Head of Engineering (f/m/d) - Alcemy

Hybrid

Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Help us decarbonize the cement and concrete industry.

alcemy was founded to reduce the massive CO2 footprint of the cement and concrete industry. Concrete is humanity's second most used material by volume and its production is responsible for around 8% of global CO2 emissions.

We are changing this! We leverage machine learning to provide smart production control software to the cement and concrete supply chain to improve efficiency and allow for the production of low-carbon cement and concrete at large scale. Our software is used 24/7 in cement and concrete plants to optimize production and reduce carbon emissions today. We are currently enabling our customers to save more than 100 000 tons of CO2 emissions each year and we aim to save 100 million tons per year in 2030.

The Opportunity

You’ll join us as the head of engineering as part of the management of the cement product line and leading a team of 9 engineers.
Take accountability for our ML empowered web application, guide architectural decisions and ensure high software quality standards.
Support and mentor our amazing engineers and ensure that members of the team take ownership of the code base and application.
Guide feature engineering, architecture, refactoring, and planning together with the product manager and the team.
Help us scale our applications to more than 100 plants in the coming two years and 100 000 000 tons of carbon emissions saved annually until 2030.
Contribute to the product vision and roadmap for the years to come.
Shape alcemy's engineering organization and culture beyond individual teams.

Within 1 month, you will:

Have checked in with all engineers and most other people in the product line.
Complete our onboarding and get guided through our development and CI/CD process.
Know your way around the team and have helped the team to ship features.
You will inevitably learn a lot about cement production or the intricacies of cement data.

Within 3 months, you will:

Take co-accountability for the application.
Contribute to the roadmap and team goals of the following trimesters.
Know your way around our back-end and frontend tech stack.
Consult the product manager to further improve our application.
Give guidance and progression advice to all your team members.
Foster ownership of your team members of parts of the code base.

Within 6 months, you will:

have fully taken accountability for our application and have become a valued member in determining the future of it.
You have fully taken the responsibility of managing the team
You are the go to person for career advancement, salaries, personal growth, and learning
You have introduced new and revised old team and company processes
You have shaped substantially the team and company spirit
Have visited cement and concrete plants to experience our solutions in action.

Your Profile

You care about climate change, are happy to really dig deep into cement production and look for a long-term commitment.
You have a track record as an engineering manager for product engineering teams or math/statistics-heavy engineering teams, ideally with some connection to data heavy applications or large B2B customers.
You have experience as a Python software engineer or data scientist, ideally in developing and testing data-focused applications, have coded hands-on in the past and can still provide technical input and guide technical decision making.
You are well versed in designing scalable software architectures.
You are passionate about people leadership. You strive to build an engaged and purpose driven team while owning topics like goal setting, evaluating performance, creating development plans etc.
You are comfortable communicating with external stakeholders and customers from heavy industries.
You have an interest in mathematics and statistics, with the ability to lead and motivate a team in transforming mathematical models into maintainable code.
You are located in Germany, Berlin is a plus. This is a hybrid position, in-office presence is not mandatory most of the time. Please note that we have monthly in-person workshops in Berlin.

Your responsibilities

Contribute to the overall product line strategy within the management team.
Collaborate with the product manager on strategy and roadmap development.
Develop innovative product concepts and the technical vision of the team.
Work with the go-to-market team to assess technical feasibility of new customer implementations.
Lead and manage a diverse engineering team of 9 specialists across frontend, backend, data, and machine learning.
Create and implement processes as well as structures that empower engineers to thrive while delivering impactful business solutions.
Drive technical excellence and scalability throughout our product.
Help engineers develop deep understanding of customer challenges.
Set and guide the team's high-level technical direction.
Contribute to engineering organisation via lateral exchange with the other engineering managers.

Tech Stack

Python for everything in our back-end. Our RESTful APIs are built using FastAPI with auto-generated Swagger UI documentation and OpenAPI schema. Our database schema is defined using SQLAlchemy and our data models using pydantic. We test our code using pytest and write modern, type-hinted Python checked with mypy. Number crunching and analyses are done using pandas, numpy, and sklearn.
We store our data in PostgreSQL and our infrastructure runs on AWS managed by Terraform and using Kubernetes.
We use React & Next.js for building our front-ends. Everything is written in TypeScript. We layout our application using TailwindCSS. Our RESTful API is integrated using RTK Query and any shared state is managed using Redux via Redux Toolkit.

What we offer:

A company culture where honesty, professionalism, and integrity run deep with an open feedback culture and regular 1:1 meetings.
Flat hierarchies, efficient decision-making processes, and an agile company structure.
Competitive market-rate salary aligned with your experience.
VSOP equity options vested equally over 4 years (for working 40h a week/full time)
Work fully remotely within Germany or from our office in the heart of Berlin with flexible working hours. We offer a Berlin-based contract with a remote clause, meaning Berlin bank holidays will apply.
This is a hybrid position, in-office presence is not mandatory most of the time. Please note that we have monthly in-person workshops in Berlin.
Of course, free drinks, fruit and snacks in the office.
Regular team activities and team weeks a few times per year.
Mac or Linux laptop.
Budget for personal and professional development - 1500€/year & 3 days/quarter.
English is our main language of communication.
28 days of vacation per year and an additional day of vacation every 2 years at alcemy.
Access to nilo.health - the comprehensive mental well-being platform that provides access to 1-to-1 sessions with psychologists, group sessions and self-guided tools.
Access to heynanny - flexible childcare and eldercare support with on-demand nannies, eldercare services, live webinars, and one-on-one calls for professional guidance.
Dog-friendly office with specific rules in place, as well as dog-free areas for work and relaxation.
Regular knowledge-sharing through our internal masterclasses.

Working at alcemy

We value transparency, and direct feedback and are always open to refactoring how we work together.
Engineers take ownership of their features from implementation, testing through code reviews, and deployment.
No one is on-call.
We’ve been working hard to get a defined career progression framework in place, charting out both technical expert & management tracks.
We are passionate about helping our customers and always approach them and each other in a supportive and appreciative way.
We use modern communication tools like Google Workspace and Slack.

Hiring Process

Our hiring process is fully remote and we’ll communicate with you over email and video chat.

1:1 get-to-know call with a member of the management team (30 minutes)
Complete a take-home task relevant to the actual work you’d be doing
Several interviews covering managerial and technical expertise as well as ensuring a team fit. More information will be shared during the process.
Reference check - we contact two references you provide (e.g. former work colleagues)
Decision

We encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply. We also understand how stressful interviews can be. Let us know if there is anything we can do to improve the process so you can demonstrate your skills. To do so, contact Magdalena Milecka at magdalena.milecka@alcemy.tech.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) at alcemy

For the past two years, we have been dedicated to enhancing the diversity and inclusivity of our company. We have organized diversity workshops and established a DEI workgroup. By actively collecting feedback, educating our team, and considering new ideas, we have implemented several key improvements:

Flexible work schedules to help you balance your job with your personal life.
Access to nilo.health, a comprehensive mental well-being platform that provides 1-to-1 sessions with psychologists, group sessions, and self-guided tools, including sessions with representatives of minorities.
A diverse team to work with. We have team members across different age profiles, ethnicities, religions, gender identities, and orientations.
No mandatory vacation periods: use your time off for religious holidays, special events, or however you see fit.
Collecting feedback from team members during 1:1 meetings with team leaders, AMA sessions with the founders, and through regular engagement surveys.

We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued and included. Our journey toward diversity, equity, and inclusion is ongoing, and we’re excited about the progress we’ll make.