VP Software Engineering

About the Position

VP Software Engineering

At Nextlane, we don’t just develop software solutions – we create the future of the automotive industry. We are a company that combines advanced technology with a clear vision: simplifying and digitizing every step of the automotive customer journey, empowering manufacturers and dealerships to thrive in a constantly evolving market.

We believe in the value of every team member, offering opportunities for you to develop and contribute to meaningful solutions.

🚀 The Mission

Nextlane builds the software that runs automotive retail across 14 countries, with more than 60 manufacturer integrations. Today that runs on around ten legacy dealer management systems, built over three decades in technologies that are now at the end of their life.

We are replacing them with a single cloud platform, and we are building it with AI at the centre: both in how our engineers work, and in what our customers get. Our AI products are already live and generating revenue, and they are the fastest growing part of our portfolio.

You will lead the engineering organisation that builds all of it: the cloud product portfolio, the single platform that replaces the legacy estate, and the AI products we sell to dealers and manufacturers.

This is a build job, not a caretaking job. The legacy estate keeps running while you build what replaces it, so you will be making hard sequencing calls about what gets migrated, what gets rewritten and what gets left alone, with real customers on the other side of every one of them.

Responsibilities

• Engineering strategy and delivery. Defining and executing the engineering strategy for the cloud product portfolio, aligned to the company strategy and the product vision, and owning delivery, scalability, reliability and operational excellence.
• An engineering organisation of around 30 people, led through Engineering Managers, with Principal and Staff Engineers on the technical track. Building and scaling those teams across several product domains, and developing the leaders inside them.
• The AI product portfolio. The engineering capability, evaluation discipline, reliability and unit cost model that let us ship customer-facing AI features safely and repeatedly, including ownership of the Skywalker team.
• Agentic development. Driving our agentic development operating model inside your organisation. We have standardised on Claude Code for all engineers, with autonomy gated by a defined AI fluency scale. You will take this from adoption to measured delivery outcomes, and contribute to how it works across the company.
• Architectural coherence. Working with our Architecture Practice and our Platform engineering team so that we ship one platform rather than several that resemble each other.

Requirements

• You have led a real agentic development transformation, not a tooling rollout.
• You have shipped AI features to paying customers.
• You lead through managers, and you are still technical.
• You communicate exceptionally well.
• You have built cloud-native B2B SaaS at scale.

Nice to Have

• Experience in a private equity backed environment, and comfort with the reporting rhythm and capital discipline that comes with it.
• Domain exposure to automotive, mobility, retail, fintech, telecommunications or another integration-heavy enterprise SaaS sector.
• A second European language: French, Spanish, Portuguese or German.
• Experience leading a small, high-autonomy innovation team alongside a larger delivery organisation.

We Offer

• 🏡 Remote Work: Up to 3 days a week!
• Work-life balance: We have flexible entrance and departure time.
• Summer schedule on Fridays: Start early your weekends!
• 🤝 Referral Bonus: €1500 for every talent you refer (after 6 months).
• 🍱 Flexible Remuneration: COBEE platform.
• ⚕️ Private Medical Insurance: Adeslas.
• 📚 Continuous Learning: Access to our internal platform for continuous development.
• 🌴 Vacation: 23 vacation days plus an intensive schedule in July and August.
• Teambuilding: Our afterworks and activities are memorable!

About the Company

At Nextlane, we are committed to creating a space where everyone feels valued and respected. We firmly believe that diversity in experiences and backgrounds strengthens our culture and drives innovation.

• Support for people with disabilities. If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process, let us know so we can provide the best possible experience.
• Equal opportunities for all: We welcome applications regardless of age, gender, origin, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Join Nextlane and become part of the technological revolution in the automotive industry.

Location: Spain - Madrid

Remote status: Hybrid