Executive Principal Engineer

EXECUTIVE PRINCIPAL ENGINEER

As an Executive Principal Engineer reporting to the Vice President of Enterprise Applications and Architecture, within Zalando Technology Foundation (ZTF), you are one of the most senior and influential individual contributors at Zalando. Together with our group of Sr. Principal and Principal Engineers, you act as a coach and mentor to an organisation of 400+ software engineers, data scientists, analysts and technology consultants enabling them to build the systems that power foundational capabilities of a growing e-commerce and platform business and helping them to continuously improve their engineering practices. You take the lead in designing solutions for our most complex and impactful technical challenges, with dependencies across multiple business units, platforms, and capabilities. You will work in collaboration with the Director of Data & Analytics to drive Zalando’s data strategy at company level influencing and inspiring your stakeholders.

INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN

At Zalando, our vision is to be the starting point for fashion - one that is inclusive by design. We only assess candidates based on qualifications, merit, and business needs. We welcome applications from people of all gender identities, sexual orientations, personal expressions, racial identities, ethnicities, religious beliefs, and disability statuses. We only want to know why you’re great for this role, so please avoid including your picture, age, and marital status in your CV as well.

We want to provide you with a great candidate experience. Please feel free to inform us of any accommodations you may need, so we can best support and assist you throughout the hiring process.

do.BETTER - our diversity & inclusion strategy: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/diversity-inclusion

Our employee resource groups: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/diversity-inclusion/our-employee-resource-groups 

WHY YOU SHOULD BE INTERESTED…

• You will lead the definition and implementation of the system architecture for the core areas of Enterprise Applications and Architecture including ERP, CRM, and Data Foundation in partnership with engineering, product, and business leaders from across Zalando

• Develop and set the multi-year technical target picture for the organization. Develop clear migration plans for future state architectures

• Work across Zalando Technology Foundation to guide strategic improvements in architecture and engineering design for solutions including people systems and information security

• Establish practices and tooling to drive increased maturity and productivity across engineering teams

• Sponsor architecture and design reviews across EA&A teams to ensure solution designs are in line with the engineering and data strategy, aligned to the future state architecture of EA&A, and take into consideration overall cost effectiveness and performance

• As part of the Senior Leadership team, influence and inspire engineering leaders and senior leadership in both the business unit and the wider Zalando engineering community

• Develop strategy for onboarding new business models, acquisitions, and enabling geographic expansion into our foundational platforms

• Drive continuous improvements to engineering practices, e.g. developer productivity, delivery quality and operational excellence

• Design highly scalable processes, systems and services that are used by end to end business across Zalando

• Collaborate across teams and business units inside Zalando to ensure solutions are meeting the end to end needs of the business and enable speed in delivering solutions with dependent customer facing teams

• Be a mentor for other senior engineering leaders and engineers within and beyond your business unit

• As part of our Principal Engineering Community, you co-moderate this community with your peers to set engineering standards, guide decision-making for the technology landscape at Zalando via our Tech Radar.

• Represent Zalando externally with Zalando partners and in the engineering community

• Participation in the community setting trends as well as identifying new trends

WE’D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF YOU DEMONSTRATE…

• Experience in designing, developing and operating business critical distributed systems at scale

• Experience with packaged software (SAP and Salesforce are a plus), data engineering, and custom developed software in a microservices architecture

• Proven ability to drive strategic, technical changes in an environment of high technical and organizational complexity

• Experience as Senior Individual Contributor or Engineering Director

• Deep understanding and hands-on experience with a broad range of system architecture types

• Experience in improving software engineering practices in a large organization and establishing a distinct engineering culture

• Experience in evaluating and introducing new technologies and architecture methodologies and patterns

• Ability in identifying new trends and translating these into investment decisions

• Ability to lead and contribute to strategic, business-centric, and deep technical discussions with senior stakeholders up to C-level

• Role model in developing senior engineering talent

ZALANDO BENEFITSCareer Development

• We offer peer-to-peer performance reviews twice a year

• Learn and develop through our extensive Zalando training platform

• Join regular all-hands, team meetings, Q&A-sessions, and quarterly anonymous employee surveys to ask your questions and provide your feedback

• Support from an international team of experts; mentoring and professional development opportunities

• Be a part of the Senior Leadership Team at Zalando, working side by side, learning and collaborating with inspiring industry leaders

Wellbeing 

• 2 days paid leave per year for volunteering

• Minimum of 27 holiday days per calendar year

• Online sports courses, wellbeing, and nutrition advice offered by Humanoo personal wellbeing coach app

• Mental wellbeing support by our Employee Assistance Program and professional consultants to help you find health resources

Flexibility

• Flexible working hours

• Relocation assistance for internationals

Financial

• Access to the employee shares program

• 40% shopping discount on products shipped and sold by Zalando, and 30% discount on Zalando Lounge

• Discounts from a wide range of external partners

Family

• Employee parents’ forums and employee resource group

• Supported transition into and out of parental leave, with a buddy and re-onboarding plan

• 3 fully-paid child sick days per year

• Free counselling, assistance, and referral service for all matters concerning yourself and your family via the Fürstenberg Institute

ABOUT ZALANDO

It’s the perfect time to join Zalando on our journey, from being a pioneer in the world of e-commerce, to the starting point for fashion in Europe. We connect customers, brands, and partners across 23 markets. 

Help us drive digital and sustainable solutions for fashion, logistics, advertising and research, bringing head-to-toe fashion to more than 46 million active customers through a team of diverse skill-sets, cultural backgrounds, and interests. 

Our values: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/our-founding-mindset

do.More - our sustainability strategy: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/sustainability 

Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/insidezalando

Please note that all applications must be completed using the online form - we do not accept applications via email.