Senior Manager Digital & Principal Engineering (AI)

Location: The Hague, Netherlands; candidates must already live in the Netherlands, preferably within approximately 30 km of The Hague. The role requires working from the The Hague office at least 4 days per week.

Company

hirify.global is a telecom provider in the Netherlands transforming its digital IT capabilities, engineering culture, infrastructure, and customer-facing technology for millions of customers.

What you will do

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of approximately 5–6 Principal Software Engineers.
• Shape engineering principles, practices, operating models, quality, scalability, consistency, and delivery across a community of more than 400 professionals.
• Drive cross-domain modernization, reduce technical debt, and strengthen digital foundations.
• Align architecture and engineering decisions across domains while maintaining security, resilience, and architectural integrity.
• Explore data, automation, emerging technologies, and Generative AI to improve engineering productivity, customer experience, and business performance.
• Influence senior stakeholders and build a lasting culture of technical ownership, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Master’s degree (WO) in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent experience, combined with approximately 15 years of relevant experience, including substantial line-management responsibility; formal management experience is required.
• Experience leading, coaching, and developing senior technical professionals, ideally Principal Engineers, architects, technical leaders, or management teams.
• Strong software engineering and architectural expertise, including modern development practices, distributed systems, integration, automation, and cloud technologies.
• Broad technical knowledge across .NET, C#, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, Node.js, React, or Go, with the ability to challenge and guide architectural and engineering decisions.
• Experience driving technology modernization, reducing technical debt, and improving engineering maturity in complex organizations.
• Understanding of AI, data-driven engineering, security principles, and the business value of emerging technologies.
• Credible experience influencing senior stakeholders, preferably at C-level or board level, and connecting technical strategy with commercial objectives.
• Good understanding of the Dutch IT and labor markets.
• Curiosity, authenticity, creative thinking, commercial awareness, and the ability to challenge experienced professionals constructively.

Nice to have

• Experience in telecommunications or similarly complex, high-volume digital environments.
• Experience bringing ideas from other industries, such as banking or finance.

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid working model with office attendance and work-from-home days; this managerial role requires at least 4 days per week in the office.
• Role-based performance bonus and a competitive total rewards package.
• 30 days of annual leave for full-time work, plus an additional day off after Ascension Day.
• Personal learning budget, access to more than 200 training courses, and a pension plan through Zwitserleven.
• Mobile phone voucher, bike lease scheme, gym contribution, and discounts on hirify.global services and other products.

Hiring process

• Submit a short, personal motivation explaining the connection between the role, experience, and ambitions.
• Address experience helping senior technical professionals grow, influencing beyond one's own team, and views on effective engineering leadership.
• Dutch language skills are not a must-have but may be considered during final longlist selection; applicants are encouraged to write the motivation in Dutch and be comfortable speaking Dutch.