Head (m/f/x) of Engineering - Architecture Heilbronn Heilbronn

The appliedAI Initiative elevates Europe’s industry to become shapers in the age of AI, creating a future that we desire to live in. Through our ecosystem of strong partners, comprehensive programs, services and solutions we advance companies holistically on their AI journey. With our uniquely diverse, interdisciplinary, and driven team, we build on deep technical expertise while specializing on applicability of the solutions. We share a mindset of collaboration and openness with our ecosystem of leading companies and tech players. Our common goal is to strengthen the European landscape, jointly creating unique knowledge for applying trustworthy AI. We believe that AI Agents will be the dominant topic for AI in the near future and that appliedAI with its partner ecosystem will impact how this technology is being used in industry and beyond in Europe.

Your mission

AI engineering at appliedAI runs on real industrial ground: energy, automotive, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and financial services, with systems that have to hold up in production and not only in a demo. As the practice's most senior technical leader - and the manager who leads and develops the engineers closest to that work - you would set the standards and reference architectures the rest of engineering builds to. If you like being the person others bring the hard architecture question to, and like watching them grow into answering it themselves, this role was built for you.

Your tasks will include:

• Developing engineers as the first duty of the role rather than the residue of it: growth paths, levelling, honest feedback, and enough proximity to know what each person is genuinely ready for
• Leading your squads and setting how engineering works day to day: coaching through the hard architecture calls, defining the technical standards and guardrails the wider practice builds to, and raising the bar for excellence across all of engineering
• Owning the technical capability map for Professional Services engineering - what expertise exists, what's missing, and where reference architectures and reusable methods should be built
• Selling engineering through technical credibility: carrying a deep architecture discussion and a C-level conversation in the same meeting, and opening the business opportunities that follow from being trusted on substance
• Acting as the most senior principal advisor on the critical engagements, supervising the decisions where a wrong call gets expensive, without taking the project away from the person leading it
• Making sure the technical direction of the practice (architectures, platforms, standards) tracks where the business is heading, not just where any one engagement needs it
• Shaping how appliedAI builds software itself, applying agentic and AI-native development to our own delivery so the practice compounds instead of restarting with every project

Your profile

• You lead people first - as their manager, not just their mentor: you have grown engineers into seniority, given feedback they trusted, and can point to careers that moved because of you
• Deep and current engineering substance across software architecture, system integration, or generative and agentic AI, backed by years of shipping software that actually runs at customers, not just demos
• You sell in the substance: technical trust in an architecture review and commercial trust with a CTO or managing director, both in the same week
• You have been the senior advisor on critical delivery rather than the person doing it, seeing the decision that will hurt in six months and stepping in early enough for it to count
• A real feel for capability: which technical bets will pay off, where the practice's gaps are, and how to close them through reference architectures as much as through hiring
• You enjoy shared ownership, where direction is agreed with a peer rather than handed down
• Fluent German and English as you will communicate in both languages with colleagues and customers

What we offer

• A highly qualified and motivated team of ~90 people is on a journey to change the rapidly evolving European AI Landscape
• Experience the best of both worlds with our hybrid work model: You can choose to work from our vibrant offices - either at the IPAI in Heilbronn or the House of Communication in Munich - while also enjoying the flexibility to work remotely a few days each week
• Opportunity to shape a variety of projects and the development of new, original content based on the latest developments in AI and its adoption in businesses
• An atmosphere that encourages to think and experiment in new ways with software, hardware, and processes
• A highly visible initiative that helps you build a large and high-level network of start-ups, partners, and tech companies
• A flexible development budget that’s yours to shape - invest it in training, certifications, conferences, or new challenges, however you want to grow
• Sports membership with Wellpass to access thousands of sports facilities all over Germany (and beyond), as well as online courses
• JobRad: Lease a bike for a cheaper rate via JobRad and we cover the bike insurance on top
• Sabbatical option: You can take a sabbatical of up to 3 months after min. 3 years of employment - because sometimes 30 vacation days are not enough to explore the beauty of this world
• PME Familienservice: A 24/7 support for a successful work & life in any life situation. Benefit from free support in areas like life coaching, child care and many other options
• Mobility budget: Every month we contribute to your individual mobility usage with public transport or shared mobility offers within the app Moovster
• Workation: Work from anywhere in the EU/EWR area for up to 3 months per year - combining working at a nice place and spending your leisure time in the evening like vacation

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