VP of Engineering

Role overview Acorn Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Backed by a recent Series A funding round and now scaling rapidly, we're looking for a proven VP of Engineering to help scale our world-class product and team to the next stage of growth and global category leadership. The Vice-President of Engineering is a key leadership role responsible for scaling Acorn PLMS's engineering organisation as we grow into a global category leader. This role leads the Engineering function, overseeing team leadership, technical execution, and organisational growth to support our ambitious product roadmap and commercial goals.
As a senior cross-functional leader, the VP of Engineering will work closely with product, design, and executive stakeholders to ensure delivery excellence, scalable systems, and strong alignment between technical innovation and business strategy. This role is instrumental in shaping the next phase of Acorn's growth, evolving our engineering operations, developing leadership capability within the team, and driving innovation that accelerates our mission.
We are seeking a seasoned VP of Engineering to help scale our world-class product and team to the next stage of growth. You'll take the reins from our CTO on people leadership and operational excellence, allowing them to focus on innovation and long-term product strategy. You'll bring a blend of startup scrappiness and enterprise-scale experience to drive technical execution, build high-performing teams, and ensure Acorn's engineering organisation is a force multiplier in our scale journey to $20M+ ARR and beyond.
5 Key Capabilities Leadership : Sets vision, inspires teams, and drives organisational resilience, adaptability, and growth through strategic change. Level: Expert - Shapes organisational resilience, inspiring teams to thrive amidst disruption and positioning Acorn as an employer of choice
Strategic Resource Allocation : Aligns people, budgets, and technology resources to achieve ambitious growth and scale goals efficiently. Level: Advanced - Develops long-term resource and organisational design strategies for Engineering aligned with business goals and scaling plans
Innovation and Disruptive Technologies Strategy: Defines, evaluates, and integrates emerging technologies to drive product differentiation and market leadership. Level: Advanced - Defines technology roadmaps leveraging disruptive technologies to deliver on long-term product vision
Application Development: Leads design and delivery of software solutions that meet business needs and enable scalable product growth. Level: Advanced - Drives best practices in application design and development across engineering teams to ensure delivery excellence
Stakeholder Management: Builds trusted partnerships with internal and external stakeholders to align engineering execution with strategic objectives. Level: Expert - Cultivates strategic partnerships with board-level and industry stakeholders to drive transformational outcomes and influence market positioning
Key Responsibilities Lead, grow, and mentor a team of engineers, managers, and tech leads across Canberra
Partner with the CTO to execute on the long-term technical roadmap and architectural direction
Own engineering hiring strategy and org design as we scale from 20 to 50+ engineers globally
Implement world-class development practices, delivery cadences, and systems to support scale
Drive predictability in execution, technical excellence, and continuous improvement across teams
Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Design, and Go-To-Market teams to ensure delivery aligned to strategic goals
Act as the face of Engineering with the Executive team, Board, and strategic partners as needed
Required Skills & Experience Must have: Demonstrated success in scaling engineering teams from Must have: Based in Canberra or willing to relocate
10+ years of engineering leadership experience, including scale-up and large-scale SaaS environments
Deep experience with modern cloud architectures, SaaS product delivery, and agile methodologies
Proven leadership across engineering orgs of 30–100+ engineers
A track record of building inclusive, high-performance cultures in fast-paced settings
Why Join Acorn PLMS? Leadership role in a high-growth SaaS company with global expansion plans
Opportunity to build and scale the engineering function from a strong foundation
Competitive compensation package
Work with a passionate and collaborative team committed to performance, learning, and development
Location We are open to individuals based in Canberra, Australia . We are an office-first company , meaning we work from our local offices the majority (if not all) of the time. We want to create cool stuff with great people, and we know from experience that is best done through daily moments like the coffee run, walk to grab lunch, or quick huddles. Being able to capitalise on this is key to our ongoing success and a large part of the reason we can work at the pace we do. Please note candidates will need to be in commuting distance to our offices based in the Canberra CBD.
Applicants must have full working rights in Australia to be considered for this role. Unfortunately we are unable to provide visa sponsorship at this time.
Our recruitment process Acorn is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and respected. We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all qualified candidates. We aim to ensure that our recruitment process is fair and accessible to everyone and encourage candidates to request any accommodations needed during the application or interview stages.
About Acorn Acorn is the hub for learning and performance for over 3 million active learners globally. The work you do - whether that's writing lines of code, designing the layout of a dashboard, or talking to customers - helps real people grow not just professionally, but personally. In the space of 10 years, we've grown to a global platform in the heart of many major organisations' ecosystems.
There's still so much more to do, and we need people who are keen to help us journey into the next phase on board And since we're still growing, there's so much you can learn on that journey with us. To find out more about life at Acorn, our Values and working with us, check out our website at and see our Life At Acorn video here you're a visionary engineering leader who thrives in high-growth environments and knows how to scale teams that build world-class products, we'd love to hear from you
Details Seniority level: Executive
Employment type: Full-time
Job function: Engineering and Information Technology
Industries: Software Development
#J-18808-Ljbffr

---