Head of Technology / VP Engineering
Role Overview
We are looking for a Head of Technology / VP Engineering to lead Agora Labs' technical organisation across platform engineering, infrastructure, delivery, and technical execution.
This role is designed for a senior engineering leader with strong experience in software delivery, platform operations, cloud infrastructure, and cross-functional team management.
The position combines engineering leadership, architecture guidance, operational excellence, and execution discipline in a highly regulated healthcare-data environment.
It is particularly well suited to a profile that can scale the technical team, improve engineering cadence, and progressively take on broader strategic technical responsibility over time.
Key Responsibilities
Engineering Leadership & Delivery
Lead the technical team across software engineering, platform/infrastructure, data engineering, and technical operations, setting priorities, quality standards, and a clear operating model.
Translate company goals and product commitments into an executable engineering roadmap, balancing speed, reliability, compliance, and scalability.
Establish predictable delivery practices across planning, ownership, release readiness, incident follow-up, and engineering performance metrics.
Support hiring, coaching, performance management, and growth of engineers and technical leads across the organisation.
Platform, Reliability & Security
Own the evolution of Agora Labs' technical platform across cloud and on-premises environments, secure data activation nodes, integrations, and shared platform services.
Guide decisions around cloud infrastructure, containerized workloads, Kubernetes, CI/CD, observability, release management, and production reliability.
Ensure robust security, privacy-by-design, and operational resilience for solutions handling sensitive clinical and hospital data.
Improve monitoring, incident response, environment management, and change management processes to support high-trust, regulatory-grade delivery.
Data, AI & Product Enablement
Partner with product, data science, and clinical / research stakeholders to turn technical constraints and opportunities into deliverable platform capabilities.
Enable the engineering foundation for RWE projects, federated learning workflows, AI validation initiatives, and secure data collaboration with external partners.
Ensure architecture and delivery practices support interoperability, traceability, auditability, and reuse across projects, customers, and clinical contexts.
Contribute technical judgment to build-vs-buy choices, vendor selection, and prioritisation of new capabilities.
Cross-Functional & External Leadership
Act as the primary technical counterpart for company leadership and, when needed, for hospitals, research centres, industrial partners, and strategic vendors.
Support technically complex partnership or pre-sales discussions, ensuring that commitments are feasible, scalable, and aligned with platform strategy.
Work closely with legal, compliance, and information-security stakeholders to ensure engineering execution remains aligned with contractual and regulatory requirements.
Build strong communication loops between engineering and the rest of the company, reducing ambiguity and accelerating decision-making.
Required Qualifications
Education
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
Experience
8+ years of experience in software engineering, platform engineering, DevOps / SRE, or technical operations, with at least 3+ years in engineering leadership or management roles.
Proven experience running or scaling production platforms based on cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, APIs, and modern software delivery practices.
Track record of managing technical teams in product or scale-up environments, with accountability for delivery, operational quality, and team development.
Experience in healthcare, life sciences, regulated data environments, enterprise SaaS, or other high-trust contexts is strongly preferred.
Technical & Domain Knowledge
Strong understanding of cloud platforms, containerized architectures, Kubernetes, CI/CD, observability, incident management, and release processes.
Good architectural judgment across backend systems, data pipelines, integrations, platform services, and secure deployment models including hybrid or on-premises setups.
Familiarity with privacy-preserving data architectures, federated or distributed computing models, and secure handling of sensitive data is a strong plus.
Comfortable leading teams that support AI / ML and data-intensive products, even without being a research specialist personally.
Leadership & Communication
Strong people leadership skills: hiring, coaching, feedback, accountability setting, and stakeholder management across technical and non-technical functions.
Ability to bring structure to an evolving environment and improve engineering ways of working without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain technical trade-offs clearly to founders, product teams, and external partners.
Pragmatic, hands-on in technical judgment, and comfortable going deep on critical issues when needed.
Languages & Mobility
Fluent English (mandatory).
Italian is a strong plus.
Willingness to travel periodically within Italy and Europe for meetings with hospitals, partners, or internal team sessions.
What We Offer
A pivotal leadership role in a fast-growing European deeptech company at the intersection of healthcare, AI, and data infrastructure.
Direct impact on the technical direction, engineering maturity, and scalability of the Agora Labs platform.
Exposure to high-impact projects with hospitals, research centres, pharma, and AI / MedTech organisations.
The opportunity to shape and lead a technical team in a context with meaningful growth potential.
Flexible, international, and mission-driven working environment.
