Director of Engineering - Data

This is an organisational leadership role. You’ll turn product and business strategy into an engineering organisation, an investment plan and a sequenced set of outcomes. You’ll also develop strong managers and stay accountable for the quality, architecture, security, reliability and operability of the production software your teams build. You’ll partner closely with Architects on technical direction and governance, with clear roles for management and technical authority.

The exact teams in scope are still being finalised, with a focus on data-related areas. This means you’ll have real influence over how your organisation is shaped. Your teams are globally distributed and include contractor partners in India and Romania. You’ll bring a proven track record of leading remote teams, both permanent and contracted, and building a high-trust, inclusive engineering culture across them. AI is central to how we want to build: you’ll set the area’s priorities and guardrails for AI-assisted engineering and AI-enabled product delivery.

This is a hybrid role working 3 days a week in our Barcelona office.

First 90 Days

30 Days: Get to know the Data product area: its architecture, data platforms, integrations, production health and the customers who depend on it. Meet your managers, senior engineers, Principal Engineers and Architects, and your peers in Product, QA Automation, Security and Operations. Build a clear picture of the current organisation, delivery commitments, risks and capacity across your teams, including the contractor-based teams.

60 Days: Form and share your view of the engineering strategy for the area. Agree clear expectations with your managers and start coaching them on performance and development. Review priorities, dependencies and trade-offs across teams, and identify the most significant production, security or reliability risks. Begin shaping your approach to AI-assisted engineering, including where to experiment and what evidence you’ll require.

90 Days: Own a clear, communicated plan for the area: organisation design, investment priorities and a sequenced portfolio of outcomes linked to customer and business value. Have effective operating rhythms in place with your managers and key stakeholders. Set out your priorities and guardrails for AI adoption, and a workforce and capability plan that addresses future hiring and development needs.

Meet the Team

You’ll lead engineering for the Data area through a group of Software Engineering Managers, each responsible for one or more distributed teams, and through Principal Engineers who report to you and set technical direction within the area. You’ll work closely with the Architects, who report directly to the VP and Managing Director, on architecture and technical governance. You’ll also work with leaders across Product, QA Automation, Security and Operations.

The teams combine permanent employees and contractor partners across several countries. Success depends on consistent, inclusive people leadership and clear accountability, whatever the location or employment model.

How Success Will Be Measured

Delivery of agreed outcomes across your teams, with priorities and trade-offs that stay connected to customer and business value

Quality, security, reliability and operability of the Data area’s production software

Strength and growth of your managers, including succession and leadership capacity

Effective organisation design, capacity and capability planning, including hiring and development

Evidence-led adoption of AI-assisted engineering, with clear measures of quality, productivity, customer value, risk and workforce impact

Alignment and trust with senior stakeholders across Product, Architecture, QA Automation, Security and Operations

Responsibilities

Qualifications

Essential

Extensive relevant software engineering experience, including substantial leadership through managers. Organisational scope and sustained impact matter more than tenure alone

Track record of leading multiple engineering teams and delivering significant product, platform and operational outcomes

Proven success developing managers, shaping organisations and influencing senior technical, product and business stakeholders

Experience leading remote teams, both permanent employees and contractors

Hands-on knowledge of and experience with AI, and the ability to guide responsible AI-assisted engineering adoption, distinguishing durable value from tool activity and keeping risks, controls and human accountability explicit

Data engineering experience, for example with Snowflake, Oracle, OMNI, Debezium or Kafka

Strong understanding of security, reliability, resilience, observability, incident management and software supply chain risk at organisational scale

Broad technical judgement, with the ability to lead Principal Engineers and partner effectively with Architects

Ability to prioritise across teams, allocate capacity, manage material dependencies and balance near-term outcomes with long-term sustainability

Excellent executive communication: able to frame complex choices, negotiate priorities and build alignment

Experience directing engineering for a complex, multi-tenant ERP or SaaS product area with significant customer, data, integration and operational dependencies

Fluency in English

Preferred

A degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience

Advanced professional certifications in leadership, cloud, security, DevOps or architecture

At Sage, we offer you an environment where you can grow professionally without compromising your personal well-being. Our benefits package is designed to provide stability, flexibility, and balance:

• Medical and dental insurance: Fully funded medical and dental insurance.
• Flexible benefits: Exchange part of your salary and make tax savings on meal and transport vouchers, childcare, and training.
• Well-being: Free access to the Calm app (for up to 5 users), 24/7 counselling, and emotional support from our Healthy Mind Coaches. We also offer self-care and parenting resources through the Cleo app.
• Flexible working: flexibility of working one hour in, one hour out, shortened workdays on Fridays and during the summer, and the opportunity to work from over 40 countries for up to 10 weeks per year through our Work Away program.
• Annual leave: 23 working days of vacation, 5 paid days per year for volunteering.
• Extended leave: 7 extra days of maternity leave and 5 extra days of paternity leave, on top of the legal allowance, available after one year of service.
• Financial support: Life and disability insurance, salary advances of up to 3.5 times your net monthly pay, a €300 net marriage bonus, and access to Sage's employee stock purchase plan at a discounted rate.
• Learning and development: Free premium subscription to external learning platforms

Health and Safety Responsibilities

Fostering the safety culture leading by example.

Ensuring a safe work environment by implementing and monitoring preventive measures, that is crucial for maintaining productivity and employee well-being.

Regularly reviewing and updating safety protocols that will help prevent workplace accidents and ensure compliance with regulations.

Participating in safety training sessions and adhering to preventive guidelines and procedures, the objective is minimizing risks and protecting yourself and the rest of your colleagues.

This role is not open to visa sponsorship. Candidates must have a valid work authorization for the location listed and not require sponsorship now, or in the future, for their application to be considered.