Head of Engineering

About Greenspoon

Greenspoon is a rapidly expanding Kenyan online grocery business that brings fresh, healthy, and delicious essentials straight to customers’ doors. The company is building what it aims to become East Africa’s largest online supermarket, with a focus on strong service, consistent quality, and everyday value. Its selection includes organic produce, freshly baked bread, quality meats, and many more household staples.

The business places strong emphasis on caring for customers, suppliers, employees, and the environment. That commitment has supported more than 15x growth over the past three years. As a certified B Corp, Greenspoon is recognized for high standards in sustainability alongside profitability. The team is described as young, highly capable, and motivated by impact, with core values centered on honesty, quality, and meaningful contribution.

Role Overview

Greenspoon is hiring a Head of Engineering to provide both technical leadership and people management for its engineering function. This position is central to delivering the company’s technology roadmap, raising the standard of engineering execution, and helping the team scale effectively. You will partner closely with the CTO, product, operations, and wider leadership to decide what gets built and how it should be delivered, while ensuring both the systems and the team remain strong.

The role is primarily remote, with occasional in-person collaboration when needed. Candidates based in Nairobi are preferred, though applications from international candidates are also welcome.

Key Responsibilities

• Run the engineering team’s day-to-day work, including sprint planning, issue removal, prioritization, and delivery accountability.
• Partner with the CTO to translate company objectives into a practical, phased engineering roadmap.
• Coach engineers across all levels and build a culture focused on ownership, quality, and continuous improvement.
• Design and guide development of major features, internal systems, and integrations across front-end, back-end, and logistics workflows.
• Improve the speed, reliability, and scalability of current platforms and services.
• Set and enforce engineering standards such as code review practices, testing, documentation, deployment discipline, and incident handling.
• Step in as a hands-on technical contributor when required, including code review, incident support, and solving complex technical issues.
• Hire, onboard, and develop engineering talent as the organization expands.
• Keep leadership and cross-functional partners informed with clear updates on progress, risks, and trade-offs.

Requirements

• 7+ years of software development experience, including at least 2 years leading a team or managing engineering work.
• Demonstrated success delivering complex B2C products on schedule, with strong quality standards and clear communication.
• Strong full-stack background, including PHP/Laravel or comparable frameworks, front-end technologies such as Vue.js, React, or Flutter, and exposure to eCommerce or logistics systems.
• Hands-on experience with WooCommerce back ends and ERP platforms such as Dynamics 365, SAP, or similar tools.
• Comfort moving between strategic planning and practical engineering work, including participation in code reviews and planning sessions.
• People-focused leadership style with a strong ability to mentor and develop others.
• Excellent prioritization and delivery instincts, especially in fast-moving or high-pressure environments.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain technical topics to non-technical audiences.
• System-level problem-solving approach with a deep understanding of operational workflows before building solutions.
• Experience in a startup or technology-driven business where structure had to be built alongside the product.
• Comfort working in a dynamic environment where priorities and challenges change quickly.

Nice to Have

• Exposure to Cloudflare Workers, Elasticsearch, or BigQuery.
• Experience with M-Pesa or other payment integrations.
• Background in grocery, food, or last-mile delivery technology.
• Experience building engineering teams from the ground up.

What Greenspoon Offers

• A chance to help shape engineering at a high-growth scale-up and take ownership of important systems and decisions.
• Flexible working arrangements with a mostly remote setup and in-person time when it adds value.
• Market-aligned compensation that reflects the seniority and impact of the role.
• The opportunity to work with a talented, driven team and contribute to meaningful day-to-day impact for customers.

Additional Information

Greenspoon values honesty, quality, and impact, and it operates as a profitable sustainable enterprise. The company highlights its B Corp certification as part of its broader mission to build responsibly while scaling fast.