Primetag Head of Engineering

About the Role

The engineering organisation today is around 15 people organised across three product squads(Core Data Extraction B2B and Cybersecurity & compliance) with an independent R&Ddepartment managing AI and R&D squads.

They have strong experienced Tech Leads on everysquad people who are close to the code and own technical direction in their areas.

This role is not about technical is about making the department ahigh-functioning organisation.

You will take the strategic and people weight off the individualleads and create the conditions structure process priorities culture in which they and theirteams consistently do their best work.

You will report directly to the CEO and work in close partnership with the Head of Product.

Yoursuccess will be measured by team health delivery quality strategic alignment and Primetagsability to scale its engineering capability without losing speed or cohesion.

What You Will Own

1. People Leadership & Team Dynamics

This is the most important part of the job. An engineering team of this size with strong individualcontributors needs an intentional leader someone who builds trust navigates interpersonalfriction and keeps the team pulling in one direction.

Run real substantive 1:1s with managers and team leads at a regular cadence notstatus updates but genuine coaching and development conversations

Build a management layer where every engineer has a manager genuinely invested intheir growth and wellbeing

Actively manage team dynamics: address ego clashes and internal friction quickly and directly before they become cultural problems

Keep motivation high by making sure people understand what their contribution isworking toward why it matters and where they stand

Run formal performance cycles - reviews calibrations structured feedback andmake the hard calls when performance and growth are not happening

2. Prioritisation & Work Organisation

They need sharper prioritisation discipline not a theoretical framework on a slide but an operating rhythm that people actually follow and that produces better outcomes. This meanssomeone who has done this hands-on: built the system enforced it and kept it pragmatic.

Own the engineering planning and prioritisation process end-to-end: from intakethrough sprint cadence through delivery

Design a system that balances structured methodology with real-world pragmatismone that uses good process as a tool not as a substitute for judgment

Translate company objectives into engineering OKRs and defend them whenshort-term urgency tries to displace them

Create visibility across squads into what is being worked on what is blocked and what is at risk so decisions get made at the right level at the right time

Improve the operating relationship between Engineering and Product ensuring thatplanning is collaborative and execution is predictable

3. Technical Leadership (Through Others)

You will not be the most technical person in the room on any given topic and that is the rightdesign. The Tech Leads own their domains. Your job is to create the strategic context in whichtheir technical judgement produces good outcomes at the department level.

Set the strategic context for technical decisions: what outcomes matter whatconstraints apply what trade-offs are acceptable

Run architecture and design reviews that challenge assumptions and force claritywithout second-guessing the leads on implementation

Identify cross-cutting concerns (security reliability scalability technical debt) andensure they get the attention they deserve across squads

Guide build vs. buy decisions vendor selection and infrastructure trade-offs with aclear commercial and risk lens

Lead the ISO 27001 preparation on the engineering side this is an important elementof the roadmap and needs active ownership. Alignment with CEO and Head of Product

You will be a key partner at the leadership level not just an executor of strategic decisions madeelsewhere. This requires proactive communication reliable reporting and the ability to represent engineerings capacity and constraints honestly.

Partner with the Head of Product in a genuinely collaborative planning relationshipnot a handover model but shared ownership of what gets built and when

Report to the CEO on engineering budget hiring plan and strategic progress on aregular cadence with clarity and without noise

Bring engineerings perspective into company-level decisions early and takecompany-level priorities back into the department clearly

Ensure that Engineering Product and Customer Experience share a commonunderstanding of priorities dependencies and risks

5. Organisational Design & Hiring

The right structure for 15 engineers is not the right structure for will see these transitionscoming and lead them deliberately

Decide how the department is organised: which squads exist where the boundaries sitwho reports to whom and how management layers evolve

Own the engineering hiring engine: define profiles run loops close senior candidatesand build a hiring rhythm that keeps pace with the growth plan

Hire or develop the management layer below you building a team of managers whoare genuinely invested not just technically credible

6. Process & Operational Rigour

Own incident response on-call release processes post-mortems and code reviewstandards

Improve what works replace what does not and codify decisions so they surviveturnover

Ensure Customer Experience has a reliable engineering counterpart with clearprocesses for bug triage incident resolution and feedback loops

7. Engineering Budget

Currently a seven-figure annual budget covering infrastructure third-party data providerstooling and headcount-adjacent spend.

Own trade-offs across headcount vs. tooling build vs. buy and cost reduction investment

Report regularly to the CEO with clarity and commercial rigour

What They are Looking For

Fundamental

Track record of managing managers in an engineering organisation of 1050 people comfortable at the manager-of-managers level

Has led teams through real prioritisation challenges: not someone who designsframeworks but someone who has enforced discipline navigated competing

stakeholders and kept teams focused under pressure

Strong on team dynamics: has actively managed interpersonal friction navigated strong personalities and kept engineers motivated through uncertainty and change

Technical background not hands-on: deep enough to engage credibly witharchitecture design reviews and trade-off decisions not expected to code

Has owned a real engineering budget: seven figures or more with vendor negotiationsbuild-vs-buy trade-offs and regular reporting to a CEO or Board

Has built hiring engines not just filled vacancies: defined profiles run loops closedsenior hires established hiring rhythm at speed

Direct on performance and conflict: gives hard feedback addressesunderperforms early and has conversations others avoid

Strong communicator across technical and non-technical stakeholders credible toengineers and to a CEO in the same conversation

Excellent English understanding speaking and writing skills. Portuguese or Spanish arean added value given the teams major nationalities but not a compulsory criteria.

Strong Advantage

Experience scaling an engineering organisation from 2 to 5 teams

Background in martech adtech social media analytics or data-intensive SaaS

Familiarity with compliance and security programmes (ISO 27001 experience a plus - it is on our 2026 roadmap)

Experience working closely with a Head of Product in a joint planning model

Why Join Primetag

Lead engineering at a company genuinely transforming how Creator Marketingoperates globally

Work directly with the founder and CEO with real influence over company strategynot just engineering execution

Join during an expansion phase with new products new markets and a team ready togrow

A strong technical foundation already in place: experienced Tech Leads clear domainownership and a team that cares about craft

Full remote with annual Nomad Offices in remarkable locations - their culture is builtaround trust autonomy and real collaboration. A multicultural ambitious team driven by product excellence and genuine impact

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