Australian award-winning SaaS business, fast approaching 10 years old and now 250 staff.

They have built a platform with real traction, a strong customer base, and a business that has already come through the early growth phase successfully.

Now they are at the next stage.

The company has scaled quickly, the platform is critical to customers, and engineering now needs to evolve from working well in pockets to operating as a clear, scalable, high-performing function across the business.

That is why this role exists.

This is not an enterprise environment. There are no layers of process, no oversized support functions, and no room for someone whose experience has only come from large corporates where structure already existed.

This is a SaaS scale-up, and they need someone who has already lived through this phase before.

The Role:

This is a Head of Engineering role reporting directly to the CEO and sitting on the Senior Leadership Team.

You will take ownership of how engineering operates as the business continues to scale.

This is not about managing delivery. It is about defining and embedding the operating model that allows engineering to scale without breaking.

You will:

• Define and implement the engineering operating model across multiple squads.
• Bring structure, standards and consistency into a fast-moving environment.
• Set clear technical direction across platform, infrastructure and delivery.
• Balance short-term delivery with long-term platform evolution.
• Align Engineering Manager, Principal and Staff Engineers into a cohesive system.
• Improve platform scalability, performance and technical sustainability.
• Introduce governance and ways of working without slowing the business down.
• Contribute at leadership level, ensuring engineering decisions align with commercial outcomes.
• Bring a forward-looking lens to the platform, including how emerging technologies such as AI can be leveraged over time.

What They Are Looking For:

You have worked in a SaaS scale-up.Not a large enterprise trying to behave like one.

You have seen what happens when a business grows quickly and engineering starts to feel the strain, and you have helped define what comes next.

You bring:

• Experience in a SaaS business that has scaled rapidly from earlier-stage growth into a more mature environment.
• A track record of defining and embedding engineering operating models during periods of scale.
• Experience introducing structure, standards and consistency across multiple teams.
• The ability to set technical direction while leading through senior engineers and managers.
• Strong platform thinking, balancing delivery with long-term sustainability.
• Experience evolving platforms, not just maintaining them.
• Confidence operating at leadership level, influencing product and business decisions.

You are comfortable in environments where:

• Things are not perfect yet.
• Priorities shift.
• You need to build structure without slowing momentum.

What This Is Not

• This is not a large enterprise or big bank environment.
• This is not a role where process already exists and just needs maintaining.
• This is not a pure delivery leadership role.

If your experience is primarily in highly structured, large-scale corporate environments, this role is unlikely to be the right fit.

Why This Role

• Join an award-winning Australian SaaS business entering its next stage of scale.
• Own and define how engineering operates across the company.
• Work directly with the CEO and leadership team.
• Take a platform that already has traction and help make it truly scalable.
• Shape the future direction of engineering, including how new technologies are adopted over time.

Apply now.

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• Own and define the engineering operating model in a scaling SaaS business.
• Lead platform evolution, structure and technical direction through growth.
• High-impact leadership role working directly with the CEO.

Head of Engineering, SaaS, scale-up, platform, engineering leadership, Sydney, cloud, DevOps, AI