Head of Engineering Group IT

The Head of Engineering role is a key leadership position within NN and responsible for driving the growth of robust product engineering practices and workforce across multiple teams to enable digital transformation. Success in this role is measured by objectively measured average skill growth of engineers and engineering managers, improvement of product engineering quality metrics, resilience, and employee engagement.

The Head of Engineering is accountable for software product engineering practices and digital workforce transformation within Group IT. The role requires 15+ years of software product engineering experience, including developer roles, tech lead roles, software architecture roles, security management roles, and IT operations management roles, preferably in the financial services sector with strong supervisor oversight. The Head of Engineering is passionate about coaching and mentoring others in software product engineering and builds on their strong software engineering skills to lead the automation of IT operations - and security operations aspects in the change and run phases.

The Head of Engineering is a key leadership role and part of the several MTs with Group IT and several groups within NN (Guilds, Boards etc.). The Head of Engineering is accountable for the quality of the software, including the definition of done in the change management process, and is involved in blameless postmortems and implementing improvements derived from these. Together with the other Heads of Engineering of other business units, they drive a frictionless developer environment for engineers.

Indirect span of control is typically between 100 - 300 engineers and between 8 - 25 engineering managers. The Head of Engineering takes ownership for the product engineering culture, end-to-end, surface-to core including designing for failure and testing for failure. The Head of Engineering is functionally responsible for the hiring, selection, mentoring, coaching, learning, and development of software engineers via the Engineering Managers.

As Head of Engineering you are functional responsible for hiring and selecting engineering managers, promoting good practices, and building awareness and coaching of the leadership team.

As part of your role, you will promote a positive image of NN and build a network for talent acquisition. You will also be responsible for hiring and promoting strong Engineering Managers, implementing good skill assessment practices, and establishing a culture of ownership and accountability. Additionally, you will organize software product development in product domains with high cohesion and low coupling, empower product teams, and resolve impediments quickly.

What you are going to do

• Improvement and quality of Software: the Head of Engineering leads the Engineers and Engineering managers on the acquisition of relevant software engineering practices, SecOps practices and DevOps practices. He has the mandate to enforce best practices and standards for software engineering into a team through the Engineering Manager. These best practices and standards will be discussed with the Senior IT Manager/Product Managers upfront
• Functional reporting of Engineering Managers: Engineering Managers will report to the Head of Engineering on the status and progression of changes on matters such as way of working, skill development and the implementation of engineering practices & standards on a quarterly basis
• Hiring and development of Engineering Managers: because the Head of Engineering is functionally responsible for the Engineering Managers of Group IT and will be part of the hiring process and has a say in the development path for a particular Engineering Manager. Also, part of the people cycle of an Engineering Manager and will contribute input for the goal setting
• Inclusion: the Head of Engineering is included or consulted in topics such as the department strategy + OKR's, long term domain vision (product, architecture and workforce), alignment of IT Landscapes and strategic workforce planning of Engineers and Engineering Managers

What we offer you
NN invests in an inclusive, inspiring work environment and in skills and competences for the future. We match this with employee benefits that are in line with what is needed today and in the future. This way, we offer our employees the opportunity to get the best out of themselves.

We offer you:

• Salary between €7,892 and €11,274 based on a 36 hours depending on your knowledge and experience
• 13th month and holiday allowance are paid with your monthly salary
• 27 vacation days for a 5-day working week and one Diversity Day
• A modern pension administered by BeFrank
• Plenty of training and learning opportunities
• Choice between company car or NS Business Card 2nd class, which gives you unlimited travel, also privately. Do you prefer to travel with your own transport? Then you receive a mobility budget
• Allowances for setting up your home office and for internet use

Who you are

• A seasoned expert with many years of relevant experience in the field of engineering and change management within the financial industry, and proven ability to combine an innovative vision with a high level of execution
• Strong in stakeholder management, both towards peers and senior IT management within Group IT and NN BUs. Strong ability to work and communicate with diverse groups of stakeholders in different functional boundaries
• An approachable personality and stakeholder manager, who enjoys collaboration and is able to open doors and successfully build and manage relationships and networks within the IT community
• A balanced 'natural leader', who stands his ground and is able to perform in a demanding, complex and dynamic environment, and coordinate multiple projects
• A very structured IT professional, with a strong business acumen, a 'can-do' mentality and a drive to innovate

Who you will work with

You will work very closely with senior management, product managers, engineers and HR, within and outside of Group IT, in order to drive the IT Group organization strategy forward together. NN has a strong values-based culture in which bringing out the best in people is a key. In a diverse, open and inspiring environment, we aim to grow our business sustainably, with a clear and active role in society.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about this vacancy, you can reach out via e-mail to Werner Weber (HR Business Partner Group IT) / werner.weber@nn-group.com.