Tech Lead (Rotterdam)

Technical Leadership at Schuberg Philis 

At Schuberg Philis, we specialize in mission critical IT, partnering closely with our customers to ensure their most vital systems run smoothly and securely. Our engineers are T-shaped professionals who thrive at the intersection of depth and breadth, combining deep expertise in their fields with a collaborative mindset to ensure 100% customer satisfaction. 
 
Working within dedicated, cross-functional, self-steering Customer Teams, we take ownership of complex challenges and co-create solutions that align with our customers’ goals. From designing and building robust systems to managing secure, business critical platforms, we do it all. We automate as much as possible, support the (customer) team and developers on applications, and keep platforms secure, up to date and available. 
 
Within these teams, the Tech Lead plays a key role. You are a Mission Critical Engineer with added responsibility for technical leadership, quality, and long-term direction. This is a hands-on engineering role, not a management layer. There is no formal hierarchy: you’re not “in charge of” other engineers. Instead, you influence by expertise, trust, and example. 
 
In this position, you’ll primarily work with customers in the public domain (e.g. government and public sector), in and around the Rotterdam region. You’ll have regular customer contact, be part of the core customer team, and also be expected to facilitate technical leadership across teams and within our internal Tech Lead community. 
 

What will you do

Responsibilities vary depending on the specific customer landscape and domain, but may include:

• Act as the technical point of contact: 
  • Be the default go to person for technical leadership within your customer team.
  • Represent the team toward the customer on technical topics and decisions. 
  • Translate complex technical concepts into clear, understandable language for all stakeholders. 
• Shape and guard the technical vision:
  • Formulate and maintain a clear technical vision for the customer team.
  • Ensure solutions align with the customer’s enterprise, business and security architecture.
  • Balance innovation with stability, risk, and cost. 
• Lead within the account “triangle”: 
  • Work as an equal peer with the Customer Director Sales and Customer Director Delivery (together with the MD forming the Account Team).
  • Jointly own decisions: bigger decisions are made with the consent of the whole Account Team.
  • For technical topics, organize and facilitate the decision-making process toward consent within the team. 
• Drive best practices and standardization: 
  • Promote and evolve SBP best practices instead of reinventing the wheel.
  • Help define reusable platforms, patterns, and reference architectures.
  • Decide when to go “custom” and when to standardize, based on customer value rather than technical curiosity.
  • Work closely with other experts (e.g. security leads, data protection leads) to ensure a “whole system in the room” approach. 
• Ensure high standards and quality (plan–build–run): 
  • Guard quality across the entire lifecycle: design, implementation, and operations.
  • Encourage a “thinking by doing” mindset: prototype, validate, and improve continuously. 
  • Identify operational and project risks early and coordinate mitigation within the team. 
  • Challenge substandard work constructively and help colleagues grow through feedback. 
  • Support agile ways of working to keep the team focused on the right priorities.
• Be a trusted advisor: 
  • Deepen your understanding of the customer’s business domain and apply that context to technical decisions. 
  • Ask the question behind the question to get to the real problem. 
  • Help customers think strategically about businesstoIT challenges, sometimes even concluding that SBP is not the right party for a specific need.
  • Work with a wide range of stakeholders: executives, product owners, architects, and engineers. 
• Support commercial success: 
  • Participate in sales and presales activities as the technical counterpart to Customer Director Sales and Customer Director Delivery.
  • Assess the scope, complexity, and required team composition for projects and services.
  • Contribute to and understand commercial and cost models, ensuring that what we propose is realistic and deliverable by your team.
  • Help identify and develop new opportunities with your customer based on their strategic needs. 
• Carry our “Tech for Good” mindset: 
  • Explore IT challenges from a business and societal perspective, not just a technical one.
  • Prioritize customer impact and long-term sustainability over short-term gains.
  • Consider the impact of your decisions on people’s lives, families and future generations; “leaving the world a better place for our kids” is part of your compass. 
• Grow others and the company: 
  • Mentor and coach fellow engineers in their ambitions and growth. 
  • Help aspiring Tech Leads grow into the role, acting as a buddy where needed.
  • Extend your impact beyond the customer team by sharing knowledge, facilitating sessions, and supporting others. 
• Contribute to the Tech Lead community: 
  • Take an active role in the companywide Tech Lead community for team transcending challenges. 
  • Share learnings, patterns and solutions to help Schuberg Philis “act as a whole” and keep the company feeling small.
  • Keep your customer team informed about relevant topics from the Tech Lead community and how they affect their work

 

What you’ll bring 

We’re looking for an experienced engineer who naturally steps into a leadership role without needing formal authority. 

You’ll likely recognize yourself in the following: 

• Strong technical and architectural expertise: 
  • Proven experience designing, building and running complex, business critical systems (cloud, on-prem, or hybrid).
  • A solid understanding of modern infrastructure and/or software engineering: automation, security, CI/CD, observability, and reliable operations.
  • Ability to weigh tradeoffs between performance, resilience, security, compliance and cost, and explain your choices clearly. 
• Leadership by influence, not hierarchy: 
  
  • You’re comfortable stepping forward and taking the lead in discussions when needed.
  • You’re good at facilitating group decisions, guiding teams toward consent rather than forcing outcomes.
  • You’re a servant leader: you enable others to do their best work and realize that you only lead effectively if the team wants you to. 
• Customer centric mindset: 
  • You enjoy direct customer contact and can build long term trusted relationships.
  • You speak the language of both business and IT and can bridge the gap between them.
  • You’re not afraid to challenge assumptions—yours, your team’s, and your customer’s—always with respect and the customer’s best interest in mind. 
• Communication and collaboration: 
  • You can explain complex technical topics in a simple way to nontechnical stakeholders.
  • You give and receive constructive feedback and see it as an opportunity to grow.
  • You’re engaging and fun to work with; you inspire others by your attitude and example. 
• Self-reflection and growth: 
  • You know your strengths and weaknesses and ask for help when needed, for yourself and your team. 
  • You’re eager to learn, improve, and take on more complex environments and responsibilities over time.
  • You’re excited to help others grow, not just focused on your own success. 
• Cultural fit: 
  • You identify with our culture and DNA and are willing to be a “culture carrier”.
  • You thrive in a self steering environment with a lot of freedom and responsibility.
  • You believe in “tech for good” and are motivated by making a positive impact. 

 

What can you expect? 

At Schuberg Philis, you’ll join a community of engineers with an awesome combination of exceptionally high security standards, an infatuation with automation, and the power to make a positive, sustainable impact on customers’ business. Due to the nature of our customer engagements, there is no pressure on (billable) hours; we focus on quality and impact – or how we like to call it: “freedom & responsibility”. You know best how to deliver the most value. 

You’ll be embedded in a company committed to helping colleagues grow as people and professionals through training, knowledge sharing, mentoring, and good old-fashioned fun. 

Our offices are high-quality workspaces, and we go way beyond what is expected. We have productive equipment, good food and drinks, team outings, family days, labs to experiment with innovative technologies, etc. We’re active in relevant tech communities, attending and organizing meetups and conferences, and we organize internal knowledge sharing events where Tech Leads play an important role. 

Everyone we work with and consider working with has a right to equal treatment. The hiring and appraisal process at Schuberg Philis is designed to be thorough and equitable, implementing fair payment, benefits, and opportunities across all demographics. 

It is our desire to be a company that brings together multiple nationalities, cultures, religions, genders, abilities, and talents within and across our teams. We welcome colleagues from diverse backgrounds to join Schuberg Philis and actively support diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. 

If you are a seasoned engineer in the Netherlands who wants to combine deep technical work with real leadership, customer contact and impact in the public domain around Rotterdam, we’d love to hear from you.