Director of Software Development

• Contract: Freelance
• Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• Start: ASAP, 40 h p/w
• Duration: 6 months

The Director of Software Development is responsible for accelerating software development efforts by leading a department of self-steering agile teams focused on scaling products and platforms. They guide highly skilled professionals and aim to empower individuals rather than restrict them. This role supports the department in achieving its goals while aligning with overall company vision and strategy. They engage in technical discussions and create an environment where teams can perform at their best. This position primarily achieves results through influence rather than authority, unlocking creativity and inspiring teams to build high-quality solutions for customers.

Key Responsibilities

• Build a strong leadership team by coaching and developing Software Development Managers and senior technical talent.
• Take a leading role in advancing Data Science and Machine Learning practices across the business and fostering a strong environment for these disciplines.
• Ensure architecture principles and engineering practices are followed, providing direction and alignment for each product while identifying scalability challenges and technical impediments.
• Drive the buy-or-build strategy for the Machine Learning platform.
• Contribute to overall technology goals, taking ownership of cross-functional topics and supporting departmental growth.
• Collaborate closely with product leadership to ensure organizational structure supports business objectives.
• Organize team structures to meet strategic priorities and prepare for scaling.
• Define and track KPIs, reporting on performance and business impact.
• Maintain clear and effective communication across stakeholders, proactively sharing updates, changes, and risks.
• Identify, attract, hire, develop, and retain technical talent globally.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in Agile coaching or leadership
• 5+ years of experience in a similar leadership or managerial role
• Strong communication skills
• Independent, pragmatic, and proactive mindset
• Technical background with the ability to lead engineering teams and drive technology decisions
• Experience working on large-scale platforms
• Industry experience is a plus

Additional Information
This is a temporary assignment to cover an extended absence in a senior engineering leadership position. The role involves leading a group working on large-scale data, storage, and compute platforms, as well as emerging metadata and foundational data capabilities. The teams provide core data and AI infrastructure, including data platforms, ingestion pipelines, storage systems, and reliability tooling that process tens of terabytes of data daily and manage petabyte-scale datasets.