
Heads of Engineering in Germany
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Meet FRATCH Heads of Engineering in Germany
Jens H.
Last position:
Interim CTO (occasional assignments) at Fujitsu / FSAS
Stabilization of an Azure/.NET landscape in live operation.
- Architecture, DevOps, and operational readiness; technical decisions under time pressure
- Azure DevOps, monitoring, ETL/ELT, cloud security, FinOps, and data-mesh-related topics
Technologies: Azure DevOps, .NET, CI/CD, monitoring, FinOps
Niko S.
Last position:
Developing Architect, Technical Lead "gridlytics" at HH Energienetze
- Building a data integration platform for high, medium, and low voltage assets for contextual analysis of time series with master data from the SCADA control system (IEC 60870 104), INIS, and SAP.
- Responsibility for the architecture and implementation of the solution, as well as sparring partner for the Product Owner.
- Use of Kotlin, Spring Boot, Maven, TimescaleDB, PostgreSQL, liquibase, Elements IoT, Docker, Kubernetes, Grafana, Python, jupyter, and various API gateways.
Rajan K.
Last position:
Technical Lead/BTV at BMW, Daimler (Mercedes), VW Group, Hella, Ficosa, Cariad (Audi/Porsche/Skoda)
- Directed full lifecycle of embedded software projects including LiDAR, BMS, OCU, and Cybersecurity systems.
- Coordinated internal and external stakeholders including suppliers like Bosch, Bertrandt, Magna, Continental and IAV.
- Managed cross-country teams of 12–15 engineers, conducting project onboarding and role-based training.
- Implemented change control and risk registers for safety-critical automotive platforms.
- Oversaw project schedules using MS Project, JIRA, and Azure DevOps to ensure milestone alignment and transparency.
- Extensive hands-on expertise in test planning and execution for ECUs in compliance with Automotive SPICE (SWE.4–SWE.6) and ISO 26262.
- Led digital transformation project with a cross-functional team of 15+, ensuring successful integration of systems and workflows.
- Maintained project overviews and tracking in tools like Milestones (Daimler) and MS Project, and managed status reporting to senior stakeholders.
- Coordinated with third-party transformation partners and ensured timely delivery of decision templates and risk assessments.
- Applied PRINCE2 methodology for structured delivery; facilitated agile ceremonies and maintained Confluence-based documentation.
- Strong leadership in cross-functional teams and working in agile environments (SAFe, Scrum).
- Successfully led and supported IT and transformation projects, including those in regulated sectors (e.g., KRITIS or energy sector).
- Represented or supported overall project leadership in large-scale transformation programs.
- Maintained and updated complex project plans (Gantt charts, milestone tracking, and resource allocation).
- Coordinated workstreams and interdisciplinary teams; ensured timely delivery of all work packages.
- Acted as central communication point between project team, senior management, external vendors, and transformation partners.
- Prepared and delivered concise status reports, steering committee presentations, and decision memos.
- Identified project risks, maintained risk registers, and led mitigation planning.
- Assessed resource needs and supported reallocation based on project priorities and constraints.
- Proficient in JIRA, Milestones, Confluence, MS Project, MS PowerPoint, and Excel.
- Used both Agile (Scrum) and Waterfall (PRINCE2, PMI) methodologies.
- Created and tracked action lists, meeting protocols, and backlog items.
- Conducted critical analysis of project progress, resource bottlenecks, and deliverable timelines.
- Ensured alignment of transformation goals with enterprise IT architecture and business objectives.
Samuel K.
Last position:
Founder & Agentic AI Engineer at Agentakt LLC
Independent engineering practice focused on custom AI systems, production delivery, and fractional technical leadership.
Selected client engagement: Scalutions
Role: Serve as fractional CTO and hands-on technical lead, responsible for the architecture and agentic infrastructure behind its managed B2B outbound operation.
Product: Designed and built OutboundLoop, an agentic SDR operating system for research, qualification, personalized outreach, campaign management, human approvals, measurement, and continuous improvement.
Scope: Own the full system lifecycle—from business processes and agent behavior to context design, model routing, integrations, evaluation, telemetry, reliability, cost control, and production operations.
Murad H.
Last position:
Founder & Technical Lead at Hubpoint.Ai
- Founded an AI-powered scheduling and business-management SaaS for SMBs, owning technology strategy, architecture, product development, UX, billing and go-to-market execution.
- Architected and shipped a multi-tenant platform with REST APIs, RBAC, CRM, billing and notifications, powering the manager dashboard, admin console, booking experience and iOS/Android applications.
- Led and mentored 7 software engineers, 1 DevOps engineer, 1 QA engineer and 1 UX/UI designer, while remaining hands-on across backend, frontend and product delivery.
- Built AI voice and chat agents using Python/FastAPI, OpenAI and Anthropic APIs, RAG, pgvector and tool calling; integrated Twilio, Google Calendar/Meet, Stripe and Firebase.
- Owned production infrastructure and automated delivery across separate environments using Docker, Nginx, GitHub Actions and Grafana; represented the company at accelerators and international startup events.
Selected stack: Python, FastAPI, Node.js, Vue 3, React/Next.js, React Native, PostgreSQL, Redis, Docker
Eduard H.
Last position:
Founder & Technical Lead | Enterprise Data Quality API at ADDRESSA
Built and scaled a high-performance enterprise API for real-time address validation and data quality with sub-second latency and 99.9 % availability.
Designed and integrated the solution into e-commerce, checkout, and logistics processes of leading European companies. Reduced delivery errors and shipping costs through automated data correction and precise data validation.
End-to-end responsibility for product strategy, technical architecture, software development, enterprise customers, operations, and GDPR-compliant data processing. Combined AI-native engineering workflows, Python, SQL, API integration, data quality, and workflow automation.
Benjamin R.
Last position:
Technical Director at maincubes Holding & Service GmbH
- Development and implementation of technical guidelines for electrical and mechanical systems
- Development of the electrical safety organisation as responsible electrician (gVEFK)
- Implementation and oversight of DCIM and related technical software solutions
- Design of technical solutions for lifecycle infrastructure and customer projects
Almansour B.
Last position:
Technical Lead at Cognizant
- Design and implementation of a DMS System for the client both in Frontend (React) and in backend (Spring Boot)
- Participation in daily meetings with the client
- Organization of meetings with the offshore team to discuss the project
- Distribution of tasks and support the team in their tasks
- Implementation of new features including unit tests
- Code Review of PRs and deployment
Thomas Ü.
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.
Mohsin H.
Last position:
BBM GenAI MiDAS program coordinator for Bosch eBike at Robert Bosch GmbH
The MiDAS program aims to integrate Generative AI across the entire BBM organization. My role is to enable the eBike division to adopt and leverage Generative AI by collaborating closely with the MiDAS team in India.
Management:
- Enable the eBike division to adopt GenAI through tailored solutions.
- Collaborate with the MiDAS team in India to design solutions for Generative AI use cases specific to the eBike division.
- Coordinate with the eBike teams to integrate GenAI systems, tools, plugins, and services provided by the MiDAS team.
- Plan roadmaps with eBike and MiDAS India team Product Managers for the delivery and integration of Generative AI solutions.
Shiqing F.
Last position:
Technical Director at EmotionPool GmbH
- Spearheaded the EU market entry strategy for L3/L4 autonomous logistics vehicles, driving the technological localization and deployment of the parent company’s smart robotics portfolio.
- Orchestrated technical alignment between top-tier autonomous driving suppliers across China and Europe, translating complex client requirements into precise engineering specifications compliant with EU standards.
- Cultivated strategic joint R&D initiatives with leading European universities, research institutes, and enterprises, accelerating the transition of cutting-edge robotic concepts into commercial products.
- Directed the end-to-end architecture of intelligent warehousing solutions, guiding cross-functional teams in optimizing hardware integration for autonomous vehicles & robots, and overall system performance.
- Led the R&D of high-fidelity simulation and AI algorithms using NVIDIA Isaac Sim & Lab, establishing robust "Sim-to-Real" pipelines to train and validate dynamic path planning optimization, intelligent obstacle avoidance, and complex navigation stacks prior to physical deployment.
- Maintained hands-on oversight of the core system architecture, focusing on bottom-level performance tuning, AI model inference acceleration with TensorRT/ONNX Runtime, and sensor integration.
Ivan G.
Last position:
Technical Lead at Porsche Digital GmbH
- Contributed to the design of the new financial services integration layer and moderated the architectural discussions
- Oversaw the security concept and approval of the application
- Prepared infrastructure setup and best practices for the Kotlin backend
Michael L.
Last position:
B2B Shop Development for Curtain Fabrics
- Development of a B2B shop based on Magento 2
- Plugin research and implementation, e.g. custom prices per customer
- Implementation of individual customizations
- Quality assurance
- Release management
- Collaboration with the marketing team
- Technologies: Magento 2, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Docker, Git
Gavrilo O.
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
Patrik G.
Last position:
Technical Lead Conversational AI at CANCOM
- Technical lead of a team developing agentic chatbot solutions (React, TypeScript, Python, FastAPI)
- Architecture design for multi-LLM dialog systems - focus on maintainability, UX, and autonomous execution
- Stakeholder alignment, CI/CD processes, and AI integration at enterprise level
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Heads of Engineering statistics
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
22 years

Position duration
3.5 years

Positions per freelancer
12

Top business areas
Product Development, Information Technology, Quality Assurance

Top industries
Information Technology, Manufacturing, Automotive

Certification focus areas
Information Technology, Project Management, Product Development
Bachelor's degree or higher
88%
Master's degree or higher
45%
Doctorate
6%

Certifications per freelancer
2

Most common languages
German, English, French

Speak two or more languages
97%
Based on our profile pool as of 5 Oct 2026.
Daily rate distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of experts in this role in Germany are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows the share of experts charging within that range.
Discover detailed Heads of Engineering rate benchmarks:
Explore rate insightsAverage rates for Heads of Engineering in Germany
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.
Calculated based on our freelancers’ daily rates as of 5 Oct 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Heads of Engineering experts industry focus
See which industries our matched freelancers work in most often — every figure is calculated live from the freelancers on FRATCH.
- Information Technology (80%)
- Manufacturing (54%)
- Automotive (46%)
- Healthcare (36%)
- Professional Services (36%)
- Banking and Finance (32%)
- Education (24%)
- Retail (24%)
Please note that freelancers can work across multiple industries, so percentages overlap.
About the role
Engineering leadership A Head of Engineering sets direction for product delivery and the way teams build software. This role connects business goals, product needs, and technical decisions. In many companies, the person also works as an engineering manager, VP of Engineering, or interim tech lead when the org needs sharper leadership.
What they deliver
- Clear delivery plans across squads or product teams
- Better team structure, ownership, and hiring priorities
- Technical decision-making for architecture, quality, and delivery flow
- Coaching for engineering managers and senior developers
- Stronger rituals for planning, review, and incident response
Core skills A strong Head of Engineering combines people leadership with deep software judgment. They need to read code reviews, challenge trade-offs, and spot weak points in delivery before they block the roadmap.
- Team leadership and hiring
- Architecture and system design
- Agile delivery and dependency management
- Stakeholder communication with product and business leaders
- Practical use of tools like Jira, Confluence, GitHub, GitLab, CI pipelines, and observability stacks
When companies bring one in Companies hire a freelance Head of Engineering when a team is growing quickly, a leader has left, or delivery has become inconsistent. It is also a fit during restructurings, platform changes, major releases, or when founders need an experienced sparring partner without adding a permanent executive too early.
Germany context In Germany, this role often sits close to product, operations, and enterprise clients. Freelancers may work remote with regular leadership calls, or on-site when the team needs stronger alignment, workshop facilitation, or hands-on support with local stakeholders. Clear English is often enough, but German can help in companies with mixed teams or customer-facing engineering groups.
What good looks like Strong professionals do more than manage tasks. They create clarity, remove blockers, and raise the quality of decisions.
- They can explain technical trade-offs in plain language
- They build trust with developers, product managers, and executives
- They improve delivery without adding process for its own sake
- They know when to mentor, when to decide, and when to delegate
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to the questions that come up most around Heads of Engineering.
A Head of Engineering shapes how software teams work day to day and how they deliver against product goals. The role covers team setup, technical direction, delivery flow, and communication with founders, product leads, or senior management. In many projects, the freelancer also helps define hiring needs and leadership routines.
A freelance Head of Engineering is a strong option when you need leadership now, but the long-term org design is still changing. That can be during growth, after a leadership gap, or around a major platform shift. It lets you move quickly without rushing a permanent appointment.
A strong Head of Engineering should combine people leadership with solid software judgment. Look for experience with architecture decisions, team coaching, delivery management, and stakeholder communication. They should be able to work with senior developers without micromanaging them.
The title Head of Engineering often sits between hands-on team leadership and broader department leadership. Compared with an engineering manager, the scope is usually wider and more strategic. Compared with a VP of Engineering, the focus is often more direct on execution, team health, and technical alignment, though responsibilities can overlap.
Most Heads of Engineering need to work fluently with planning, code review, and delivery tools such as Jira, GitHub, GitLab, and CI systems. They should also be comfortable with documentation and async coordination in tools like Confluence or Notion. Good candidates can switch between strategy sessions and hands-on operational follow-up.
Yes, remote work is common for a Head of Engineering in Germany, especially when the team is distributed or the scope is advisory. On-site work can still help for workshops, leadership alignment, or sensitive change processes. The key is to agree early on how often the person should join in person.
Ask for examples where the Head of Engineering improved delivery, resolved team friction, or helped a product group make harder technical choices. Good answers are concrete and show ownership, not just theory. References from founders, product leaders, or senior engineers are especially useful.
A freelance Head of Engineering should clarify scope, reporting lines, decision rights, and which problems are truly urgent. It also helps to agree on whether the role is mainly strategic, operational, or a mix of both. That avoids confusion once the work starts and keeps expectations realistic.
The average hourly rate for Heads of Engineering in Germany is 102 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 820 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers working as Heads of Engineering in Germany, 88% hold at least a Bachelor's degree, 45% hold at least a Master's degree, and 6% hold a doctorate.
On average, freelancers working as Heads of Engineering in Germany have 22 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 3.5 years.
The most common languages among freelancers working as Heads of Engineering in Germany are German (100%), English (97%), and French (17%).
The most common industries among freelancers working as Heads of Engineering in Germany are Information Technology (80%), Manufacturing (54%), and Automotive (46%).
The most common business areas among freelancers working as Heads of Engineering in Germany are Product Development (92%), Information Technology (81%), and Quality Assurance (64%).
FRATCH Heads of Engineering 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.
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