Who we are
At OpenUp, we're on a mission to make mental well-being accessible to everyone – anytime, anywhere. We support companies, their employees, and their families with a wide range of mental well-being services, all from one platform.
Through OpenUp, people gain access to well-being check-ins, self-guided online courses, articles, videos, interactive group sessions, mindfulness sessions, and a team of certified psychologists and lifestyle experts. We believe mental and physical well-being go hand in hand – and that lifestyle habits like nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management are essential for a balanced life. By offering expert support across all these areas, we take a holistic approach to health.
We're proud to be ranked #3 on LinkedIn's Top Startups 2024 list – and we're growing fast. With over 1500+ (international) client organisations and 300,000+ supported employees (including companies like Rituals, Deloitte, Decathlon, KPMG and McDonald's), we're building the future of well-being at work. And we're just getting started.
The Role
As our Head of Engineering, you'll lead and grow a talented team of engineers and tech leads through OpenUP's transition to an AI-first company. You'll partner closely with product and data teams to both integrate AI into our user experience and champion the adoption of AI-driven tools and workflows throughout the engineering organization.
You'll lead by example: piloting new AI tools, championing workflow improvements, and upskilling the team. You'll also ensure we continue to deliver quality software at a predictable, sustainable pace as we ramp up our use of AI. If you love guiding teams through change, enjoy technical coaching, and want to help define what AI-first engineering looks like in practice, this is your chance.
What "AI-first" Means at OpenUp
- AI as product: We are building user-facing features powered by the latest in AI/ML (LLMs, generative AI, intelligent coaching, etc.).
- AI in workflow: We're committed to piloting and gradually adopting AI-driven tools (for code generation, automated testing, bug triage, and more) to help our engineers build and ship faster, with higher quality.
- Pragmatic transformation: AI is a core strategic focus, but we know not everything can or should be automated overnight. We value leaders who can balance experimentation with pragmatism, and help bring the whole team along for the ride—your leadership will be critical in charting this course and ensuring meaningful adoption across the team.
About You
- 5+ years of experience in engineering leadership (e.g., Head, Director, or Engineering Manager) in a SaaS or tech product environment.
- Experience leading teams through technical or workflow transformations (e.g., adopting new tools, frameworks, or methodologies).
- Proven ability to mentor, coach, and develop engineers and tech leads—especially in times of change or upskilling.
- Demonstrated experience integrating or shipping AI/ML-powered product features or engineering tools.
- Deep technical expertise in software engineering fundamentals (cloud, CI/CD, security, code quality) and a strong interest in the evolving AI tool landscape (e.g., LLMs, MLOps, code generation, open-source and commercial AI platforms).
- Analytical, metrics-driven approach to engineering management and continuous improvement.
- Excellent communicator and collaborator across functions.
- Strong preference for candidates with DevOps and Infrastructure experience
- Knowledge / experience with the Node, .Net, React is a great plus.
- Excellent communicator and collaborator across functions.
Engineering Management & Performance
- Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing engineering team (10–15 engineers, 2 tech leads), ensuring delivery of roadmap goals and technical excellence.
- Own and optimize engineering practices—velocity, quality, reliability, and scalable SDLC.
- Set clear standards and use metrics to drive continuous improvement in delivery, quality, and developer productivity.
AI-First Engineering Leadership
- Develop and communicate a clear vision and roadmap for embedding AI in both our product and engineering practices.
- Be a technical "first-mover"—pilot, validate, and introduce new AI tools and workflows, guiding adoption and scale.
- Partner with tech leads and engineers to identify areas where AI can have the highest impact on our codebase, processes, and developer experience.
- Lead upskilling and knowledge-sharing efforts to build team capability in AI/ML and modern software engineering.
Collaboration & Communication
- Work closely with Product, Data, and Design teams to deliver cohesive, user-centric AI-powered features.
- Communicate technical vision, progress, challenges, and learnings to company leadership and the broader team.
What Success Looks like
- The team delivers robust, user-facing AI-powered features and continuously improves engineering velocity and quality.
- AI tooling is adopted pragmatically—starting with pilots and iterating based on impact and learning for full scale adoption
- The engineering team's skills and confidence in using AI steadily increase, with knowledge-sharing and upskilling as a regular part of team culture.
What you can expect
Joining OpenUp means being part of a fast-growing company that's doing something meaningful. You'll work with a diverse and international team. We like to have fun together with many team-building activities like our weekly 'borrels' and after-work sports classes, the yearly ski-trip, and our Padel tournament. This makes our work fun, challenging and dynamic. Apart from this, we offer:
- €1500 annual personal development budget
- Monthly home internet/phone contribution
- Daily healthy and vegetarian lunch at our office.
- Weekly office yoga, meditation classes or breathing exercises
- Flexible work model (hybrid and options for remote work).
- Monthly drinks and company wide summer fest and other fun activities.
- 27.5 vacation days per year.
- Free and unlimited access for you and your family to all our products, including our psychologists.
