Head of Engineering, Automation Platform

Working at Atlassian

Atlassians can choose where they work – whether in an office, from home, or a combination of the two. That way, Atlassians have more control over supporting their family, personal goals, and other priorities. We can hire people in any country where we have a legal entity. Interviews and onboarding are conducted virtually, a part of being a distributed-first company.

For this role we are able to hire anywhere in Australia or New Zealand

Team Overview
The Teamwork Platform Organisation is a key pillar of Atlassian's Platform Engineering group, delivering a unified system that connects teams, work, and knowledge across Atlassian and third-party tools. Our Automation Platform group builds and scales automation capabilities for complex, enterprise-grade workflows.

Role Overview
We are seeking an accomplished and visionary Head of Engineering to lead our Automation Platform organization. In this pivotal role, you will define and execute the technical strategy for our automation platform, enabling customers to streamline workflows, increase productivity, and unlock new efficiencies. You will lead a 50-60 person world-class engineering team, collaborate with cross-functional partners, and ensure the delivery of scalable, reliable, and innovative automation solutions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Technical Leadership & Strategy:

  • Define and drive the engineering vision, architecture, and roadmap for the Automation Platform.

  • Oversee the design and development of robust, scalable, and secure automation services and APIs.

  • Champion engineering best practices, code quality, and operational excellence.

  • Take operations seriously, with a strong focus on improving Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and reducing support costs.

• Team Leadership & Development:

  • Build, mentor, and inspire a high-performing engineering team across multiple locations.

  • Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning.

  • Lead talent acquisition, retention, and professional growth initiatives.

• Platform Adoption & Stakeholder Collaboration:

  • Effectively onboard and support platform adopters, ensuring their success and satisfaction.

  • Partner closely with Product Management, Design, and other stakeholders to deliver customer-centric automation features.

  • Translate business requirements into technical solutions that deliver measurable value.

  • Prioritize competing tasks and initiatives to maximize platform impact.

• Operational Excellence:

  • Establish and monitor KPIs for engineering quality, delivery, and platform reliability.

  • Implement agile development processes, CI/CD pipelines, and robust testing frameworks.

  • Manage budgets, resources, and vendor relationships as needed.

• Innovation & Continuous Improvement:

  • Stay current with industry trends in automation, workflow orchestration, and cloud-native platforms.

  • Evaluate and adopt new technologies and methodologies to maintain a competitive edge.

  • Drive a culture of experimentation and rapid iteration.

• Proven experience leading large, infra-centric backend engineering teams in global, distributed environments.

• Deep expertise in designing and building large-scale, enterprise-grade distributed systems

• Demonstrated expertise with automation platforms, workflow engines, or async engines is desirable

• Track record of delivering high-scale, reliable, and secure platforms for enterprise customers.

• Strong focus on operational excellence, reliability, and performance at scale.

• Exceptional communication and collaboration skills; able to influence and partner across teams.

• Experience leading multi-year, cross-org technical initiatives that drive business outcomes.

• Passion for empowering teams through automation and data-driven insights.

Why Join Us?

• Shape the future of teamwork and automation at one of the world's leading SaaS companies.

• Lead a high-impact, high-visibility engineering organization at scale.

• Work with cutting-edge technologies in automation, AI, and distributed systems.

• Collaborate with world-class talent across engineering, product, and design.

• Enjoy Atlassian's flexible, distributed-first work culture and comprehensive benefits.

Benefits & Perks

Atlassian offers a wide range of perks and benefits designed to support you, your family and to help you engage with your local community. Our offerings include health and wellbeing resources, paid volunteer days, and so much more. To learn more, visit

About Atlassian

At Atlassian, we're motivated by a common goal: to unleash the potential of every team. Our software products help teams all over the planet and our solutions are designed for all types of work. Team collaboration through our tools makes what may be impossible alone, possible together.

We believe that the unique contributions of all Atlassians create our success. To ensure that our products and culture continue to incorporate everyone's perspectives and experience, we never discriminate based on race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

To provide you the best experience, we can support with accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. Simply inform our Recruitment team during your conversation with them.

To learn more about our culture and hiring process, visit