Head of Development.

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Head of Development based in Brazil.

This full-time, fully remote leadership opportunity offers end-to-end ownership of the engineering organization behind a global SaaS platform serving the vehicle and equipment rental industries.
You will lead multiple distributed Agile engineering teams, translating business priorities into a scalable technical roadmap and reliable delivery processes.
Combining strategic architectural direction with operational leadership, you will drive platform modernization, infrastructure resilience, and development efficiency.
You will oversee the evolution of a PHP and Laravel-based architecture while strengthening CI/CD pipelines, database performance, automated testing, and security practices.
Beyond technology, you will establish engineering standards, develop technical talent, and foster a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
Working closely with international executives and distributed teams, you will play a central role in supporting product innovation and global platform growth.

Accountabilities

You will take overall responsibility for engineering strategy, technical delivery, architecture, and team development, ensuring the platform remains scalable, secure, and aligned with business objectives.

• Lead and coordinate multiple distributed Agile engineering teams, establishing predictable delivery cycles for global enterprise SaaS products.

• Improve software development lifecycle (SDLC) performance by reducing cycle times, lowering escaped defect rates, and optimizing team capacity and resource allocation.

• Facilitate regular engineering meetings, remove delivery blockers, and align sprint objectives with broader product and business milestones.

• Lead cross-team architectural reviews and define long-term technical roadmaps focused on reducing technical debt, improving query indexing, and strengthening system maintainability.

• Design and implement modern CI/CD pipelines incorporating automated testing, containerized environments, and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) solutions.

• Improve cloud infrastructure scalability, platform resilience, and observability across multi-tenant environments.

• Establish and enforce engineering governance standards, including pull request (PR) review processes, Git branching strategies, code quality expectations, and automated security controls.

• Introduce and maintain code profiling, logging pipelines, and automated security checks to support a reliable and scalable engineering environment.

• Mentor and develop engineers across junior, mid-level, and senior roles, creating clear career paths and measurable progression criteria.

• Build a high-performance engineering culture centered on technical ownership, architectural autonomy, accountability, and continuous improvement.

• Communicate complex technical decisions and system architecture clearly to engineering teams, business stakeholders, and executive leadership.

• Coordinate technical priorities across distributed teams and ensure engineering decisions support the organization's long-term growth.

Requirements

The ideal candidate is an experienced engineering leader with strong PHP and Laravel expertise, a proven record of managing distributed teams, and the ability to balance architectural strategy with operational execution.

• At least 5 years of demonstrated experience leading, scaling, and managing multiple distributed Agile software engineering teams within a global SaaS environment.

• Advanced hands-on technical expertise in PHP and the Laravel framework.

• Strong understanding of object-oriented programming, software design patterns, and PHP package ecosystems.

• Proven experience designing containerized environments, implementing automated staging tests, and managing production cloud deployments.

• Practical experience establishing CI/CD pipelines and modern DevSecOps practices.

• Demonstrated ability to introduce code profiling, logging and monitoring pipelines, and automated security checks within growing engineering environments.

• Strong knowledge of software architecture, database optimization, query indexing, system scalability, and technical debt management.

• Experience managing Agile delivery processes, engineering performance metrics, and cross-functional technical priorities.

• Excellent leadership and people management skills, including mentoring engineers and developing technical career paths.

• Near-native or fully fluent English proficiency (C2 level), with the ability to lead international standups, deliver technical presentations, and participate confidently in executive strategy discussions.

• Strong communication, problem-solving, decision-making, and organizational skills.

• A high-performance development workstation, dedicated private home office, stable high-speed internet connection, and reliable backup power solutions.

• Must be born in Latin America and currently reside in the region. US citizens are not eligible.

• Willingness to complete background and reference checks if required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience scaling databases or caching layers for high-concurrency booking, scheduling, or real-time inventory management applications.

• Previous technical leadership experience in logistics, mobility, fleet management, automotive technology, or digital commerce platforms.

Benefits

• Monthly contractor compensation of USD $8,000–$12,000, calibrated to leadership experience, multi-team management capabilities, and technical depth.

• 100% remote work from eligible locations across Latin America.

• Full-time schedule, Monday through Friday, from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM US Eastern Time.

• Executive-level ownership of the technical direction and architectural evolution of a global SaaS platform serving more than 1,300 businesses.

• Opportunity to lead multiple distributed engineering teams and influence long-term technology strategy.

• Autonomous, low-bureaucracy working environment with direct collaboration across international leadership and engineering teams.