Director of Engineering (EU)

Born out of the heart of the Basque country in Bilbao, ZenRows is one of the fastest-growing startups in Europe! We work 100% remotely and believe in hiring the best people, no matter where you are in the world!

Founded in 2021, Our mission is to transform the future of data workflows by enabling seamless, large-scale data extraction from the web. With our powerful tools, businesses can automate data collection at scale while leveraging the most advanced anti-bot bypass system on the market. Thousands of companies worldwide—across industries like e-commerce, real estate, finance, and AI—rely on ZenRows to streamline their data pipelines, fueling automation, analytics, and AI-driven insights

As we continue our rapid expansion, we are now looking for our first Director of Engineering to join us on a permanent basis and make an instant impact.

The Role:

ZenRows is looking for an ambitious and experienced Director of Engineering to lead our growing, multidisciplinary engineering team. This is a strategic and high-impact role where you’ll drive engineering structure, processes, and innovation while scaling a team that delivers world-class products.

At ZenRows, we process millions of daily requests, orchestrate thousands of CPU cores, and handle terabytes of data traffic every month. Our engineering team works on cutting-edge automation, AI-powered data extraction, and distributed computing while simulating human behavior to evade advanced anti-bot services.

As our Director of Engineering, you will shape the engineering strategy, build scalable systems, and enable new products and services while ensuring efficient team operations. You’ll collaborate across departments, lead cross-functional squads, and structure our team to remove bottlenecks and accelerate delivery.

We are a remote-first company with a fast-paced, high-impact culture. You’ll work directly with our CEO, Aurken, and as a business with two technical founders who have strong engineering backgrounds—you must be comfortable engaging in technical discussions while balancing business needs.

Key Responsibilities:

Build & Scale Engineering Structure

• Own overall engineering team health, employee engagement, and retention.
• Lead hiring, onboarding, and continuous professional development for engineers.
• Champion ZenRows' culture of autonomy, ownership, and accountability for outcomes.
• Facilitate excellent cross-pod communication, aligning engineering teams with business objectives and Product Lead priorities.
• Define & implement a scalable squad structure (aligned per product) to optimize team efficiency.
• Develop and oversee multi-disciplinary engineering teams that include backend, full stack, UI, and Product professionals.
• Ensure fast iteration cycles while maintaining high product reliability.

Leadership & Growth

• Lead and scale a 20-30 person TECH team (currently 8) as the company grows.
• Drive hiring, mentorship, and team development to create a high-performing engineering organization.
• Build a culture of ownership, transparency, and collaboration.

Product & Engineering Strategy

• Enable new services and product creation, ensuring engineering efforts align with business priorities.
• Optimize internal tooling to enhance productivity across teams.
• Work with Product, Marketing, and Sales to ensure engineering efforts meet customer needs.
• Establish clear technical roadmaps, goals, and KPIs for engineering teams.

Technical Decision-Making & Efficiency

• Oversee the architecture, scalability, and automation of ZenRows’ distributed infrastructure.
• Ensure high engineering efficiency, reducing code-to-production time while maintaining quality.
• Lead incident management and reliability improvements.
• Promote best practices in containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud infrastructure (AWS, Terraform).
• Security and Compliance: Ensure systems and processes comply with industry standards and best practices for security, privacy, and scalability.
• Emergency Response: Establish and refine incident management processes to handle high-severity incidents effectively.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with the Product Lead to prioritize business needs.
• Facilitate efficient feedback loops between engineering, product, and customer teams.

Day-to-Day Challenges:

• Balancing short-term deliverables with long-term scalability in a fast-growing company.
• Managing a remote-first, distributed team across time zones.
• Navigating complex data flows, security protocols, and system performance bottlenecks.
• Implementing telemetry to enhance monitoring, observability, and data-driven decisions.
• Structuring engineering teams to prevent bottlenecks and optimize efficiency.
• Aligning engineering efforts with wider business needs, ensuring rapid iteration while maintaining scalability.

Why This Role is Exciting:

• You will partner with your Product counterpart to maximize business impact by delivering customer value
• You’ll have the autonomy to shape the engineering culture and define best practices.
• Opportunity to lead high-impact projects that are central to ZenRows’ success.
• Work alongside talented engineers who thrive on solving challenging problems with cutting-edge technologies.
• Create and scale multi-disciplinary squads that drive innovation.
• A culture that values transparency, experimentation, and continuous learning—no micromanagement, just trust and responsibility.
• Develop new products and services that push the boundaries of web data extraction.
• Be part of a highly technical leadership team, directly shaping ZenRows’ future.

The Person:

We’re looking for a proactive and experienced leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment and isn’t afraid to experiment, fail, and try again. You’ll need a blend of technical expertise, strategic vision, and leadership skills to succeed.

Key Skills and Experience:

Leadership Experience:

• Proven people-management skills; ability to mentor and develop engineers.
• Strong process management and communication skills.
• Track record of building high-performing, empowered engineering teams in startup or high-growth environments.
• Experience in product-led growth companies and Agile practices.
• You’ve led and scaled engineering teams of 20-30+ people, ideally in a startup-to-scale-up transition.
• You’ve built and managed squad/pod-based structures (Autonomous, empowered product teams clearly aligned around customer-facing outcomes and explicit KPIs.).
• You’re comfortable reporting directly to the CEO and working with technical founders.
• A proactive approach to prioritizing tasks, managing trade-offs, and making high-impact decisions.

Technical Expertise:

• Background or familiarity with SaaS/API products, data extraction, or cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred).
• Understanding of DevOps practices and observability methodologies.
• You come from a strong tech background—whether that’s Development, DevOps, or Solutions Architecture.
• A background in enabling new product development and services, not just maintaining infrastructure.
• Familiar with cloud infrastructure (AWS) and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform).
• Familiar with containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).

Agile & Process-Driven Mindset

• You optimize workflows, reduce bottlenecks, and improve efficiency without overcomplicating processes.
• You understand the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) and prioritize high-impact work over perfection.
• You are used to working with multidisciplinary teams and balancing engineering, business, and product needs.

Strong Product & Business Awareness

• You have world-class product sense and can prioritize engineering efforts based on business impact.

Transparency & Collaboration

• You thrive in open, honest communication and ensure visibility across teams.
• You can handle strong opinions from technical founders and have the guts to say no when needed, while gathering input from multiple stakeholders
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

What rewards and benefits would I get in this role?

• 100% Remote Work – Work from wherever makes you most productive.
• Competitive Salary – We don’t ask what you’re currently earning; we ask what you need to succeed.
• Top-Tier Equipment – Choose the setup that works best for you.
• Learning & Development Budget – Invest in courses, certifications, and training that benefit both you and the company.
• All-Star Awards – Get rewarded for outstanding contributions in unique and personalized ways.
• BitWarden Premium – Secure your accounts with a company-sponsored password manager.
• Charity Initiatives – ZenRows believes in giving back, and we encourage employees to do the same.
• Annual Kick-Off in Bilbao – Experience where ZenRows was born while enjoying the best Pinxos around.
• Stock Options – Our top performers share in the company’s success.
• Deel Benefits – Access a range of discounts and perks as part of our global employment platform.