Jurgen Wiehan
Director of Engineering
Experience
Oct 2022 - Present
2 years 10 months Berlin, Germany
Director of Engineering
Wunderflats
- Reporting directly to the CEO.
- Responsible for all things in the engineering space including Software Engineering, Architecture, and Quality Assurance.
- Led a team of around 25 cross-functional team members including Frontend, Backend, and Fullstack Engineers.
- Aligned engineering strategies with organisational strategy through clearly identifiable OKRs.
- Introduced Team Topologies and Scrum, ensuring fewer hand-offs between teams and improving their efficiencies, resulting in more impactful solutions for customers.
- Led the Technology Due Diligence process for an M&A decision.
- Spearheaded the re-architecture of the product from monolith to microservices, reducing technical debt and enabling expansion into new markets.
- Managed a budget of around €2m, optimising costs by introducing SaaS solutions and replacing homegrown systems.
- Negotiated vendor contracts, reducing costs by at least 10% and improving service delivery.
- Set clear expectations and goals for engineers, ensuring their continued growth within the organisation.
- Technology stacks included React, Node.js, MongoDB, and GCP.
Apr 2018 - Oct 2022
4 years 7 monthsCountry Manager (India) / Director of Engineering
Euromonitor International
- Responsible for global Software Engineering teams (Engineers and QA) and successful operations as Country Manager.
- Led a Software Engineering team of around 80 people, which grew from just 4 Software Engineers.
- Led a team of 8 people in Finance, HR, and Operations.
- Drove the migration to cloud-native technologies, moving away from on-premise solutions, thereby increasing efficiency and resilience.
- Owned a multi-million £ budget, which included people and technologies.
- Introduced a delivery-focused mentality throughout engineering teams through Scrum.
- Promoted collaboration and stability in local leadership over a period of 10 years.
- Expert in the Microsoft stack including Azure, .Net, C#, and SQL.
Jan 2015 - Dec 2015
1 yearCertified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance
Dec 2011 - Mar 2018
6 years 4 monthsCountry Manager (South Africa) / Head of Software Engineering
Euromonitor International
- Established strong collaboration between global teams, improving efficiency in software delivery and reducing downtime.
- Managed technical and business operations, ensuring alignment between engineering strategy and corporate objectives.
Aug 2008 - Nov 2011
3 years 4 monthsTeam Leader
Euromonitor International
- Built and scaled the South African engineering team, introducing best practices for Agile development and cloud adoption.
- Led a team of developers, implementing C# and .NET-based solutions to enhance product performance and reliability.
Feb 2002 - Jul 2008
6 years 6 months.Net & Senior Developer
Euromonitor International
Jan 1996 - Dec 1998
2 yearsInformation Technology Diploma
Cape Tech / Durbanville College
Summary
Engineering leader with 20+ years of experience scaling teams (from 4 to 80 engineers), leading technical transformations, and driving business growth through strategic engineering leadership. Proven success in re-architecting products, optimising vendor contracts, and implementing Agile methodologies to improve delivery speed and efficiency.
I'm passionate about solving engineering challenges, and I thrive on building high-performing teams and empowering them to innovate and deliver value to our customers. As a leader, I've had the opportunity and honour of leading many employees and I believe I excel at bridging the gap between engineering and business.
Languages
English
Advanced
German
Intermediate
Education
Jan 1996 - Dec 1998
Cape Tech / Durbanville College
Diploma · Information Technology · Cape Town, South Africa
Certifications & licenses
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance
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