Head of Engineering

Location: Madrid (Hybrid)

About Barbara

Barbara is an edge management company building a secure and scalable platform to deploy, manage, and operate applications at the edge. Our technology spans cloud SaaS, containerized microservices, edge agents, and embedded Linux systems, enabling customers to run modern workloads in distributed and constrained environments.

We are a growing startup with strong technical foundations, and we are looking for a VP of Engineering / Head of Engineering to lead our engineering organization end-to-end, including development, quality, delivery, and platform evolution.

The Role

As VP of Engineering, you will be responsible for leading, coordinating, and evolving Barbara’s engineering and QA teams, ensuring high-quality delivery, scalable architecture, and strong alignment with product and business goals.

This is a hands-on leadership role: you are expected to contribute to architecture and design, review code, and occasionally write code when needed, while primarily focusing on people leadership, execution, and process improvement.

What You’ll Do

Engineering, QA & Platform Leadership

• Lead and coordinate all technical teams:

  • Frontend: Angular

  • Backend: TypeScript / Node.js, microservices architecture, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, MQTT

  • Agent: Golang

  • OS / Embedded: LFS, Yocto, Linux libraries, system-level components

  • QA / Quality: Testing strategy, automation, and quality processes

• Own technical execution across cloud, edge, and embedded environments

• Build a strong culture of quality, ownership, and operational responsibility
  

Delivery, Agile & Quality Processes

• Own engineering delivery and execution together with Product

• Act as Agile leader and Scrum Master, ensuring effective planning, sprint execution, and continuous improvement

• Define and evolve testing strategies (automated testing, integration, system and end-to-end testing)

• Ensure predictable, high-quality releases across SaaS, microservices, agents, and OS components

• Balance delivery speed with robustness, maintainability, and reliability
  
  

Architecture, Containers & Microservices

• Lead and contribute to system and architecture design

• Ensure best practices around microservices architecture, service boundaries, and communication patterns

• Guide the use of Docker and Kubernetes for development, deployment, and operations

• Review technical designs, critical code paths, infrastructure-related decisions, and testing approaches

• Be able to write and modify code when necessary (prototypes, reviews, unblockers)
  
  

DevOps, Cloud & SaaS Operations

• Work closely with DevOps to improve CI/CD pipelines, container workflows, and Kubernetes-based deployments

• Ensure proper use of quality gates, automated testing, and deployment strategies

• Oversee monitoring, reliability, and operational health of the SaaS platform

• Drive improvements in observability, performance, scalability, and incident response

• Promote DevOps, platform, and SRE best practices across teams
  
  

Product & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Be the main engineering counterpart to the Product team

• Support product discovery with technical, architectural, and quality insights

• Translate product requirements into execution plans, technical designs, and testing strategie

• Collaborate closely with leadership on strategy, priorities, and hiring
  

What We’re Looking For

• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience

• Proven experience leading engineering teams, including QA and quality ownership

• Strong background in backend and distributed systems

• Solid experience with:

  • Microservices architectures

  • Docker and Kubernetes

  • Node.js / TypeScript ecosystems

  • Messaging systems (RabbitMQ, MQTT or similar)

  • Linux-based systems and embedded/edge environments

• Hands-on mindset: comfortable reviewing and writing code when needed

• Strong understanding of Agile / Scrum practices and quality-driven development

• Fluent English and Spanish

• Startup or scale-up experience

• Experience scaling SaaS platforms

Nice to Have

• Edge computing, IoT, or embedded systems background

• Experience building or evolving QA automation frameworks

• SaaS platform ownership with production responsibility

What We Offer

• Stock options available

• Hybrid work model in Madrid

• High-impact leadership role in a growing startup

• Real influence over architecture, platform, quality, and engineering culture

• Opportunity to build and scale a full engineering organization in the edge computing space