Head of Engineering (Remote - Work from Anywhere)

Work from anywhere, impact everywhere. Diversity is at the heart of who we are at Xapo Bank. We’re a fully distributed team of over 160 Xapiens that work remotely from 50+ countries around the world. Our beginning: A world that enjoys economic freedom and wealth protection, no matter where you live or who is running your country. To achieve that, we search the world for the best people for the job. We work hard, think globally, and inspire each other to learn and grow. We are committed to changing the way things are done. Although we are headquartered in Gibraltar, this is a full time, 100% remote position. Work from anywhere! We're creating the role of Head of Engineering, reporting directly to the CTO. This is a new function-level leadership role, built as we scale engineering across three product tribes: Growth, Payments, and Assets Under Management, each run day-to-day by an Engineering Manager. You own how engineering operates: the standards, the practice, the people, and the delivery. You give the engineering function a single accountable leader for how we build software and for the bar we hold it to, working in close partnership with Architecture, Quality Engineering, Security, Frontend Engineering, and Platform Engineering. This is a true function head, not a senior IC with a management title. You set engineering standards across the function and own the unified Software Development Lifecycle end to end. You own how material backend changes are reviewed, approved, and audited. You own the engineering tech-debt roadmap and the people leadership of the Engineering Managers who run delivery in each tribe. The authority to set the engineering bar sits with this role and so does the accountability for the result. That accountability is concrete. We measure the function on predictable delivery: consistently shipping committed scope on committed dates, with a 90% target as the bar. Hitting it is not the job in itself, it's the output of an engineering organisation that estimates honestly, surfaces risk early, and clears blockers with discipline. Building and running that organisation is the job. We are a Bitcoin-native, regulated bank. A defect here can move customer Bitcoin and customer Dollars, under the scrutiny of two regulators. That raises the bar on everything engineering does; change management, incident response, observability, and audit-readiness are not overhead, they are the standard the role exists to uphold. The right person is drawn to that, not deterred by it. You own: The unified Software Development Lifecycle: you define it, evolve it, and own its governance and enforcement. Engineering standards and practice across the function: code review, retrospectives, internal quality discipline. People leadership of the Engineering Managers: performance, growth, 1:1 cadence, and engineering hiring. Backend change management: the controlled, audited process for material changes, with a regulator-ready trail. The function-level tech-debt roadmap and engineering capacity planning. Engineering incident response and post-mortems, and the closure of resulting action items. The AI-first engineering standard across the function. You partner on: Architecture standards - with the Solutions Architect, agreed at the Architecture Advice Forum. The quality framework and quality gates - with the Head of Quality Engineering. Security standards and controls - with the Security function. Client-side engineering - with the Head of Frontend Engineering. Infrastructure and observability - with the Head of Platform Engineering. Key responsibilities include: Delivery predictability across the engineering function, setting and enforcing engineering standards and practice, people management of Engineering Managers (performance, growth, hiring), unified SDLC ownership, backend change management (governance of deployment pipeline, regulator-ready audit trail, frictionless approval process), AI-first engineering standard (driving adoption of AI tooling for productivity), blocker clearance, engineering incident response and post-mortems, tech-debt roadmap ownership, capacity planning, cross-department standard execution (quality, security, architecture), engineering OKR ownership, and cross-functional initiative delivery. Xapo offers global impact, remote work, the opportunity to shape the future with cutting-edge technology, great work-life balance with autonomy, collaborative teamwork, flexible PTO, and a high-performance team. Employees receive a yearly budget for individual learning and development. Xapo prioritizes consumer protection and regulatory adherence, ensuring fair treatment, transparency, and ethical conduct.

Qualifications

8+ years in software engineering, with at least 3–4 years in an engineering leadership role spanning multiple teams or squads - managing engineering managers, not just senior engineers, a track record of owning delivery predictability at function level, hands-on experience building and running engineering practice: SDLC definition, code review standards, change management, and the retro and feedback loops that keep them healthy, strong people leadership (hired, developed, performance-managed engineering managers), a clear, evidence-based point of view on AI-assisted development across the SDLC, solid understanding of backend distributed systems and what operating them in a regulated, high-stakes environment demands (change management discipline, incident response, observability, and audit-readiness), data-driven (comfortable owning engineering metrics: delivery predictability, cycle time, defect escape rate, blocker aging, and turning them into prioritised action), strong communicator across technical and non-technical audiences, experience in a regulated environment (fintech, banking, payments, or equivalent) with a real appreciation for what a quality or security failure means when customer funds are at stake, background in crypto, Bitcoin, custody, or blockchain-adjacent engineering, experience working in a Team Topologies organisational model, hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tooling beyond standard code completion, experience with observability tooling (Coralogix, Datadog or equivalent) in an incident response context, multi-tribe or multi-squad coordination at function level in a fully remote, globally distributed engineering organisation, contributions to engineering culture externally (writing, talks, or open-source work), experience in mobile-first organisations where iOS and Android are core business products, a dedicated workspace, a reliable internet connection with the fastest speed possible in your area, alignment with Our Values and the Xapo Values-Driven Leadership principles.