Director of Engineering

About Wakacje.pl

We are an organization that has been fulfilling the travel dreams of Poles for 25 years. Wakacje.pl is the largest e-commerce platform in Poland and a network of travel agencies offering a wide range of travel products. Since 2015, we have been part of Wirtualna Polska Holding – the largest Polish group of media and e-commerce companies. At Wakacje.pl, we offer thousands of domestic and international trips, as well as travel insurance, airport parking, and holiday vouchers. We constantly expand our offer to best meet our customers' needs. If you approach life with #ENERGY, value #HONESTY AND OPENNESS, focus on #CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDING and #COLLABORATION at work, carry out your tasks with high #EFFICIENCY and #RESPONSIBILITY, and want to play a key role in making us #INNOVATIVE – join us! 

Job description

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced, strategic, and inspiring engineering leader to join our organization as Director of Engineering. In this role, you will lead a critical 60-person eCommerce Engineering organization and play a key role in shaping the future of our technology landscape within a fast-growing travel industry environment.

Reporting directly to the CTO, you will be responsible for translating business vision into scalable, reliable, and innovative technology solutions. You will lead a team of Engineering Managers and engineering teams, driving organizational excellence, technical strategy, and execution at scale.

This is a unique opportunity for a leader who thrives at the intersection of technology, business, and people leadership, and who is passionate about building high-performing engineering organizations and strong engineering cultures.

Key Responsibilities

Engineering Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead, coach, and develop Engineering Managers and Technical Leaders, providing ongoing mentorship, guidance, and performance feedback.
• Build and foster a culture of transparency, accountability, constructive debate, and continuous improvement.
• Own talent acquisition and retention strategies to attract, develop, and retain top engineering talent.
• Establish succession planning and career development frameworks to ensure sustainable organizational growth.
• Promote leadership development across all levels of the engineering organization.

Technology Strategy & Business Alignment

• Define and execute a long-term technology strategy aligned with business objectives and company growth plans.
• Translate corporate strategy into measurable engineering goals, priorities, and outcomes for the eCommerce organization.
• Drive technology investment decisions and prioritize initiatives based on business value and strategic impact.
• Own departmental budgets, including headcount, operational expenses, and infrastructure investments.
• Ensure effective management of technology ROI and resource allocation.
• Lead Quarterly Business Reviews and strategic discussions with executive leadership, presenting performance, progress, risks, and future plans.
• Define and monitor key success metrics, including engineering KPIs, operational metrics, and service-level objectives (SLOs).

Technical Vision & Engineering Excellence

• Establish and maintain engineering standards, technology guidelines, and best practices across the organization.
• Define and communicate the long-term technical vision and architecture strategy for the eCommerce platform.
• Provide oversight and direction on architectural decisions to ensure scalability, reliability, performance, and security.
• Drive engineering quality, operational excellence, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Lead strategic modernization efforts, including platform evolution and technical debt reduction programs.
• Advocate for modern software engineering practices, including cloud-native architectures, microservices, event-driven systems, DevOps, and platform engineering principles.

Delivery, Operations & Execution

• Oversee planning and execution of strategic product and technology roadmaps.
• Manage cross-functional dependencies and ensure alignment across engineering, product, and business stakeholders.
• Optimize organizational capacity, workforce planning, and resource allocation.
• Identify and mitigate delivery, operational, and organizational risks.
• Ensure effective incident management practices and operational resilience across the engineering organization.
• Drive post-incident reviews, root cause analysis, and preventative improvement initiatives.

Requirements

Requirements

Experience & Leadership

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering and technology organizations.
• 5+ years of leadership experience managing engineering leaders ("manager of managers" experience is essential).
• Proven experience leading engineering organizations of 60+ engineers in an Agile environment.
• Strong strategic thinking and demonstrated ability to align technology initiatives with business objectives.
• Experience managing budgets, CAPEX/OPEX planning, and ROI-driven investment decisions.
• Track record of building high-performing teams and developing future leaders.

Technical Expertise

• Strong technical foundation with deep understanding of software development lifecycle and modern engineering practices.
• Experience with cloud platforms, distributed systems, microservices architectures, event-driven systems, and DevOps methodologies.
• Ability to effectively partner with architects and senior engineers on technology strategy and architectural direction.
• Strong understanding of operational excellence, reliability engineering, and scalable platform development.

Stakeholder Management & Communication

• Excellent communication, presentation, and influencing skills.
• Experience collaborating with executive leadership and senior business stakeholders.
• Ability to navigate complex organizational environments and drive alignment across multiple teams and functions.
• Fluent English, both written and spoken, with the ability to operate effectively in an international environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in eCommerce, online marketplaces, digital products, or the travel industry.
• Experience leading technology transformation, platform modernization, or organizational scaling initiatives.
• Familiarity with international and multi-brand business environments.

We offer

What do we offer:

Workplace safety and comfort:

• Employment based on an employment contract or B2B,
• Full support during the onboarding period under the supervision of an engaging leader/buddy.

Business agency and agility:

• Real influence on business decisions, the ability to take initiatives and implement your ideas.

Development within the organization:

• Individual Development Plan,
• Participation in training courses and conferences to enhance professional competencies. 

All-inclusive for Employees:

• A benefits package that you can use according to your preferences – Lux Med medical care, Health and Life Insurance (PZU and Warta), Multisport card, shopping and lunch vouchers, and many other cafeteria offers available on the Worksmile platform,  
• Study Tour – trips abroad to explore our product offerings (destination tours and hotel audits),
• A training and webinar package supporting professional and personal development,
• Discounts on our products for employees and their families,
• Work in the modern Alchemia office complex – Neon building, 100 meters from the Gdańsk Przymorze-Uniwersytet SKM station,
• Teambuilding events for the start and end of the tourist season – check them out: Instagram, LinkedIn, Tiktok, Facebook,
• Mini events, delicious coffee, and on Mondays, hot chocolate,
• Casual dress code.

Ready to join the team with a #travelmindset? We’re waiting for you!