Hire the best Engineering Directors in Germany matched in minutes from over 15,000 CVs with the power of AI.
Bring in an engineering leader for platform scaling, team structure, delivery governance, and cross-functional execution. Useful for product-led growth, modernisation, or recovery work, with fast and precise matching to vetted, available freelancers.
About the role
What they lead
An Engineering Director sets the technical direction and the delivery shape for several teams. They connect product goals, architecture, hiring, and execution. In practice, they turn strategy into a plan that engineering teams can actually ship.
- Team structure, ownership, and reporting lines
- Delivery planning across squads or domains
- Architecture guardrails with senior engineers and architects
- Hiring support, onboarding, and performance routines
- Stakeholder alignment with product, design, and operations
Typical outcomes
Companies hire an Engineering Director when engineering needs stronger leadership than a Head of Engineering or an Engineering Manager can provide alone. The work often covers platform stabilisation, delivery recovery, org change, or growth after a funding round or acquisition. In Germany, this is common in software product teams, industrial tech, fintech, mobility, and enterprise IT.
Skills that matter
A strong Engineering Director combines people leadership with technical judgment. They do not need to code every day, but they must understand how systems are built and where delivery risk sits.
- Software architecture and technical trade-off review
- Delivery management across agile teams and dependencies
- Coaching for managers, leads, and senior engineers
- Hiring, interviewing, and org design
- Clear communication with business leaders
Tools and methods
This role often works across Jira, Confluence, GitHub, GitLab, Slack, and roadmap tools. The exact stack matters less than the methods: operating cadences, dependency tracking, incident review, and clear decision logs. A good Engineering Director keeps teams focused without adding noise.
When to bring one in
Freelance support makes sense when a company needs experienced leadership fast, for a limited period, or for a specific change programme. That includes interim cover, an engineering reset, a difficult migration, or preparation for scale. Remote work is common, but on-site time in Germany can help when trust, change, or cross-site coordination matter.
What strong profiles show
Top candidates show calm leadership, structured thinking, and a record of improving how teams work. They explain difficult trade-offs in plain language and can support both senior engineers and non-technical stakeholders. They are strongest when they create clarity, remove blockers, and keep delivery reliable without micromanaging.
Meet FRATCH Engineering Directors
Thomas Übermeier
Innovative Fintech & Blockchain Leader · Head Of Engineering
Last position:
Head of Engineering - Midnight at IOG / Midnight
IOG (IOHK), is one of the world's pre-eminent blockchain infrastructure research and engineering companies.
- Converted a lingering R&D project into a cohesive, production-ready testnet; built and scaled the 35-member engineering team (Core, QA, SRE) to achieve this goal.
- Defined strategic direction and aligned technology development with business objectives as a key member of the leadership.
- Optimized software development processes and implemented agile methodologies, enhancing operational efficiency and code security.
- Delivered projects in a fast-paced startup environment through effective project management and resource allocation.
Markus Gattermann
Interim Project Manager / Head of Engineering & Operations | Mechanical & Special Machinery Engineering | Turnaround & Series
Last position:
Managing Owner at GEC-Solutions
Interim management, project leadership and technical consulting in mechanical and plant engineering for projects in mechanical engineering with a focus on automotive, e-mobility and series production
- Taking over and stabilizing critical projects in special machine construction and the automotive sector (SMEs, OEM, mechanical engineering, automotive)
- Supporting companies facing project delays, scheduling issues and operational challenges
- Leading engineering and project teams and managing complex project structures
- Optimizing processes in development, production and project execution
- Focus on on-time delivery, efficiency, quality and series readiness
Skills:
- Automotive
- Interim Management
- Mechanical Engineering Project Management
- Special Machinery Construction
- Engineering Management
- Operations Management
- Series Ramp-up
- Production Optimization
- Project Stabilization
- Turnaround Management
- Troubleshooting
- Automotive
- E-Mobility
- CAPEX Projects
- Project Management
- Process Optimization
I take on responsibility as:
- Project Manager
- Engineering Manager
- Operations Manager
- Interim Manager
Industries:
- Automotive
- Mechanical Engineering
- E-Mobility
I take on responsibility at short notice in critical mechanical and plant engineering projects and bring schedules, costs and organization back under control.
Complex projects are part of my daily routine. As a senior mechanical engineering expert, I am used to working in the dynamic automotive environment.
Gavrilo Olah
Head of Software Development
Last position:
Head of Software Development at Davidsmeyer & Paul GmbH
- Strategic project development, realisation, and implementation with internal and/or external development team
- Multi stakeholder management
- Planning new projects, cost calculation, risk calculation
- AI project for the electrical components production
- Building management systems integrations (BACnet, Modbus, etc)
- Inhouse BACring system architecture and development (control system for fire protection and smoke extraction systems)
- Inhouse MES system architecture and development
- Project management
- Agile-SCRUM project development
- Solution architecture and processes analytics (UML)
- Business application development
- Jira project management
- Reporting and documentation
- Recruitment process for the IT staff
- Software architecture, project development, costs, risks
- Education IT staff (internal and external)
- Responsibility for 5 development/DevOps/QA teams
Andrej Getze
Head of Engineering
Last position:
Head of Engineering at Pumpenfabrik Wangen GmbH (part of Atlas Copco)
- Led the engineering organization with 25 employees across series development, order engineering/master data, documentation, and project management/certification
- Managed an annual budget of €2.5 million
- Restructured the department by merging teams, streamlining processes, and significantly increasing overall efficiency
- Established a dedicated project management & certification department, enabling successful audits (including 3A) and completion of long-standing development projects
- Drove platform and product standardization, reducing complexity and increasing scalability across the portfolio
- Reduced lead times by up to 60% through modular design principles, process optimization, and industrialization efforts
- Built a high-performing R&D team from the ground up and successfully launched two new products within the last two years
- Lowered employee turnover from 24% to below 5% during restructuring by implementing a new leadership culture, clear responsibilities, and targeted talent development
André Görst
IT Consulting Project Management / Engineering Subproject Management
Last position:
IT Consulting Project Management / Engineering Subproject Management at T-Systems (on assignment for government agencies)
- Projects for federal networks (NdB).
- CR management, EoL change requests, design and documentation according to ITSCM.
- Data center planning.
- Project management and engineering subproject management.
- Software development for virtual server environments according to BSI.
Clemens Berlin
Director of Engineering
Last position:
Director of Engineering at SIDES GmbH
- Leading engineering organization of 45 engineers across 8 teams while serving dual role as Head of Backend
- Addressed critical organizational challenges including siloed departments, lack of engineering processes, and absence of technical strategy
- Executed comprehensive engineering leadership in people management, organizational design, and strategic planning
- Drove platform modernization including migration to a new Python backend, implementation of React micro-frontends, and transition to event-driven architecture
- Established engineering excellence framework through Architecture Decision Records, RFC processes, and comprehensive technology roadmapping
- Transformed engineering into integrated business partner by building collaboration channels with Product Management and Customer Operations teams
- Reduced escaped bugs by 50% and increased test coverage in legacy systems
- Achieved 100% Q2 roadmap delivery through realistic planning and improved estimation accuracy
- Introduced AI engineering strategy, establishing policies, providing tools, and training team on prompt engineering and agentic workflows
- Saved €10k monthly through infrastructure optimization including AWS IoT to RabbitMQ migration and decommissioning legacy systems
- Improved team engagement from 60% to 100% survey participation and enhanced eNPS scores among team leaders
- Built high-performance team through strategic hiring of Python, Go, and frontend engineers and improved onboarding
- Implementing transition to self-organized cross-functional teams
Nico Hirsing
Project Manager Engineering/CapEx/Process Engineering
Last position:
Project Manager Engineering/CapEx/Process Engineering at Sanofi
- Planning, URS/requirements and stakeholder management for a new Greenfield QC building 4000 m²
- Project realization
Jad Nohra
Engineering Director (Hands-on)
Last position:
Software Developer at Side Project
- Vram.run: Rust, TypeScript, HF Inference API with 19 providers, 220+ HW configs, and 30+ cloud GPUs. Search a model to see which API providers serve it, which GPUs can run it locally (and how fast), and what cloud rental would cost. Or search your hardware and see what fits. Also includes a Rust CLI.
- Psychotron: JavaScript, Web Audio API, AudioWorklet, Canvas 2D. Front-end for flash fiction audiobook with Web Audio DSP chain featuring pitch-shifting, 12-voice chorus, flanger, 13-band EQ, and convolver reverb. Includes a 2D canvas effect morphing engine and synchronized teleprompter.
- RecentWork: Swift, macOS, FSEvents, launchd. macOS daemon that watches project directories and maintains a flat folder of symlinks to recently modified files. Homebrew installable.
- Mini-llm: Bash, macOS, launchd, Ollama, llama.cpp, MLX, Open WebUI. Single command that turns a Mac Mini into a headless AI server.
- ThatSlop: JavaScript. Chrome/Firefox extension for AI content detection on LinkedIn and Twitter.
- Smux: Bash, tmux. Human-friendly tmux wrapper that is Homebrew installable.
- Learn Rust Course: Rust. Course on Rust’s memory model for C++ programmers, written from experience of transitioning from C++ to Rust at Irreducible.
Jurgen Wiehan
Director of Engineering
Last position:
Director of Engineering at Wunderflats
- Reporting directly to the CEO.
- Responsible for all things in the engineering space including software engineering, architecture and quality assurance.
- Led a team of around 25 cross functional team members including frontend, backend and fullstack engineers.
- Aligned engineering strategies with organisation strategy through clearly identifiable OKRs.
- Introduced Team Topologies and Scrum, ensuring less hand-offs between teams and improving their efficiencies which resulted in more impactful solutions for our customers.
- Lead the technology due diligence process for an M&A decision.
- Spearheaded the re-architecture of our product from monolith to microservices, reducing technical debt and enabling expansion into new markets.
- Managed a budget of around €2m, optimising costs by introducing SaaS solutions and replacing homegrown systems.
- Negotiated vendor contracts, reducing costs by at least 10% and improving service delivery.
- Set clear expectations and goals for engineers ensuring their continued growth within the organisation.
- Technology stacks included React, Node.js, MongoDB and GCP.
Volker Krause
Head of Engineering
Last position:
Head of Engineering at Infoniqa
- Led engineering execution: roadmap planning, capacity alignment, risk management, dependencies, and delivery tracking.
- Consolidated multiple payroll product lines into a unified SaaS platform on Dynamics 365 Business Central, enabling scalable post-merger operations and reducing operational complexity across the portfolio.
- Restructured engineering and product teams in a remote-first setting across Germany, Austria and Poland, consisting of five cross-functional units: compliance/enabling, platform, DevOps and two stream-aligned teams with total FTE depending on phase of reorganisation.
- Rebuilt the mid-level leadership layer and mentored engineering leaders, establishing a leadership pipeline and strengthening architectural decision-making across teams for scalable growth, delivery ownership and predictability.
- Designed platform foundations and system boundaries using Team Topologies aligned structures, enabling scalable ownership, clear interfaces and parallel development across distributed teams.
- Spearheaded AI transformation by implementing AI-assisted SDLC practices using SpecKit and GitHub Actions for automated, executable specifications, while delivering agentic product capabilities by securely exposing platform data and services to AI agents and copilots via RAG-based retrieval pipelines and MCP-style extensions.
- Drove modularisation of tightly coupled legacy logic into independently deployable services, improving maintainability, testability and architectural clarity while preserving continuity through targeted, low-risk extraction rather than full rewrites.
- Established observability, CI/CD and DevOps governance as platform capabilities, increasing automated compliance gates from 25% to 75% and improving deployment cadence by 40% across 15+ product versions.
- Improved operational resilience using DORA-aligned practices (lead time ↓50%, SaaS MTTR ↓85%), strengthening reliability and reducing support overhead.
- Coordinated engineering recovery for the German payroll platform during a company-wide P0 ransomware incident; restored platform continuity within 72h, validated data integrity, and rolled out hardened runbooks and automated recovery playbooks.
- Responsible for budget compliance and cost oversight in Engineering, with limited P&L responsibility and participating in the annual COGS/OPEX/CAPEX planning cycle.
Ilja Weber
Software Expert
Last position:
Software Expert at Siemens Betriebskrankenkasse
- Technical consulting and support for business units
- Strategic consulting and development of the overall software landscape
- Product ownership
- Onboarding and mentoring of junior developers
- Advising non-technical management
- Analysis and evaluation of existing systems
- JavaScript code reviews
- Development in the Java tech stack with Spring Boot and Clean Code
- Docker
- OpenShift & GitLab as CI/CD
Frank Thurner
Engineering & Industry 4.0 / IoT Project Manager
Last position:
Engineering & Industry 4.0 / IoT Project Manager at Contech Software & Engineering GmbH
Engineering & Industry 4.0 / IoT projects with AI system using the Robust Design method for products & processes
Development, implementation & introduction of AI system Analyser® for Robust Design for products & processes
AI and Industry 4.0 standard product for preventive and reactive quality assurance as well as maintenance (Predictive Quality and Predictive Maintenance) based on big & smart data
Jens Meßinger
Fullstack Developer / Team Lead
Last position:
Fullstack Developer / Team Lead at Self-employed (Meßinger & Rantzuch GbR)
- Provided fullstack web development as a new development and replacement of existing desktop and web applications for an ERP solutions provider in the education sector
- Analyzed and redesigned development processes and collaboration in distributed teams
- Responsibilities included team leadership, conceptual design, architecture, implementation, DevOps and consulting
- Technologies: C# & .NET (ASP.NET 7), Angular 14, JavaScript/TypeScript, OData/REST, SOAP, Azure DevOps
- Integrated interfaces to educational providers and authorities
Carsten Rösner
Senior Development Manager
Last position:
Senior Development Manager at opta data IT GmbH
- Coordination of group companies
- Setup and development of a central SSO/portal
- Department Head DevOps/Development
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Engineering Directors statistics
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
25 years
Position duration
3.6 years
Positions per freelancer
13
Top business areas
Product Development, Information Technology, Project Management
Top industries
Information Technology, Manufacturing, Automotive
Certification focus areas
Information Technology, Project Management, Human Resources
Bachelor's degree or higher
67%
Master's degree or higher
25%
Doctorate
8%
Certifications per freelancer
3
Most common languages
German, English, Russian
Speak two or more languages
93%
Daily Rate Distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers in this role are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Average rates for Engineering Directors & Seniority distribution
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Frequently Asked Questions
Got questions? Learn key details about FRATCH right now
An Engineering Director leads several engineering teams or a major engineering domain. They align technical direction, delivery priorities, people management, and stakeholder communication. The role is broader than day-to-day team management and more operational than a pure architecture role.
A freelance Engineering Director is a good fit when leadership is needed quickly for a defined phase. Common cases are interim cover, reorganisation, delivery recovery, platform change, or scaling after rapid growth. It is also useful when a permanent hire would take too long to secure.
An Engineering Manager usually focuses on one team and its day-to-day delivery. A Head of Engineering often owns a wider function, while an Engineering Director typically leads multiple teams and connects execution to business goals. In some companies the titles overlap, so scope matters more than the label.
Look for leadership in engineering orgs, sound technical judgment, and experience with delivery across dependent teams. Strong candidates can handle architecture trade-offs, hiring, coaching, and performance issues without losing focus on roadmap outcomes. Clear communication is essential, especially when product, operations, and engineering disagree.
They are well suited to platform modernisation, team restructuring, release process improvement, migration programmes, and scaling engineering ways of working. They are also useful when a company needs a senior leader to stabilise delivery during a product change or organisational shift. The work should have a clear objective and decision scope.
Yes, remote collaboration is common, especially for strategy, coaching, and delivery governance. For German teams, some on-site time can help during the start of the engagement, leadership workshops, or sensitive change work. Language expectations depend on the company, but German is often helpful in local stakeholder settings.
Ask for examples of how the Engineering Director improved team structure, delivery flow, or technical decision-making. Good candidates can describe the problem, the actions they took, and the result in concrete terms. References should confirm that they create clarity, not just activity.
It has to be both. A strong Engineering Director understands architecture, engineering process, and technical risk, but their main job is to lead people and systems at the same time. If one side is missing, the engagement usually becomes too narrow to be useful.
The average hourly rate for Engineering Directors in Germany is 126 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 1,008 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers working as Engineering Directors in Germany, 67% hold at least a Bachelor's degree, 25% hold at least a Master's degree, and 8% hold a doctorate.
On average, freelancers working as Engineering Directors in Germany have 25 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 3.6 years.
The most common languages among freelancers working as Engineering Directors in Germany are German (100%), English (93%), and Russian (21%).
The most common industries among freelancers working as Engineering Directors in Germany are Information Technology (79%), Manufacturing (50%), and Automotive (43%).
The most common business areas among freelancers working as Engineering Directors in Germany are Product Development (93%), Information Technology (79%), and Project Management (79%).
FRATCH Engineering Directors main locations
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
Berlin Hamburg Munich Cologne Frankfurt Stuttgart Dusseldorf Leipzig Dortmund Essen Bremen Dresden Hanover Nuremberg Request a Free Demo
Get in touch with the FRATCH team and we will get back to you within 4 hours.
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We always have the time for a call or email!
Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
