{"id":954654,"url":"https://alion.io/job/compass-education-head-of-engineering","title":"Head of Engineering","company":{"id":60418,"name":"Compass Education","domain":"compass.education","url":"https://alion.io/company/compass-education","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workable","truth_index":null},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Hawthorn, Australia"],"countries":["AU"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":122000,"max_usd":275000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":4188},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":".NET","optional":true},{"name":"C#","optional":true},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":true},{"name":"Node JS","optional":true},{"name":"React.js","optional":true},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-16T04:06:55Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-16","last_verified_at":"2026-11-14T02:37:35Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":59,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":59},"description":"Come shape the future of education with us.\nAt Compass, we're on a mission to transform the school day for everyone - from staff and students to families and administrators. We build smart, seamless technology that empowers schools to focus on what really matters: learning, growing and thriving.\nThat mission has fuelled our growth into a global scale-up, now supporting 5,000+ schools across three countries, backed by a team of 300+ people. Our all-in-one school management platform is redefining how education communities connect, communicate and operate.\nWe're now looking for a Head of Engineering to own end-to-end engineering delivery and the day-to-day people leadership of our engineering org, spanning Compass, SchoolBytes, Griddle and Clipboard.\nAbout the Role\nReporting to the CPTO, you'll translate technology and product priorities into predictable engineering execution, build and develop a strong Development Manager cohort, and own the engineering operating model, organisational capability and delivery performance.\nThis is a leadership role built around the Development Manager layer - you'll lead through 5-7 Development Managers rather than directly managing squads, and be accountable for the consistency, capability and execution of the wider engineering organisation of ~40-50 engineers.\nWhat You'll Do\nEngineering Delivery & Operations\nOwn engineering's delivery performance across all squads, partnering with Product to ensure capacity, priorities and roadmap commitments are realistic, transparent and aligned. \nEstablish a consistent engineering operating model, spanning planning, estimation and release practices, that enables teams to plan, prioritise and deliver predictably at scale. \nOwn engineering capacity planning and allocation across squads, balancing strategic priorities, delivery commitments and team capability.\nEstablish and monitor meaningful engineering performance metrics, covering roadmap predictability, cycle time, quality, reliability technical debt and team health and report on these to the CPTO and ELT. \nIdentify delivery risks and dependencies early, driving resolution or escalating material trade-offs to the CPTO.\nPeople Leadership\nDirectly manage and develop the Development Manager cohort. Set clear expectations, coach on people leadership and hold them accountable for their squads' delivery and team health. \nOwn engineering headcount planning, hiring and onboarding in partnership with the CPTO and People & Culture. \nContinuously assess engineering team structures, skills and capabilities to ensure the organisation is designed for current and future priorities. \nBuild engineering career pathways and capability frameworks that support progression for engineers and managers. \nOwn engineering engagement and retention, monitoring team health signals and championing a strong engineering culture.\nEngineering Practice & Standards\nPartner with technical leaders (Development Managers, Tech Leads and the Head of Technology) to ensure engineering decisions support scalability, maintainability, security, reliability and delivery outcomes - you'll own engineering quality and technical execution even though this role is not the ultimate architecture owner. \nChampion consistent engineering standards, tooling and ways of working across squads. \nBalance delivery pace against technical debt and quality, escalating trade-offs to the CPTO where they affect strategy or architecture.\nPartner with the Head of Technology to ensure engineering teams implement and maintain required standards for reliability security and compliance across AU, UK and Ireland.\nStakeholder Partnership\nAct as engineering's day-to-day representative to Product, People & Culture, the Head of Technology and other functional leaders. \nGive the CPTO clear, timely visibility into delivery status, risks and people matters. \nRequirements\nAbout You\nThis role is for an experienced engineering leader who's managed through managers across multiple teams in a product-led SaaS environment - someone who measures success by the strength of the team they've built, backed by strong delivery, people leadership and commercial judgement.\nYou will bring:\nExperience leading through engineering managers across multiple teams, with accountability for delivery, people and organisational performance.\n10+ years experience in software engineering, including several years leading Engineering/Development Managers in a product or SaaS environment; the shape of that experience matters more than an exact number of years. \nA track record of owning delivery outcomes across multiple teams to squads, ideally in a product-led SaaS, PE-backed or similarly performance-oriented environment where predictability and efficiency are closely tracked. \nExperience scaling an engineering organisation and leading through change or transformation, including building consistent practice from process immaturity. \nStrong people leadership - experience coaching and developing engineering managers, not just individual engineers. \nStrong commercial and resource-management capability, comfortable owning capacity planning, headcount trade-offs and organisational design decisions.\nAbility to operate effectively with Product leadership, aligning delivery capacity and commitments against roadmap priorities. \nExperience using engineering metrics (delivery, quality, reliability, team health) to drive performance, not just report on it. \nSufficient technical depth to engage credibly with Compass' engineering stack and technical leaders, and to understand trade-offs relating to scalability, maintainability, security and reliability. \nHighly regarded:\nExperience across distributed or multi-entity engineering teams; AU/UK/Ireland exposure is a plus given Compass' footprint.\nDirect experience with C#/.NET, React.js, Node.js and Typescript. \nBenefits\nWhy Compass\nYou'll join a purpose-driven company at a genuinely exciting stage - scaling product, team and markets simultaneously.\nWhat we offer:\nA hybrid working environment, with teams working a hybrid structure at our office hubs.\nLearning and development opportunities, including a dedicated PD budget.\n24/7 access to our Employee Assistance Program (EAP), including face-to-face, phone and live chat support.\nA parental leave program for both primary and secondary carers.\nRegular team events, social budgets and in-office perks help you stay connected, from team lunches to end-of-week socials.\nEmployee Referral Program\nA supportive, inclusive culture where your voice is valued and heard.\nCompass is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We embrace and celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.\nPrior to commencing employment, you’ll need:\nA valid Employee Working With Children Check\nA satisfactory National Police Check\nVerification of unrestricted work rights in Australia (e.g. citizenship, passport or birth certificate)\nReady to build something that matters?\nWe'd love to hear from you. Find out more at www.compass.education.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7066,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Hybrid work","Parental leave"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Australia","iso":"AU","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["EdTech Platforms"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-16T04:06:55Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":34,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.757,"p_room":0.45,"age_days":57,"expected_fill_days":33,"reasons":["conf:3","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-11-12T10:38:37Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/compass-education-head-of-engineering","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/compass-education-head-of-engineering.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-14T06:01:06Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":10197,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-15T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":60418},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=60418"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcompass-education-head-of-engineering"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"free","price":{"credits":0,"usd":0},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fcompass-education-head-of-engineering"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fcompass-education-head-of-engineering"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/compass-education-head-of-engineering\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcompass-education-head-of-engineering"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":954654}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"compass.education","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":954654},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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