Head of Engineering & AI (m/f/d)

Join us to make education accessible for all! Strengthen our Synthetic Teaching / Syntea AI team in full-time (40 hrs./week) as Head of Engineering (m/f/d) within Germany or UK remotely or at one of our office locations . This role focuses on leading the engineering vision for Syntea, a critical part of IU’s AI-first strategy.

Your Tasks Lead multi-domain engineering teams (Frontend, Backend, AI Services, Platform) delivering SynteaOS, domain agents, and AI-driven micro-apps. Drive architectural excellence , ensuring scalability, modularity, and reliability of the Syntea ecosystem. Make agentic engineering the default way we build – own the adoption roadmap along clearly defined maturity levels.

Own the agentic delivery flow from ticket to merged PR – agent-supported requirements and PRDs, parallelised implementation, automated verification, and agent-assisted code review. Build the harness around the agents – repository-level rules and playbooks, cross-tool standards (e.g. AGENTS.md), guardrails, CI/CD enforcement and automated quality gates, so that agent-generated code is fast and safe.

Build lean, AI-amplified teams – small teams with high leverage, equipped with the tooling, token budgets and enablement they need to work agentically without hesitation. Partner with Product and UX leads to transform innovative ideas into robust, production-grade solutions. Foster engineering excellence, culture and clear ownership – mentoring leads and engineers to reach their full potential, and holding teams accountable for what they own, however the code was produced.

Your Profile

Proven leadership in engineering management (5+ years), ideally across multiple cross-functional product teams. Strong technical foundation in modern software architecture , cloud-native development, and data or AI integration. Hands-on agentic engineering practice – you work with coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or comparable) every day, orchestrate several of them in parallel, and can show us what you have shipped that way.

For us this is a requirement, not a bonus. A clear point of view on where agentic engineering is heading – how the role of the software engineer changes, what stays firmly human, and how you bring a n engineering team along. A track record of raising an engineering organisation's AI maturity – introducing standards, harnesses and guardrails, and making adoption stick well beyond the early adopters.

Experience working in or alongside AI / ML product environments (e.g. LLM applications, agent frameworks, MCP/A2A-style interoperability, evaluation and observability for agents). Ability to balance technical vision with delivery – you know how to inspire teams while keeping execution sharp. Experience in scaling organizations , establishing standards, and building a strong engineering identity.

Excellent communication skills in English; German is a plus ​ We Offer Be you at IU : We support and empower you to achieve your personal and professional goals. After all, your happiness significantly contributes to a positive and productive environment. Work wherever you want... : Digitalization is part of our DNA. Decide for yourself which place sparks the most productivity in you.

You love remote work? No problem! Would you like to work abroad for a while? Our WorkFlex Benefit makes it possible. and flexible in terms of time: It's your job; We trust you and give you the greatest possible freedom to organize yourself. Take your knowledge to a new level: Where else, if not with us? Enjoy free access to all our e-learning platforms.

In addition, we will finance you a complete technology course of your choic Make your journey sustainable: Whether it's a DeutschlandTicket subsidised to just €13.45, or a Jobrad (bike leasing) offer, enjoy the freedom of mobility for both work and personal activities, while also making an eco-friendly choice. 33 days to rest: Taking breaks is important!

In addition to 30 flexible vacation days per year, we also give you additional days off on your birthday, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. IU International University of Applied Science (IU) is Germany's largest university of applied science – and we are not just an excellent choice for studying, but also an outstanding Great Place to Work®!

As an Edutech company, we rely on state-of-the-art technology and data-driven approaches. That's why AI-driven voice assistants and other GPT systems have long become part of our daily work routine, helping us to focus on exciting projects. Here at IU over 4,000 employees are dedicated to making a difference. Become part of our Engineering team!

We're passionate, competitive, open to all things new - and we love data. We live to code anything that makes IU students and IU services better. Sounds like the perfect job for you? Then apply now! Simple, fast and even without a cover letter. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact Ronja at Ronja.

kaiser@iu.org . Please note that, for data protection reasons, we are not allowed to process email applications. Actions speak louder than words: We cherish our "Culture of Everyone" and would like to take this opportunity to empathize that we do not tolerate discrimination towards any race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation