Head of IT

,, - at Catawiki, we come across exceptional objects such as these every day.

Catawiki is the leading online marketplace to buy and sell special objects. We offer over 75,000 special objects in auction every week — each reviewed and selected by one of Catawiki’s hundreds of in-house experts specialised in Art, Design, Jewellery, Fashion, Classic Cars, Collectables and many more.

We've sold 10 million unique items to date and it’s our mission to become the world’s most popular auction destination for special objects.

We’re an innovative, pioneering and fast-growing scale-up. If you think you can make a difference to our team, go ahead and apply.

Catawiki operates in a huge market which brings a lot of unique challenges and opportunities. Having more than 12+ million monthly visitors, Catawiki’s Engineering team takes the stability and the scalability of our systems and applications seriously.

We strive to build scalable systems that will perform well under load, by deciding what algorithms and data structures our programs use, by always estimating and benchmarking our system’s performance, and by choosing the right technologies. Our Business IT team is a central function that supports the entirety of the business.

The impact that you will have, as one of our Engineering Managers, is massive; You will play an integral part in structuring processes, building on our high-performance culture, and shaping how engineering happens at Catawiki. The 3 most important aspects of your job will be:

Strategy & Planning:

• Aligning closely with our People Team shared goals within your domain and areas of expertise.
• Facilitating alignment with other stakeholder teams for successful delivery of broad company-wide initiatives.
• Linking technical efforts to business goals; You know how to shape, mold and develop the Business IT team to ensure they are moving in the same direction as the business.
• Key contact for our various Managed Service Providers and vendors that supplement support of the business through specialized technology.

Engineering excellence:

• Communication across teams; You are the first point of technical contact for their topic.
• You will lead, manage, and plan team capacity as they work on challenges around scale, improving our microservice architecture and implementing new features.
• Act as a business partner for horizontal, cross-team efforts that span across multiple teams or the entire organization.

Team Building & Management:

• You play a leading role in appraisals, reviews, coaching and mentoring, ensuring the team feels engaged and valued.
• You think actively about both the professional development of the existing team and the best way to attract and retain the best new talent.
• Help us design and run a high-performance organization through technology, by actively participating in continuous improvement of organizational metrics.

• You have relevant experience in a variety of contexts, during which you have built scalable, robust, and fault-tolerant systems adding tangible value to the business and its users.
• Experience in leading IT Support and IT Engineering teams by goal setting and strategic direction.
• A proven leader who has scaled up and managed within a consumer-facing Online business, playing a key role in aligning the technology strategy with the business objectives. Ideally, you have a background in e-commerce but this is not a prerequisite.
• Experienced in developing a clear vision and direction for your team. You’ll be well versed in planning the career path of team members, ensuring engagement and inspiration.
• A Role model for Business IT at Catawiki. You’re involved in conferences, events or meetups about best practices in Business IT and team building.
• You think in terms of the value added to the business and users and know the trade-offs to make between product and tech.
• You’ve progressed into working in cloud-only businesses & SaaS environments without the drag of physical infrastructure management.

As our engineering group is expanding we are looking for structuring and solidifying engineering leadership to match our growth. As a result, we are looking for managers used to fast-paced growth and building solutions that scale. The role reports to the CPO, collaborates closely with other department leaders, and also the Commercial side of the business.

This is your chance to join our mission to fulfill people’s passions as part of a young and dynamic organization. You'll be part of an enthusiastic, highly motivated team of 800+ Catawikians.

Additionally, you can expect:

• A challenging role in a diverse, international and fast-growing organisation with over 50 nationalities.
• Regular fun activities both on and offline e.g summer parties, boat rides and regular team events.
• Great secondary benefits including a holiday allowance and a fantastic pension plan paid for by Catawiki.
• Hybrid ways of working between home and office. We offer remote and activity-based working, suited to the team and individual responsibilities
• We care about our teams’ wellbeing and offer a holistic wellbeing programme including our Employee Assistance Programme offering clinical services, single-session therapy, wellness support and more.
• Tailored learning and development opportunities to support your personal and professional growth;

We want to help you celebrate special occasions in life by:

• Provide employees with a 100 EURO Catavoucher upon joining and 50 EURO birthday Catavouchers;
• Extra days of annual leave for work anniversaries at 3, 5, 8 and 10 years;
• Additional leave allowances for important life events such as moving, engagement & marriage;
• Each year Catawikians get an additional day’s leave to Pursue their Passion

Please note that our benefits offering changes depending on which country you are employed in. For our country-specific offering please ask your recruiter.

Catawiki’s eclectic team represents an international and intergenerational mix of people from different professional and cultural backgrounds. We foster an inclusive and queer-friendly work environment, committed to making every Catawikian feel welcomed and empowered. Whatever your story, we encourage you to bring your unique perspective to the table.

Catawiki stands with Ukraine and encourages people displaced by the current conflict to apply. In addition to the several initiatives we’ve launched, we’re open to ideas on ways we can continue to support the humanitarian effort.

We have sensational offices in Amsterdam, Groningen, Paris and our newest office in Lisbon. Most of our employees are within commutable distance of one of our office locations and enjoy a hybrid work model. This means we expect you to be in the office 2 out of 5 days, roughly 40% of your working time, to collaborate and connect with each other. The exception is of course, if the job description specifically states that the role is 100% remote, as some experts and sales positions are.

Apply directly with an English CV and cover letter by submitting your information at the bottom of this page. By submitting your application you agree to .

If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.