Job description
WELCOME TO OLX
At OLX, we work together to build a more sustainable world through trade.
We make it safe, smart, and convenient to buy and sell cars, find housing, get jobs, buy and sell household goods, and more. Our colleagues around the world help to serve millions of people around the world every month, through its well-loved consumer brands including OLX, Otodom, AutoTrader, Property24.
Join OLX and see how far you can go.
This role can be based anywhere in Portugal
As a Head of Engineering, you’ll provide strategic technical leadership across multiple engineering teams, managing Engineering Managers who lead our software development efforts. You’ll be responsible for ensuring technical excellence, fostering team health, and aligning engineering execution with business strategy across your domain.
You’ll work closely with Product, Design, and Technology leadership to shape technical direction, drive architectural decisions, and build high-performing engineering organizations. In this role, you’ll balance strategic thinking with hands-on support, helping your teams achieve autonomy while ensuring delivery excellence.
What you will be doing:
- Lead a group of cross-functional software teams: Manage and grow 3-6 Engineering Managers, their teams (20-40 engineers total), and Staff engineers. Coach your managers on team building, technical decisions, and delivery challenges.
- Own engineering execution, quality and technical direction across multiple product areas.
- Act as a hands-on engineering leader with a strong point of view on architecture, practices and trade-offs, providing good judgement in prioritization exercises.
- Drive delivery and prioritization ensuring teams have clear roadmaps tied to business value.
Engineering Leadership
- Set and uphold high standards for code quality, system design, reliability, and security
- Establish clear engineering principles (simplicity, scalability, maintainability, operability)
- Make and defend technical decision with long-term impact
- Review and guide architecture across teams, step in when systems are at risk
Execution & Delivery
- Ensure teams consistently deliver high-quality software on predictable timelines
- Balance speed vs. quality with informed, explicit trade-offs
- Drive operational excellence: monitoring, incident response, postmortems, and continuous improvement
- Identify and remove systemic bottlenecks
People & Team Management
- Lead, coach, and develop Engineering Managers and Senior Engineers (Staff/Principals)
- Build strong teams through hiring, onboarding, and performance management
- Create an environment of ownership and accountability
- Set clear expectations and give direct, actionable feedback
Product & Design Partnership
- Work as a true peer to Product and Design leadership
- Help shape product strategy by grounding decisions in technical feasibility and customer impact
- Push for solving the right problems, not just shipping features
- Ensure engineering choices improve user experience and long-term product health
Who we are looking for:
- 10+ years of overall experience in software engineering, including hands-on work on large-scale distributed systems, with 5+ years of experience managing engineering teams (20+ engineers, directly or through managers).
- Strong engineering judgment, able to say no and explain why.
- Comfortable going deep into technical discussions; Solid foundation in modern software development practices.
- Track record of developing people and building high-performing teams.
- Clear, opinionated, and respectful communicator; Proficient in English (written and verbal).
- Maintains a high bar for quality, while making deliberate, context aware tradeoffs - “good enough” is a conscious decision, not an accident.
Bonus points for:
- Experience in multi-country or distributed engineering organizations.
- Leading large-scale technical transformations.
- Strong instincts around dev experience and platform thinking
- Contributing to engineering strategy and organizational standards.
Our Benefits:
- Flexible benefits plan (Coverflex)
- 3 extra vacation days
- Health Insurance Multicare (extendable to family)
- Life Insurance
- Remote work monthly allowance
- Meal Allowance (10€ net per day in meal card)
- Urban Sports subscription (pack M)
- English & Portuguese Classes
- Discount website
- Welcome pack
If you think this is the role for you, send your application in English and let’s talk!
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at OLX
OLX values diversity and welcomes applicants of all races, ethnicities, disabilities, ages, genders, sexual orientations, religions, backgrounds, and experiences to apply. If this role excites you, we encourage you to apply, even if you don’t meet all the requirements - you may be just the right fit for this or other opportunities with us!
OLX will process your personal data to assess your fit for the applied position. You may optionally consent to store your data for up to 12 months after the application process for consideration in future OLX roles. For more details on how your application data will be processed please check our Privacy Statement.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
