Area Lead Engineering Services

Are you ready to make a real impact in an environment undergoing major transformation? Do you lead with vision, decisiveness, and courage — while keeping people at the heart of everything you do? Can you translate complex challenges into clear, actionable plans and connect people and ideas to drive meaningful change?

At Tech4Engineering, we’re on a mission to empower over 8,000 engineers worldwide by delivering integrated, high-quality IT services. We’re looking for an Area Lead who is a people-focused, customer-oriented collaborator — someone who inspires others, creates impact, and leads with integrity and drive. If you're ready to help shape the future of engineering at Rabobank, we’d love to hear from you.

This is what we offer you

• Salary: Gross monthly salary between EUR 10,855 and EUR 15,507 (senior kader B).
• Extras: a thirteenth month, 8% holiday allowance, and a 10% Employee Benefit Budget.
• Development budget: EUR 1,400 development budget per year for your growth and development.
• Hybrid working: a balance between home and office work (possible for most roles).
• A mobility budget: tailor your transportation according to your own needs, for example by leasing a car or receiving the full amount and arranging your own transportation.
• Pension: decide for yourself the amount of your personal contribution.

Tech4Engineering Area Engineering Services & Consumer Services

As part of Tribe Tech4Engineering, you’ll join Engineering Services, one of six closely connected areas that operate as a unified team. Our mission is to deliver managed, standardized, and high-quality services that enable engineers to focus on what matters most: delivering business value. To achieve this, we are transforming our processes, technologies, and services. Guided by the principles of Simplify at Scale (Spotify DevOps model), Tech4Engineering is evolving into a tribe where business and IT collaborate within a shared governance model.

You are responsible for the Engineering Services area, which is composed of three sub-areas: Consumer Services, Integration, and Cloud Services. As the Area Lead for Engineering Services, you play a pivotal role in shaping Rabobank’s engineering landscape by driving strategy, innovation, and alignment across these three areas. Strategic direction and alignment within the area are governed by the Area Triangle, consisting of the Area Lead, Senior Tech Lead, and Business Architect.

In addition to your area-wide responsibilities, you also lead the Consumer Services sub-area. This includes key capabilities that are offered across cloud and on-premises landing zones, such as Databases (SQL and PostgreSQL), FinOps, and Container Platforms (AKS, EKS, and OpenShift) and Virtual machines. Within this sub-area, you are collaborating closely with the Product Owner, Senior Tech Lead, and Solution Architect to deliver scalable and cost-effective solutions.

As Area Lead, you define and drive the strategic direction and own the Area portfolio of initiatives, governance and roadmap to realize the broader Tech4Engineering vision and objectives. You will be part of an Area triangle and a Sub-area Triangle, driving the evolution of Rabobank’s multiple platforms and infrastructure into a secure, resilient, and scalable foundation. The platforms enable hundreds of DevOps squads through a curated, self-service experience, helping them build, run, and grow their services efficiently. By joining this area, you’ll help ensure that engineers and service providers are equipped with the right infrastructure, insights, and support to start strong and deliver value from day one.

You and your role

T4Engineering's mission is to create happy engineers by simplifying life through accessible and intuitive services. As Area Lead within Tech4Engineering, you provide strategic and operational leadership, shaping the vision and driving the evolution of Rabobank’s engineering landscape. You play a key role in defining and advancing business strategy to align with long-term goals. You will continuously innovate, automate, and improve processes wherever possible. By learning from recurring questions and incidents, you will foster a culture of proactiveness, ownership, and entrepreneurship. You will empower squads by driving value delivery and the continuous evolution of DevOps and Simplified at Scale ways of working.

In this strategic role, you will coach, guide, and support Product Owners and squads, while holding HR responsibility for Product Owners and Area Leads for Integration and Cloud Services. In close collaboration with the Business Architect and fellow Area Leads, you will ensure effective prioritization, roadmap delivery, and optimal contribution to Rabobank’s strategic objectives. Within the area and sub-area triangles, you act as the visionary and strategic partner for your peers, the Tribe Lead, and the wider organization.

• Define and execute the strategy within the Engineering Services area and the Consumer Services sub-area, contributing to the broader Tech4Engineering vision.
• Member of the area triangle of the Engineering Services area (Area Lead, Senior Tech Lead, Business Architect), ensuring alignment with the Tribe triangle.
• Coach, guide, and support Sub-Area Triangles, Squad Triangles & Squads, fostering a strong culture for 180 colleagues and being directly HR-responsible for 2 sub area leads and 4 product owners on skill development, craftsmanship, and team well-being.
• Navigate complex stakeholder landscapes, demonstrating political sensitivity ranging from direct peers to board level and building strong engagement across all levels of the organization.
• Enable service onboarding and standardization, guiding teams through the Service Store process and promoting the adoption of Managed Standardized Services (MSS) across Rabobank.
• Drive operational transformation and innovation, improving work item management, team dashboards, and strategic portfolio oversight to enhance delivery efficiency and transparency.

Qualifications

• You play a pivotal strategic and operational leadership role and bring deep strategic expertise in integration, infrastructure and cloud.
• You are a self-starter with intrinsic motivation and a strong sense of ownership.
• You have experience in hiring the product owners and working directly with squads to deliver solutions that make a positive impact for Rabobank’s customers.
• You are well-versed in agile methodologies and understand the critical risk and compliance requirements of a global bank.
• Academic working and thinking level.
• At least 10 years of experience in similar roles within complex IT environments.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to weigh interests and risks alongside the business, bring sharpness to discussions, and constructively challenge colleagues.
• Strong influencing skills at the highest level, with a focus on broad stakeholder management, people development, and behavioral change.
• Analytical and innovative thinking within defined standards, policies, and objectives, contributing to the strategic vision and IT roadmap of both the tribe and the area.
• Comfortable leading a span of control of approximately 180 employees, including around 6 direct reports.
• Proven success in guiding DevOps teams through transitions toward autonomy and high performance.
• Experience with DevOps teams and scaled Agile, preferably in a triangle setup at the Area level with Business, Architecture, and IT (e.g. Spotify, Simplify @ Scale).
• Demonstrated experience with offshore and nearshore development.
• Knowledge of and experience with design and planning support, work item management, team performance insights, strategic portfolio management, service onboarding and standardization, and marketing and customer success enablement.
• Knowledge of the latest customer, market, and high-tech developments.
• Strong affinity with and passion for software development and operations.
• Proficiency in both Dutch and English at a business level, written and spoken.
• Experience in the financial sector or other regulated industries is considered a plus.

Competencies

As an Area Lead, you know how varied and challenging this role can be. That’s why we place high value on the following competencies:

• A people-oriented coaching manager who supports and develops others.
• An inspiring leader who communicates clearly and compellingly.
• Demonstrates drive, decisiveness, and a strong commitment to delivering promises.
• Quickly creates an overview and insight for self, colleagues, and stakeholders.
• Handles unexpected setbacks, incidents, or disruptions with resilience and composure.
• Breaks down complex issues in challenging environments and makes them manageable.
• Thinks conceptually and translates ideas into practical, effective solutions.
• Organizes the right knowledge and skills to make informed decisions and take action.
• Eager to learn, with a proven ability to grow quickly and adapt.
• A collaborative team player with a strong customer-focused mindset.

To be considered for this position, you must be located in the Netherlands and have the legal right to work in the Netherlands. We are unable to consider candidates requiring relocation from another country.