--- title: 'Head of Engineering (Berlin, hybrid) at Kittl' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-engineering-berlin-hybrid-kittl-berlin-1ysayz4kgj4m' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-09' --- # Head of Engineering (Berlin, hybrid) at Kittl - **Company:** Kittl - **Location:** Berlin, Germany - **Employment:** full-time - **Posted:** 2026-06-29 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kittl/cf814b0e-b5b6-433e-b06f-782ebc2f91fc/application **Skills:** TypeScript, React, Node.js, Python, Next.js, Postgres, Pulumi, k8s > Lead the people side of the engineering organization, managing engineers and team leads while partnering with Product and Marketing to align engineering capacity with company strategy. The role involves streamlining execution, setting people standards, and maintaining technical depth. ## Job description A little about us - AI-native design: Kittl is becoming the AI-native, operating system for creative businesses. We give small brands the creative firepower to look credible and get from idea to launch-ready, with no agency and no design team - Rapid growth: 11 million users since 2022 - Diverse team: 120+ people from 30+ countries, with offices in Berlin and Düsseldorf and teammates working remotely - Truly product-led company: Engineers, Product Managers and Designers sit at the core of what we build - Strong backing: Raised over $50M, led by IVP with Left Lane Capital and Speedinvest. IVP has also backed Figma, Slack, and Dropbox Learn more: www.kittl.com/career http://www.kittl.com/career ## Your role at Kittl As Head of Engineering, you’ll lead the people side of our engineering organization. You'll own people leadership and delivery across these teams, reporting to the CTO. Your reports are a group of engineers plus a couple of team leads. You'll manage the ICs directly, help growing the team leads into stronger leaders, and keep delivery moving across the board. You'll partner closely with Product and Marketing to manage engineering capacity and make sure what we build lines up with where the company is going. ## What you'll do - Lead the team: Manage the engineers reporting to you directly, and coach your team leads - Streamline execution: Audit and improve development processes to eliminate bottlenecks, reduce waste, and increase team predictability and velocity - Set people standards: Define consistent and fair approaches to performance, feedback, career growth, and onboarding, while ensuring teams are structured effectively and people are aligned to the highest-impact opportunities - Connect up and across: Give leadership clear, regular updates on progress and risks, and translate company strategy into what your teams actually work on - Stay technically sharp: Weigh in on architecture and technical direction with your teams, and keep close enough to the code to make good calls and earn trust - Support the vision: Work with the CTO to shape and communicate engineering strategy, and help carry it through the org ## What you’ll need - Experience: 8+ years in software engineering, with at least 5+ years managing engineering teams - Growing leaders: Experience developing senior engineers and team leads, and a readiness to grow them into managers over time - People-first leadership: You get energy from growing people, and you've built teams others want to join - Technical depth: Strong background in software development, architecture, and systems design. You can effectively steer technical strategy, uphold engineering standards, and empower teams to own execution - Stack: Comfortable with TypeScript and a React / Node.js stack, familiar with modern frameworks Interview process - Recruiter interview (45 min) - CTO interview (60 min) - Product Lead interview (45 min) - Meeting the team (back-to-back, 30 min + 30 min) - Bar raiser interview with CEO (45 min) Our core tech stack TypeScript, Python, Node.js, React, Next.js, Postgres, Pulumi, k8s We are looking for someone - Who leads with care and still holds a high bar - Who takes extreme ownership and gets things done - Who's driven to make an impact and challenge the status quo - Who focuses on outcomes over output - ensuring the team delivers actual business value, not just lines of code ## Benefits - Maximise your impact: Real ownership of what you ship. Whether you lead a team or lead through craft, we back you to do the work that matters most - Shape AI-native creative work: Kittl sits where AI, design, and commerce meet. You'll build the tools that decide what professional looks like for our next million users - AI enablement: We use AI across the company, not just in the product - Passionate team: Quarterly hackathons for experimenting with new concepts, pushing boundaries, and delivering the next big thing - Kittl Week: Each year, our global team gathers for a whole week, to work, celebrate, get inspired, and have fun - Work-life balance: 30 vacation days a year, plus public holidays - Flexible hours: Core hours are 11am to 5pm CET. How you build the rest of your day is up to you - Hybrid working style: 3 days a week in our office in the heart of Prenzlauer Berg, the rest of the week from home - Remote work: On top of that, work from anywhere in the world for up to 50 days (10 weeks) a year, as long as you're reachable during core hours - VESOP: Enrollment in our Virtual Employee Stock Option Plan. When Kittl grows in value, you share in it - Lunch: Daily chef-prepared meals in the office - Mobility: Your monthly BVG ticket, fully covered - Health & fitness: Urban Sports Club M membership - Learning & development: Annual L&D budget for your professional growth - German classes: Online group courses at every level 🌈 At Kittl, we embrace diversity and value every team member's unique background, identity, and experience. We're all about respect, honesty, and inclusivity. Together, we create a safe and supportive work environment where everyone thrives. Join us on this exciting journey of making our company and product even better! ## About Kittl ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Kittl is an AI-native graphic design platform that combines generative AI with professional editing tools to help creators, designers, and businesses build brand-ready visuals. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series B); total funding $49.7M as of Jan 2024 - **Headquarters**: Berlin, Germany (with additional offices in London and remote hubs) - **Founded**: 2020 - **Founders**: Nicolas Heymann (CEO), Philipp Rukin (CTO), and an unnamed co-founder (CPO) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Graphic design software, AI-powered creative tools - **Target customers**: B2B (designers, marketing teams, e-commerce sellers) and B2C (creators); SMB to enterprise; strong focus on professional designers and ambitious businesses - **Mission / Purpose**: Redefine graphic design by solving the most challenging problems in the industry, enabling millions of users to produce standout branding and product visuals faster than ever. ## Products & Services - **Kittl Platform (SaaS)**: AI-driven design workspace with features including AI image generation, AI video generation, background removal, mockups, customizable templates, vector editing, text effects, and “Smart Flows” (automated multi-step design processes). Free tier available; paid plans (Pro, Expert) unlock additional AI tokens, advanced editing, and collaborative features. ## Market Standing - **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not disclosed - **Key Metric**: Total funding $49.7M (Series B led by IVP at $36M, Jan 2024; Series A $11.8M led by Left Lane Capital, Jan 2023; Seed $1.9M led by Speedinvest, Oct 2021); annual revenue estimated at $2.5M (LinkedIn, 2024) - **Notable Investors / Partners**: IVP, Left Lane Capital, Speedinvest; board observers include Paddy Dillon (Series A lead) - **Growth Signals**: Over 10 million users; headcount of 124 (+2.6% YoY); operates in 18 countries; named among Europe’s fastest-growing startups; recent London office expansion planned for 2025. ## Competitive Advantages - **AI-native end-to-end workflow**: Unlike generalist design tools, Kittl is built from the ground up to integrate multiple AI models (image, video, etc.) with deep editing control, producing on-brand outputs without switching platforms. - **Professional-grade editing & vast template library**: Combines generative AI with vector editing, text effects, and 10,000+ premium templates/mockups, appealing to both professionals and casual creators. - **Scalable collaboration**: Supports unlimited projects and team workflows, making it suitable for growing businesses. ## Strategic Focus - **Becoming the “Adobe of tomorrow”**: Heavily investing in AI-driven design, machine learning, and automation to shift the industry from traditional desktop software to a cloud-native, AI-first platform. - **Expanding geographical footprint**: Growing presence in London (new office in 2025) and scaling remote teams across the US, UK, and other markets. - **Product velocity**: Quarterly hackathons and a culture of rapid experimentation to deliver new features (e.g., AI video generation, Smart Flows). ## Why Work Here - **Culture & growth**: Emphasis on impact over hierarchy; “limitless growth” philosophy with internal promotions and leadership opportunities; 30+ nationalities across the team. - **Work policy**: Hybrid (3 days/week in Berlin office) with up to 50 days per year fully remote from anywhere (core hours 11am–5pm CET); global “Kittl Week” annual gathering. - **Perks**: Flexible working hours, up to 30 vacation days, quarterly hackathons, stock options, and a focus on engineering excellence (CTO previously co-founded an award-winning travel app). - **Engineering culture**: Solve challenging problems for millions of users; owned by technical leads; collaborative and diverse environment. ## Sources 1. [kittl.com/careers](https://www.kittl.com/careers) 2. [kittl.com](https://www.kittl.com/) 3. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/kittl](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kittl) 4. [linkedin.com/company/kittl](https://de.linkedin.com/company/kittl) 5. [builtin.com/company/kittl](https://builtin.com/company/kittl) ## Other roles at Kittl - [Brand Marketing Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/brand-marketing-lead-kittl-berlin-dh8qc0ndqrqt) — Berlin, Germany - [Senior DevOps Engineer (Berlin, hybrid)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-devops-engineer-berlin-hybrid-kittl-berlin-ycy8pfmq3ax2) — Berlin, Germany