Head of Engineering

The role

As Head of Engineering at CostPerform, you will take ownership of our engineering organisation, combining strong technical leadership with people management and technology strategy.

While you enjoy staying close to the technology, your primary focus is enabling the team to perform at its best. You will develop people, improve engineering processes, drive execution, and ensure our product roadmap is delivered in a predictable and scalable way.

This is a true player-coach role. While you will stay technically involved and able to contribute where needed, your biggest impact will come from coaching the team, improving engineering practices, driving AI adoption, and translating strategy into execution.

One of the most exciting aspects of this role is helping shape the next generation of the CostPerform platform.

Together with the CTO, you will lead a multi-year engineering transformation focused on modernising our technology stack, evolving our desktop-based application into a modern browser-native platform, improving cloud scalability on AWS, and preparing the engineering organisation for the next stage of growth.

While the strategic direction has been defined at a high level, many of the technical decisions are still to be made. You'll play a key role in shaping those decisions, balancing technical excellence with pragmatism, and bringing the engineering team along on that journey.

You will act as the bridge between execution and strategy—working closely with the CTO on architecture, technology strategy, and the long-term engineering roadmap, while ensuring the engineering organisation consistently delivers with clarity, structure, and predictable execution.

We are looking for someone who brings energy, structure, and a culture of innovation. Someone who leads by example, challenges the status quo, and helps elevate a team with strong ownership into a high-performing, forward-thinking engineering organisation.

What you’ll be doingTeam leadership & people management

• Manage and develop the engineering team (direct reports)

• Run regular 1-on-1s, support growth, and conduct performance reviews

• Coach and mentor developers at different seniority levels

• Build trust quickly by creating an environment where people feel supported, challenged, and heard

• Adapt your leadership style to different personalities while creating alignment around shared goals

• Build a strong team culture focused on ownership, feedback, and continuous improvement

• Ensure clear priorities, alignment, and accountability within the team

Technical leadership & delivery

• Stay technically close enough to guide architectural decisions, support developers, and contribute where it creates the most value

• Lead by example in engineering quality, architecture, and technical standards

• Guide the team in making sound technical decisions and trade-offs

• Coach developers in solving complex technical challenges

• Own and execute the engineering roadmap together with the CTO

• Lead the technical execution of our platform modernisation

• Help define the future technology stack, architecture, and migration approach

• Guide the evolution from a desktop-based application towards a modern browser-native platform

• Drive backend modernisation using modern Java frameworks such as Spring Boot

• Lead architectural improvements required to increase scalability in AWS

• Improve development velocity, quality, and predictability

Culture & innovation

• Foster a culture of curiosity, experimentation, and continuous learning

• Be the driving force behind AI adoption within the engineering organisation—not only by introducing new tools, but by creating an environment where developers continuously experiment, learn, and share knowledge

• Continuously explore new AI tools, agents, and workflows that improve engineering productivity

• Encourage engineering innovation through dedicated experimentation, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement initiatives

• Challenge existing ways of working while maintaining a pragmatic focus on delivering customer value

• Bring energy and momentum to the team

Architecture & product collaboration

• Partner closely with the CTO on technical vision, architecture, and long-term technology strategy

• Work with Product to translate business strategy into a clear, realistic engineering roadmap

• Help evaluate and prioritise long-term technology investments together with the CTO

• Create alignment around priorities, sequencing, and execution

• Help shape and improve ways of working (Scrum and beyond)

• Balance feature delivery with technical debt and long-term scalability

• Balance innovation with business priorities, ensuring the roadmap remains realistic and achievable

Improvement & scalability

• Drive the engineering organisation towards the next generation of the CostPerform platform

• Identify and implement structural improvements in the codebase, engineering processes, and ways of working

• Improve documentation and engineering practices to create clarity and predictable execution

• Improve cloud scalability and platform architecture in AWS

• Strengthen platform stability, security, and scalability

• Modernise engineering practices while maintaining the stability of a mission-critical enterprise platform

• Ensure the engineering organisation is ready for future international growth

Who we’re looking for

We’re looking for someone who combines strong technical depth with proven leadership experience.

You likely bring:

• 8–12+ years of experience in software development

• Strong hands-on experience with Java

• Experience with Angular or similar modern frontend frameworks

• Proven experience leading and managing engineering teams

• Experience in implementing ai-first development in engineering teams

• Experience conducting 1-on-1s, coaching, and performance management

• Strong understanding of software architecture and system design

• Experience working in product-driven environments (not just project-based)

• Experience working in a scale-up or product company where you've operated beyond your direct engineering responsibilities

• Experience leading or contributing to platform modernisation, cloud migration, or technology transformation initiatives is a strong advantage

• Familiarity with Scrum or similar agile methodologies

• Experience with Spring Boot, AWS, or similar modern cloud-native technologies is a strong plus

You are:

• A technical leader who enjoys staying close enough to the technology to guide, challenge, and support your team

• A natural coach who enjoys developing people

• A strong communicator in English (Dutch is a welcome benefit but not required)

• Someone who naturally brings structure, clarity, and focus to engineering organisations

• Curious, innovative, and always looking to improve

• An AI enthusiast who actively experiments with new tools, agents, and workflows, and understands how AI can improve both software engineering and the product itself

• Comfortable engaging with senior stakeholders, including CTO-level

• Comfortable operating in a scale-up where strategy, execution, and leadership often overlap

• Pragmatic, with a strong sense of priorities and trade-offs

• Looking for a role where you can make real impact on both team and product

What we offer

• A true Head of role with ownership over the engineering organisation

• The opportunity to lead one of the most significant technology transformations in the company's history

• The opportunity to define the future engineering organisation of a growing international SaaS company

• Direct collaboration with the CTO and product leadership

• The freedom to influence major technology decisions and help define the future engineering landscape of CostPerform

• The opportunity to shape team culture, engineering standards, and development processes

• Hybrid working model (3 days office / 2 days remote)

• Competitive salary, bonus, and contribution-free pension

• A stable product company with clear growth ambitions

• Strong focus on learning, development, and continuous improvement

About CostPerform

CostPerform is a fast-growing international fintech and B2B SaaS company, trusted by 200+ organisations worldwide to solve complex cost and performance challenges.

Our software supports large, often complex organisations in gaining deep insight into costs, profitability, and financial performance — enabling better decision-making at CFO and enterprise level.

We work across industries including financial services (insurance and banking), telecom, government, and manufacturing, serving both the private and public sectors.

CostPerform operates in environments where standard ERP or BI tooling is not sufficient, and our platform is frequently implemented alongside major enterprise systems through close collaboration with partners and integrators.

Culture at CostPerform

CostPerform’s culture is deeply rooted in the dynamic spirit of a scale-up environment, fostering continuous growth, innovation, and adaptability. Our four core values guide how we work together and how we collaborate with customers and partners:

Growth: We encourage our team to embrace challenges as opportunities for personal and professional development, contributing to the organisation’s overall advancement.

Quality: We are committed to delivering high-quality products and services, reflected in our attention to detail and pursuit of excellence.

Trust: Trust forms the foundation of our culture, extending from team members to clients and partners, and enabling strong, long-lasting relationships.

Connection: We value meaningful connections within our team and beyond, recognising that a connected and engaged organisation is more innovative and resilient.