhead, they are the standard the role exists to uphold. The right person is drawn to that, not deterred by it.

What you own, and what you partner on

You own:

• The unified Software Development Lifecycle: you define it, evolve it, and own its governance and enforcement. EMs run it day-to-day in their tribes.
• Engineering standards and practice across the function: code review, retrospectives, internal quality discipline.
• People leadership of the Engineering Managers: performance, growth, 1:1 cadence, and engineering hiring.
• Backend change management: the controlled, audited process for material changes, with a regulator-ready trail.
• The function-level tech-debt roadmap and engineering capacity planning.
• Engineering incident response and post-mortems, and the closure of resulting action items.
• The AI-first engineering standard across the function.

You partner on:

• Architecture standards - with the Solutions Architect, agreed at the Architecture Advice Forum.
• The quality framework and quality gates - with the Head of Quality Engineering.
• Security standards and controls - with the Security function.
• Client-side engineering - with the Head of Frontend Engineering.
• Infrastructure and observability - with the Head of Platform Engineering.

Responsibilities

• Delivery predictability across the engineering function - accountable for the function consistently shipping committed scope on committed dates, per tribe and function-wide. You own the practices that surface shortfalls early and the remediation that closes the gap.
• Engineering standards and practice - you set and enforce the engineering bar: code review standards, retrospectives, and the feedback loops that keep them healthy across the tribes.
• People management of Engineering Managers - performance management, growth, 1:1 cadence, and engineering hiring across the function. You are accountable for the EMs you develop and the standard they operate to.
• Unified SDLC ownership - you own and define the unified SDLC end to end. Engineering Managers run it day-to-day in their tribes.
• Backend change management - you own the governance of our deployment pipeline. You ensure 100% of changes generate a regulator-ready audit trail automatically, while designing a frictionless, risk-tiered approval process that subjects material changes to rigorous, formal review without gridlocking daily production velocity.
• AI-first engineering standard - accountable for driving genuine adoption of AI tooling across engineering: coding assistants, AI-assisted code review, and AI-assisted test generation as standard practice. You set the direction, decide where it adds real value versus where it doesn't, track adoption, and ensure teams get measurable productivity benefits - not tooling for its own sake.
• Blocker clearance - accountable for fast escalation and resolution of blockers, in-sprint and in engineers' backlogs. Blockers are surfaced early and cleared with discipline rather than allowed to age.
• Engineering incident response and post-mortems - own the engineering function's response to production incidents: timely escalation, structured post-mortem facilitation, and ensuring action items close.
• Tech-debt roadmap - own the function-level tech-debt roadmap: prioritising remediation, partnering with the Solutions Architect on architectural debt, and tracking progress against plan.
• Capacity planning - accountable for engineering capacity matching committed work; EMs execute the operational planning.
• Cross-department standard execution - implementing the quality framework defined by the Head of Quality Engineering, the security standards owned by Security, and the architecture standards agreed at the Architecture Advice Forum.
• Engineering OKR ownership - rolled up from Engineering Managers, with function-level accountability sitting here.
• Cross-functional initiative delivery - ensuring engineering does not become the blocker for initiatives spanning product, technology, and operational teams; coordinating on cross-division prioritisation and dependency management.

Skills needed

• 8+ years in software engineering, with at least 3–4 years in an engineering leadership role spanning multiple teams or squads - managing engineering managers, not just senior engineers.
• A track record of owning delivery predictability at function level: you have made commitments on behalf of an engineering organisation and built the practices to meet them consistently, without resorting to estimate-padding.
• Hands-on experience building and running engineering practice: SDLC definition, code review standards, change management, and the retro and feedback loops that keep them healthy.
• Strong people leadership - you have hired, developed, and performance-managed engineering managers and know what good EM execution looks like versus what needs intervention.
• A clear, evidence-based point of view on AI-assisted development across the SDLC - where it adds real value, and how to drive genuine adoption rather than dashboard adoption.
• Solid understanding of backend distributed systems and what operating them in a regulated, high-stakes environment demands: change management discipline, incident response, observability, and audit-readiness.
• Data-driven - comfortable owning engineering metrics (delivery predictability, cycle time, defect escape rate, blocker aging) and turning them into prioritised action rather than dashboards nobody acts on.
• Strong communicator across technical and non-technical audiences - you can write the SDLC definition, present the tech-debt roadmap to the CTO, and give an EM hard feedback, all with equal clarity.
• Experience in a regulated environment (fintech, banking, payments, or equivalent) with a real appreciation for what a quality or security failure means when customer funds are at stake.

Nice to have:

• Background in crypto, Bitcoin, custody, or blockchain-adjacent engineering - familiarity with the domain risk profile that makes this environment different from standard fintech.
• Experience working in a Team Topologies organisational model - Stream Aligned, Platform, and Enabling team dynamics in practice.
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tooling beyond standard code completion - test generation, review automation, or similar.
• Experience with observability tooling (Coralogix, Datadog, or equivalent) in an incident response context.
• Multi-tribe or multi-squad coordination at function level in a fully remote, globally distributed engineering organisation.
• Contributions to engineering culture externally - writing, talks, or open-source work that reflects how you think about engineering excellence.
• Experience in mobile-first organisations where iOS and Android are core business products.

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.

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