Director of Engineering
Colliers is a global real estate services and investment management company expanding its technology footprint in Spain. They are assembling multiple teams in a new Technology Hub in Madrid to standardize the stack, accelerate delivery, and build data-driven products at global scale.
Do you want to build and lead these engineering teams? Read on! 👇
¿Qué harás?
⚡ What does Colliers do?
Colliers is a global real estate services and investment management company with operations across EMEA, the Americas, and APAC. They help clients buy, lease, operate, and optimise property portfolios, and are now scaling a global technology platform to drive data-driven decisions and modern digital products.
Technology has strong executive sponsorship and a global leadership structure (Software Engineering, Data & AI, Infrastructure, Product, Enterprise Architecture, etc.) to unify and standardise how software is built worldwide.
🤔 What is the product like?
Colliers is launching a Technology Hub in Madrid to bring together a diverse landscape of internal and client-facing applications into a single, standardized development environment. Think containerized dev setups, robust CI/CD, shared component libraries/design systems, security screening baked into the pipeline, and above all, a strong Developer Experience.
The work spans platform engineering and product delivery (analytics & data products, internal platforms, client portals), in close collaboration with Product, Data & AI, and Infrastructure teams.
The first hiring wave kicks off with the Director of Engineering, but the long-term vision is to grow into 5-6 squads over the next year or two working in a hybrid model with a startup mindset to build both culture and speed.
💪 What is the challenge?
Build and consolidate a high-performing hub from scratch. Your mission is to turn Colliers’ global strategy into execution:
- Build and maintain new software products on a unified, cloud-native platform
- Rationalise and modernise legacy apps ( keep, refactor, or rebuild) while eliminating duplicated country-specific solutions.
- Manage software engineering teams and projects and ensure delivery in time & budget.
- Establish common tooling and standards (coding, testing, releases, observability, security & privacy) with clear engineering KPIs (throughput, quality, time-to-value, reliability).
- Hire, coach, and grow engineers/teamleads; set up rituals, career paths, and an inclusive, high-ownership culture.
- Partner across time zones and functions, translating complex technical decisions into clear language for non-technical stakeholders.
This is a multi-year transformation with real autonomy, high visibility, and the opportunity to define how Colliers builds software at global scale.
Tu evolución
En 1 mes
You will have completed your onboarding with your manager and the key peers in Software Engineering, Product, Data & AI, Infrastructure, Security and Enterprise Architecture, gaining a high-level view of the business and of how the current application landscape is distributed across countries. You will be familiar with (almost) all the main platforms and internal tools, understand the Madrid hub’s initial scope, and know exactly who to turn to for each domain. You will be a key member of Colliers’ software engineering leadership from the beginning, will already support ongoing recruiting and start managing existing team members and organizing their work.
Tus responsabilidades
Lead the build-out of the Madrid Technology Hub. Proactively scale from the initial hires to 5-6 teams, shaping organization structure, ways of working and delivery rituals.
Co-Own engineering operating model. Bring a strong voice, collaborative and drive consensus on a single developer platform (containerized dev, robust CI/CD, quality gates, security scanning, observability). Make stack recommendations aligned with global architecture and co-create reference architectures.
Be the bridge between business and technology. Translate global strategy into roadmaps and the “HOW we build” for your Engineering Managers; ensure predictable delivery, budget/capacity planning and governance across regions and time zones.
Define the talent strategy and culture and embed an inclusive, high-ownership culture with strong Software Experience.
Act as the top technical reference. Coach EMs and senior profiles, unblock teams, and raise the bar on testing, reliability and security. Driving engineering KPIs like lead time, deploy frequency, change failure rate, uptime, etc.
Be hands-on when it matters. Jump into architecture spikes, code reviews, prototypes or incident. Establishing component libraries and design system and backend platform building blocks.
Decide, align, and deliver. You will have autonomy to make data-backed decisions within clear global standards. Partner with Product, Infrastructure, Data & AI Security and Enterprise Architecture to keep the cloud stable and compliant (ISO/GDPR/SOC2) and to retire duplicated country apps, so technology becomes a profit driver, not a cost center.
¿Cómo lo harás?
You will build and manage a cross-functional engineering hub in Madrid that helps establish the reference for how Colliers ships software globally. Squads will own their services end-to-end, make decisions close to the problem, and operate within clear global guardrails for security, privacy and architecture.
You will hire, coach and grow engineers and engineering managers, set career paths and feedback rituals, and foster a culture of high standards with psychological safety, where Colliers document failures, learn quickly, and improve without blame.
You will manage overall capacity, deliverables, timelines of projects and product development. In close collaboration with the Product team, you are responsible for establishing the roadmap and successful delivery of products.
You will help establish a single developer platform: containerized development environments, automated testing, trunk-based development, and CI/CD by default. A shared design system and component libraries will speed up front-end work, while platform building blocks accelerate back-end delivery. Security, privacy and compliance (ISO/GDPR/SOC2) are embedded in the pipeline, not bolted on.
¿Cuándo trabajarás?
Flexible and outcome oriented. Work is async-first and meetings are intentional and time-boxed. Given the global setup, teams keep working within EMEA hours, and may occasionally join early or late sessions with the Americas/APAC, balanced with time off. Within these guardrails, the Director of Engineering will define the team rhythm (ceremonies and any optional core hours) to keep coordination tight without sacrificing flexibility. 🛫.
Día laborable
Jornada completa
Vacaciones
23 días
Jornada laboral
Flexible¿Dónde trabajarás?
Presencial
Teletrabajo
The work model is hybrid with 2-3 on-site days per week in their office in central Madrid (Paseo de la Castellana), the rest is remote and self-organised by each squad. Flexibility to be on-site in the office when it’s needed for the role is expected within reason.
On-site presence is about culture and speed, not control, and they follow a trust-based, async-first operating model.
¿Con quién trabajarás?
Although Colliers has more than 22,000 employees worldwide, its technology organization is much smaller and distributed across multiple countries and regions. The Madrid Technology Hub is brand new, and you’ll be the one of the first people on the ground. Your initial points of contact will be Christian (your manager) and Tobias. If you’d like to check their profiles, here they are:
- Christian Reitz (Global Head of Software Engineering)
- Tobias Klöpper (Global Senior Director EngOps and DevOps)
¿Qué piden?
Colliers is kicking off a brand-new Technology Hub in Madrid and needs a Director of Engineering to build it, scale it, and set the bar for how software gets shipped globally. They’re open to seasoned Heads/Directors of Engineering, Engineering Managers, and Startup CTOs who’ve grown real teams and can turn “we should…” into “it’s live.”
Essential requirements
- 10+ years in software engineering, with 5+ leading managers/squads; proven 0→1 and 1→N scaling of cross-functional teams.
- Modern delivery DNA: containerised dev environments, CI/CD by default, testing, code review, observability; can make these habits across multiple squads.
- Comfortable with keep / refactor / rebuild decisions, retiring duplicate country apps, and aligning to reference architectures in the cloud (/GCP).
- Security & compliance in-pipeline. Practical approach to privacy and security (ISO/GDPR/SOC2) baked into the build flow.
- Partners smoothly with Product, Infrastructure, Data & AI, and Enterprise Architecture; clear on trade-offs, costs and timelines.
- Metrics mindset: sets and tracks engineering KPIs (think DORA, SLOs, incident hygiene) to balance speed and quality.
- Fluent English. No Spaniards at that moment ;)
- Experience in working in international, multi-cultural environments.
Personal qualities
- Builder, not a bystander: sleeves roll up when needed.
- Talent magnet: hires well, levels people up, and creates a place where great engineers want to stay.
- Calm change agent: patient with big-company realities, persistent about good engineering, diplomatic without going soft on standards.
- Good communicator: explains complex stuff simply.
Tecnologías
No stack
Buscan profesionales que tengan los conocimientos necesarios para desempeñar las funciones del puesto, independientemente de la tecnología utilizada.
Otras habilidades
Innegociable
Comunicación verbal
Liderazgo
Autonomía en el aprendizaje
Visión crítica
Adaptabilidad al cambio
Estaría bien
Comunicación intercultural
Atención al detalle
Capacidad de mentorización
Suma puntos
Tolerancia a la incertidumbre
Idiomas
¿Qué ofrecen?
🎯Up to €110k salary incl. annual bonus tied to personal goals and company performance.
🩺 Health insurance
🚌 Transport card
🍽️ Restaurant card
💂 English classes
🎂 Birthday half-day off
🍼 Childcare voucher
🏃 Sporting events
📡 Hybrid model
🌍 Global exposure
Beneficios
Cheque Guardería
Clases de Idiomas
Seguro de salud
Ticket Restaurante
Ayuda con el transporte
Dinámicas y eventos de teambuilding
What the FAQ?
Yes but the role is hybrid in Madrid, so you will need to live in or relocate to the Madrid area. You will be employed by Colliers Spain, which means you must have the legal right to work in Spain (e.g., EU/EEA/Swiss citizenship or a valid Spanish work permit/visa).
Work-authorization specifics will be confirmed during the process.
- Stage 1 – Intro with leadership: Conversation with Christian Reitz (Global Head of Software Engineering) and Tobias Klöpper may join. Scope, context of the Madrid Hub, and your track record.
- Stage 2 – Deep-dive (60–90 min): Leadership, delivery, architecture and ways-of-working. Expect real scenarios and how you’d approach them.
- Stage 3 – On-site in Madrid (½ day): Paper-and-pencil case study, meetings with key stakeholders, and a culture/values discussion.