Director of Engineering - Content Innovation & Creator Empowerment (All Genders)

Location
Helsinki
Contract
Full time
Job Category
Software Engineering - Leadership

Zalando is seeking a dynamic and experienced Engineering professional to join as Director of Engineering - Content Innovation & Creator Empowerment. This role sits in the Content Experiences department, and will be based at the Zalando Engineering Hub in Helsinki, Finland. This role will manage a team of 50+ engineers and will have the responsibility of growing this team to 60+ engineers, split across different teams in Helsinki & Berlin. As Director of Engineering, you will be responsible for overseeing engineering quality and good practice across the Content Experiences department, as well as working with the Applied Science team.

The Director of Engineering, Content Innovation & Creator Empowerment role is responsible for supporting innovative initiatives in Zalando, such as the new Inspiration & Entertainment strategic initiative. As Director of Engineering, you will focus on empowering Creators with intuitive tools and insights to create engaging and relevant content for Zalando’s Inspiration & Entertainment platform. The purpose and mission of this leadership role is to streamline the content planning, sourcing and publishing process, while developing and improving content formats for world-class content experiences. The ultimate vision is to create a dynamic environment where creativity aligns with business objectives, and creators are seamlessly connected to global and local goals. Success is measured through consumer and creator engagement, increased goal based content programming, monetisation value and Zalando brand image.

In summary, the core goals of this leadership role are to:

  • Deeply understand our customers, consumers and creators. Build engaging relationships with them and provide them an outstanding experience through lifestyle content creation and consumption. 

  • Enabling other groups in Zalando to serve our customers with their own propositions, while making sure the customer journey is seamless, remarkable and inspiring on content driven destinations.

  • Build, shape, train and foster the wider world-class product and technology team with great talents that fits customers and Zalando’s needs.

WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING):

  • Drive technical expertise & strategy: You are an experienced technical leader with strong background knowledge in managing large scale data intensive systems and micro-services to drive the roadmap and strategy of the team. 

  • Executive Leadership: You are a pivotal leader in the Content Experiences team, fostering team growth. As a leader of leaders, you will build, inspire, and manage the team, providing strong technical leadership and mentoring Engineering Leaders. Additionally, you will exemplify effective collaboration with product, design, and commercial teams.

  • Stakeholder Management: Engineering systems in Content Experiences serve as the portal for all Zalando teams to reach consumers with content. You will collaborate with other leaders and cross functional stakeholders across the company to enhance customer understanding through data and improve the consumer discovery journey on Zalando, focusing on engineering excellence.

  • Strategic Vision: You will ensure that the systems enable both our customer needs, and platform strategy for all main stakeholder groups. (Propositions, Partners and Creators).

  • Deep Technical understanding & mentorship expertise: As the strategic and technical guide for engineering in Content Authoring, this leadership role demands hands-on experience in both frontend and backend development, as well as managing large-scale, data-intensive systems. Strong leadership in strategy and technical guidance is essential.

WE’D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF:

  • You have a very strong understanding of digital content creation, social media platforms, and influencer ecosystems.

  • Exceptional leadership skills with experience in building, inspiring, and managing high-performing globally distributed engineering teams.

  • Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to collaborate across product, design, and commercial teams.

  • Experience in fostering a seamless, inspiring customer journey on content-driven platforms.

  • You have proven experience building, leading and growing teams in digital experience platforms or business. 

OUR OFFER

Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer.

  • Centrally located and accessible office in Kamppi, Helsinki City Center, with diverse working and entertainment spaces and healthy snacks and drinks available.

  • Hybrid work model of up to 60% remote work and flexible working times.

  • 40% Zalando shopping discount for employees, employee share shop, bike benefit, and Edenred benefits for lunch, sports and culture, commuting and massage.

  • Extensive occupational health care and child care benefits.

  • Additional holidays and volunteering time off.

  • Supportive and active international community of colleagues for onboarding, mentoring, continued learning and for having fun through diverse offering of meetups and events, knowledge guilds and Employee Resource Groups with open source commitment.

  • Relocation assistance for internationals.


Learn all about Zalando and our values here: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/?gh_src=22377bdd1us. For more information about our office and teams in Helsinki, please visit: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/where-we-work/helsinki

Please note that all applications must be completed using the online form - we do not accept applications via email.

INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN

At Zalando, our vision is to be inclusive by design. And this vision starts with our hiring - we do not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, personal expression, ethnicity, religious belief, or disability status. You are welcome to leave out your picture, age, or marital status from your application. We only assess candidates on their qualifications and merit. 


We want to provide you with a great candidate experience. Feel free to inform us of any accommodations you may need, so we can best support you throughout the hiring process. 

do.BETTER - our diversity & inclusion strategy: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/our-impact/dobetter-our-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy
Our employee resource groups: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/our-impact/our-employee-resource-groups 

Recruiter

Kenneth Chege

kenneth.chege.external@zalando.de

Please note that all applications from this job page must be completed using the online form - we do not accept applications via e-mail. Once reviewed, our recruiters will contact applicants via an official Zalando email address (@zalando.de).

In some cases we also work with a selection of headhunters and agencies to fill specific roles. Please note that neither Zalando nor our recruiting partners will ask for any kind of payment to apply for a job or attend an interview.

If you have any questions about our recruitment process, please take a look at our FAQ page.

Our Software Engineering teams deploy software extensively, managing a broad set of applications and conducting thousands of deployments per week. The Software Engineering team enables Zalando as Europe’s number one multi-brand, digital platform for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle for our partners and customers. As a Zalando Software Engineer, you’ll be part of a community of thousands of colleagues across Europe.

Learn More

Software Engineering

Zalando SE Berlin headquarter BHQ-X

About Zalando

It’s the perfect time to join Zalando on our journey to build the leading pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce. Help us offer an inspiring and quality multi-brand shopping experience for fashion and lifestyle products to about 50 million active customers in 25 markets. Or be part of our logistic infrastructure, software or service capabilities to help brands and retailers run and scale their entire e-commerce business, on or off Zalando. Join our Zalando ecosystem, to enable positive change for the fashion and lifestyle industry. 

Learn more about our culture