Senior Director, Engineering

Intercom Intercom · Enterprise · Berlin, Germany · Engineering

Senior Director of Engineering to lead and scale a new R&D hub in Berlin for Intercom, an AI Customer Service company. The role involves building and leading the R&D team, driving strategy and execution for AI-powered products, cultivating a high-performance culture, and operating as a cross-site leader within a globally distributed R&D organization. Requires deep technical knowledge, proven experience in leading large engineering organizations, and experience scaling new sites.

What you'd actually do

  1. Serving as the site lead and senior R&D leader in Berlin, setting the tone for R&D excellence, culture, and pace
  2. Hiring and developing a team who embody Intercom's values and move with impatience
  3. Establishing Berlin's operating rhythm — onboarding, team formation, and cross-location collaboration practices that ensure new hires are productive and connected from week one
  4. Owning one or more areas of ownership within Intercom's product
  5. Being accountable for delivering real impact for our customers

Skills

Required

  • deep technical knowledge
  • proven track record of building and leading large, high-performing engineering organizations (100+ engineers) that ship world-class products
  • experience as a senior engineering leader (Director+ level) at a high-growth technology company, ideally in SaaS or enterprise software
  • experience standing up or significantly scaling an engineering site or hub
  • leadership and mentorship
  • track record of developing engineering talent and building organizations where people do career-defining work
  • ownership of everything in your domain — from strategic direction to operational details — and drive it to a high-quality conclusion
  • thrive in fast-paced, high-ambition environments
  • collaborative, cross-functional leader who partners effectively with Product, Design, and other engineering leaders to deliver customer outcomes
  • based in or willing to relocate to Berlin

Nice to have

  • AI future, constantly learning and pushing yourself and others to understand what new boundaries can be pushed
  • instill the same beliefs into your teams so that they can achieve far more than in the past
  • creating an environment of urgency, accountability, and continuous improvement where teams do the best work of their careers
  • coaching, mentoring, and developing some of the most talented engineers in the industry, ensuring every individual is set up for growth and impact
  • defining what an AI forward organization looks like and how it operates
  • functioning as a full member of the R&D leadership team, contributing to company-wide strategy and operational decisions
  • ensuring seamless collaboration between Berlin and Intercom's existing engineering hubs in Dublin and London
  • driving organization-level improvements to how Intercom builds, ships, and operates

What the JD emphasized

  • build and lead large, high-performing engineering organizations (100+ engineers)
  • stood up or significantly scaled an engineering site or hub before
  • build culture, hire at pace, and establish credibility in a new market
  • driven significant organization-level improvements to engineering practices, processes, or culture

Other signals

  • AI agent Fin is the world’s best CX agent
  • building a full stack AI company
  • product for an AI first world
  • establishing a major new R&D hub in Berlin
  • founding R&D leader
  • build something from the ground up at a company with real scale