Team Lead (Engineering) at Planday · Copenhagen

Our Purpose

Planday from Xero is a leading digital solution that uncomplicates everyday scheduling and workforce management by making it easier for businesses and shift workers around the world to communicate, collaborate, and get work done.

Powered by a community of local industry experts, Planday provides a best-in-class digital platform that is easy to use, accurate, secure, and compliant with local needs and standards. From payroll and accounting to POS and reporting, its open API and tech ecosystem is scalable to fit shifting business needs and to build an engaged, flexible workforce.

Founded in 2004, Planday is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark and supports over 400,000 users across Europe, Australia and the US. Planday was acquired by Xero in 2021.

How you’ll make an impact

You will be leading a group of engineers while directly contributing to the successful outcomes of the team by supporting excellent engineering practices, working on the team’s roadmap and strategy and enabling rapid delivery of high quality software. You will be responsible for supporting your direct reports in becoming awesome Plandayers, empowering them to deliver high-quality software to customers and fostering the growth of a world-class engineering culture.

You’ll maintain a working environment in which your team can do their best work predictably and sustainably. You’ll make sure the team has all the information they need and the right feedback loops in place to discover and deliver valuable, usable, and buildable outcomes. You’ll monitor and look to support the operational health of your team and products, aiming for resilience.

You will support your team to hone their engineering skills and grow as individuals in order to meet the capabilities required for the team. Your focus will be on driving engineering initiatives and ensuring the team makes progress towards their goals.

What you’ll do

Leadership, People & Culture

• Lead, develop and grow a high performing team through coaching, mentoring and setting a clear direction by connecting the work they do to the Planday Engineering and Product strategic objectives.
• Support each member of your team to identify, grow and develop engineering capabilities and career.
• Work closely together with the product manager and product designer in your team, forming the trio that enables a both autonomous and empowered team.
• Create a culture of psychological safety and inclusion. Ensure the health of your team is monitored, that all members of your team are empowered to raise ideas and concerns, and that everyone contributes to improvements in how the team works together.
• Driving continuous improvement through reviewing, developing and implementing best practice ways of working.
• Help to cultivate a fun, appreciative, rewarding, innovative and results-driven culture that lives and breathes our Planday values.
• Attract, recruit and retain capable individuals, building on and complementing the diversity of teams.

Engineering & Delivery

• Ensure your team's delivery pipeline is flowing at a predictable and sustainable pace, raising and addressing blockers as appropriate.
• Take part in our continuous exploration and implementation of AI tooling in our development practices.
• You come with a strong technical background and are able to be hands-on in the team and take part in the engineering work.
• Ensure accurate, fit for purpose and sustainable delivery systems exist in your team. You'll be responsible for your team providing informed estimates, delivery forecasting, capacity planning, and associated reporting.
• Understand and advocate Engineering and Security Standards. Working as part of a leadership group, you’ll facilitate an engineering approach that is compliant to these standards and fosters sustainably excellent engineering.
• Working with your peers in Product and your team, assist in the development roadmaps and plans which effectively and efficiently deliver business outcomes.
• Stay up-to-date with emerging practices, technologies and frameworks.
• Work with engineers and customer facing teams to troubleshoot and resolve production issues, where appropriate.
• Coach and enable your team toward effective and efficient delivery.

Success looks like

• Empower & develop your team: Ensure everyone understands how their work drives Planday's success, is challenged to grow, and receives regular, timely feedback with clear development paths.
• Deliver high-quality software: Maintain a predictable pace of delivery that meets customer needs, complies with engineering standards, and communicates technical risks and scope expectations clearly.
• AI as a multiplier: You actively explore and adopt AI-assisted development tools and practices, enabling your team to work smarter, reduce repetitive effort, and push the boundaries of what a team can deliver.
• Foster a collaborative culture: Enable participation in communities, cross-team collaboration, and knowledge sharing both within and outside the team, modeling inclusion and continuous improvement.
• Remove barriers: Understand what drives your team's best work, actively clear blockers, and ensure operational hygiene (leave, expenses, processes) is handled smoothly.

What you’ll bring with you

• 7+ years of experience in software engineering, with demonstrated experience leading or mentoring engineering teams in a SaaS environment.
• Deep technical expertise in at least one core language ideally the backend (C#, Java, or JavaScript/TypeScript) and knowledge of modern front-end frameworks (React or Angular).
• Proven track record working with microservices architectures, cloud infrastructure (AWS/CDN), and robust public/private APIs.
• Experience with third-party software integrations (e.g., Payroll, HR, POS systems) and working within certified security frameworks (ISO 27001, SOC2).
• Pragmatic, "hands-on" technical leadership balance—equally comfortable diving into architectural discussions, reviewing code, or guiding high-level product strategy.
• Strong communication skills with an ability to bridge technical requirements with business goals.

What we value

This position description is intended merely as a guideline of the responsibilities involved in the position. The employee is expected to perform any other duties as reasonably required by their Manager.