Director of Engineering - Software, Hardware, Robotics (m/f/d)

What we offer

In this important and responsible management role, you will have the opportunity to own a decisive part in shaping the success of our complex products by coordinating high professional tech teams.

Your mission

You will transform our R&D engineering organization into a high-performing product and delivery organization.
You will define and set the development strategy, orchestrate the engineering teams (software, hardware, AI), and own the responsibility for product planning and delivery.
In close cooperation with the CTO, you translate the technical vision and market needs into the organization.
You will ensure smooth collaboration across tech teams and at cross-functional interfaces, aligned with operational excellence, thereby establishing a repeatable process from prototype to market readiness to delivery.

Your responsibilities in detail

• End-to-end ownership of product development of our two main product lines – across hardware and software domains
• Leading and developing program managers and technical leads
• Optimizing the product development process for scalability (roadmaps, milestones, agile stage-gates, time-to-market)
• Orchestrating cross-functional technical teams in different locations, resolving dependencies between product lines, and leveraging synergies by centralizing relevant functions for all teams (e.g., DevOps, QM)
• Managing resources, capacity, and priorities across teams related to an efficient product development
• Providing transparent reporting to the CTO and the whole management on progress, feasibility, risks, and trade-offs, and coordinating the future strategy
• Building an engineering organization capable of scaling up (scale-up readiness)
• Stakeholder management

Your profile

Education

• You have an university degree in Business IT or engineering (Wirtschaftsinformatik oder Wirtschaftsingenieur), Industrial Engineer from a top university
• Ideally, you spent the first few years of your career in a leading management consultancy working on projects with a strong technical focus

Experience

• Proven successful operational leadership experience in a comparable role (VP Engineering, Head of Product Development, or similar) at a VC-funded hardware and software / engineering scale-up operating in an international context
• Ideally, you have worked for a company that you have already guided through at least one growth phase (Series A/B+) in a similar technical role
• Proven experience of bringing technical products and solutions from scratch to market readiness, through all the ups and downs
• Proficient in building complex products step by step
• Experience in managing parallel product lines and teams with overlaps and interdependencies
• Confident in technical communication with the engineering team, drawing on their own hands-on technical background
• Understanding of modern engineering processes and scaled agile frameworks
• Very good understanding of system integration (robotics, software, hardware, camera, sensors)

Leadership

• Leadership experience as a ‘Leader of Leaders’ (Program Manager, Team Leads)
• Distinctive servant leadership qualities: forward-thinking and entrepreneurial mindset, strong analytical skills, data-driven, operational view of the big picture, people-focused, excellent communicator bridging technical depth and management level

Personality

• Agile engineering mindset and strong co-creator
• Comfortable with ambiguity and the ability to drive priorities forward convincingly, even when everything seems equally important
• Ability to prioritize clearly and make trade-off decisions in the face of uncertainty and resource constraints
• Ownership at its highest level: taking end-to-end responsibility for results, not just for processes
• Beginner's mindset and first-principles thinking
• A recognized sparring partner for the CTO

Nice to have

• You have been a founder in a relevant, successful start-up previously
• Experience in the fields of autonomy, AI perception, computer vision, and sensor fusion
• Experience in the defense or GovTech sector
• Experience in building multi-site organizations

What else

• Willingness to work in Munich
• Fluent in German and English
• Citizenship of a NATO member country

About us

The world is changing. Exponential technologies are enabling new types of security threats. ATS is committed to staying ahead by building nimble, scalable, and cost-effective defences. We are looking for passionate team members who are eager to create exceptional products, safeguard our freedom, and strengthen the resilience of democracies.

Who we are: Autonomous Teaming is a defence-tech start-up specializing in machine vision solutions. Driven by cutting-edge innovation, our team works on next-generation technologies designed to meet rapidly evolving security challenges.

What we do: We develop systems that enable computers and sensors to operate as coordinated teams, collaborating in real time to counter AI-powered asymmetric threats at scale — including drone swarms and other UXVs. Our mission is to build resilient, intelligent defence capabilities that perform reliably in the most demanding environments.

How we work: We value close, in-person collaboration as the foundation for building complex, high-impact technology, while maintaining flexibility aligned to role and team needs. Our culture is built on ownership, responsibility, and trust — with a shared commitment to growing and building together.

Where we are: Based in Munich, Berlin, and Toulouse, we are expanding rapidly across Europe with plans to open additional office hubs.