How to Hire a Head of Engineering in Australia

Oct 10

3 min read

Updated: Oct 15

A Head of Engineering shapes how your product gets built for years. The right hire lifts delivery, hiring and retention across the whole team. The wrong hire slows everything down, and the cost shows up months later. This guide covers what the role is, what to look for and how to run the search.

What a Head of Engineering does

A Head of Engineering runs the engineering team day to day. They own delivery, team structure, hiring, engineering process and the growth of the people in the team. They work closely with product and the leadership team to turn plans into shipped software.

How the role differs from similar roles

CTO: owns technology strategy and architecture, and often faces investors and customers.
VP of Engineering: runs a larger engineering organisation, usually with several managers reporting in.
Head of Engineering: runs the team and delivery. Often the first engineering leader below the CTO or founder.
Engineering manager: leads one team and its people.

Titles vary between companies. Write down what the person will own before you pick a title.

Decide what you need before you hire

Team size now and in 12 months.
Hands-on time: will they still write code or review architecture, or lead full time?
Reporting line: CEO, founder or CTO.
The main problem to fix: slow delivery, quality issues, hiring, or a team that needs structure.
Location: office, hybrid or remote, and which time zones the team covers.

A first engineering leader at a scaleup needs to build process from scratch. A leader joining an established business needs to improve a system already in place. Those are different people.

What to look for

A track record of shipping: teams they led that delivered on time and at a steady pace.
Hiring results: engineers they hired who stayed and grew.
Enough technical depth to earn the trust of senior engineers.
Experience at a similar stage and team size to yours.
Clear communication with founders, product and non-technical leaders.
Good judgment on trade-offs between speed, quality and technical debt.

Ask each candidate about a team they turned around. What was broken, what did they change first, and what happened after six months?

Where to find candidates

Strong engineering leaders rarely apply to job ads. Most are in roles they like, and they move for the right problem and the right people. Look in these places:

Engineering managers at larger tech companies who want a broader role.
Leaders at scaleups that have been acquired or have stopped growing.
Engineering leaders at consultancies who want to own one product.
Australians leading teams overseas who want to come home.

Lead with the problem, the team and the backing they will get. Leaders want to know they have the mandate to make changes.

How to run the process

A first conversation with the hiring manager on the role, the team and the problem.
A working session on a real challenge, such as a delivery problem or a team structure question.
A technical conversation with one or two senior engineers.
A meeting with product and the leadership team.
References, including at least one person who reported to them.

Keep the process tight. Leaders weigh how you run your hiring as a sign of how you run the company.

Common mistakes

Promoting the best engineer without checking they want to lead people.
Hiring a leader from a large company into a small team without support or budget.
Leaving the mandate vague, so the new leader and the founder pull in different directions.
Skipping the team in the interview process.

Related guides

Building the team under your new leader? Read our guides on ML engineers and senior security engineers.

How Staff Hunter helps

Staff Hunter finds CTOs, Heads of Engineering and product leaders for startups, scaleups and established businesses in Australia. We find people through direct headhunting. See our product and engineering leadership search page, or book a 30-minute call to talk through your role.

Book a 30-minute call