Head of Engineering – Forma Design Apps

26WD96999

Help shape how cities are designed

We're looking for a Head of Engineering to lead engineering in the Forma Design Apps Product Area. Reporting to the Director of Engineering, you'll own engineering operations and team effectiveness across the squads that build the design applications architects, planners, and developers use every day.

As Head of Engineering for Forma Design Apps, you'll be accountable for ensuring teams deliver against ambitious commitments, operate efficiently, and keep stable, reliable products in the hands of our users. You'll partner with Product, Design, and the Software Architect to turn strategy into shipped outcomes. This is a player-coach role: leadership with real technical engagement. You're not far from the code, and you're not far from the team.

Your work will enable architects, planners, and developers to discover smarter, more sustainable solutions and gain meaningful insights into their projects — from early site exploration through building and street design, into the collaboration that brings a project to life.

About us

We're on a mission to help design better cities.

With 90% of future population growth expected in urban areas—and construction responsible for around 40% of global CO₂ emissions—the AEC industry must evolve. Our cloud-based Autodesk Forma platform helps users evaluate design choices based on environmental impact, living quality (sun, daylight, noise), and project feasibility. We started as Spacemaker in Norway and became part of Autodesk in 2020.

Learn more about Autodesk Forma here.

How we work

We work in small, empowered teams with a high degree of trust and ownership. We strongly believe in servant leadership and team accountability. In each team, software engineers work closely together with product managers and designers. To learn more about our way of working, read through our tech and product core beliefs.

About Forma Design Apps

Forma Design Apps is the customer-facing surface of Forma — the design applications architects, planners, and developers open, log in to, and spend their working day in. Each squad owns an end-to-end product experience: the workflows, the 3D canvas, the analyses users invoke, the moments where design intent turns into insight. Squads are accountable for the outcomes their product drives for users — adoption, retention, and the quality of decisions our users make with Forma.

Apps build on the shared foundations delivered by Forma Design Tools (Scenarios, Analysis, Contextual Data, Collaboration, and more), so each squad can focus on the design experience that makes their product distinctive.

The organisation

The Product Area is led by the Director of Product for Design Apps. The Director owns the product strategy and execution across the Product Area.

You will lead the engineers, currently 5 Engineering Managers and 20 engineers, and the team is growing. The role comes with the autonomy to shape the organisation: how it is structured, how it hires, and how it operates.

Responsibilities

As Head of Engineering for Forma Design Apps, you will use your leadership, technical judgment, and organizational skill to drive outcomes across multiple squads. In this role, you will:

People Leadership & Team Health

• Directly manage and coach Engineering Managers; keep them empowered and effective

• Own org structure, staffing, and hiring decisions; recruit engineers to fill open headcount

• Actively drive people allocations across squads

• Ensure teams are well-supported, motivated, and operating effectively

• Monitor team health, workload, and engagement, and intervene early when needed

• Identify capability needs and turn them into hiring, development, or structural actions

Technical Health & Direction

• Partner with the Software Architect on technical direction and cross-team alignment

• Own tech debt prioritization and execution — ensuring the right debt is paid down at the right time

• Support Tech Leads in balancing delivery pressure with long-term system health

• Identify key areas of technical risk and ensure they are understood and managed

• Champion Developer Experience and engineering practices that compound over time

Delivery & Operational Excellence

• Embed security and compliance standards in how teams operate — making them a baseline, not an afterthought

• Own system stability and incident response — and drive performance, scalability, and observability as operational standards across teams

• Maintain and gradually improve engineering quality across teams

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner closely with Product and Design leadership for Forma Design Apps

• Strengthen ways of working across Product, Engineering, and Design

• Ensure alignment with the Forma Design Tools Product Area and across Autodesk

Desired profile

• Operates with a high degree of autonomy and clarity in ambiguous situations

• Drives delivery, people, and organizational decisions across multiple squads

• Combines strong engineering judgment with sound leadership instincts

• Brings others along by coaching Engineering Managers and Tech Leads

• Continuously identifies areas for improvement in how we work and delivers change

• Collaborates across functions to connect engineering decisions to product and user context

• Motivated by our mission and focused on delivering meaningful outcomes at scale

What will help you succeed in this role

• Typically 10+ years in software engineering, with 5+ years in engineering leadership including experience managing Engineering Managers — though we value equivalent experience and non-linear paths equally

• Track record delivering cloud-based, customer-facing products at scale — ideally rich, interactive web applications

• Experience coaching and growing Engineering Managers and Tech Leads

• Proven ability to make transparent delivery and quality trade-offs under pressure

• Strong engineering background, respected by the team for your technical depth

• Experience partnering closely with Product and Design to ship high-quality user experiences

• Strong collaboration and communication skills across disciplines and seniority levels

You might also bring

• Background in AEC/BIM, geospatial/3D, simulation, or design/CAD tooling

• Experience with browser-based 3D, WebGL/WebGPU, or performance-sensitive web applications

• Experience with AI-assisted product surfaces embedded in end-user workflows

• Experience with product-led growth, onboarding, and adoption/retention work

• Experience working in cross-functional, international product teams

Why join us

• Work on real-world problems with measurable environmental impact

• Lead the engineering behind the products architects, planners, and developers actually use to design better cities

• Shape how the next generation of design applications feel, perform, and collaborate

• Collaborate with experienced engineers, product managers, and designers across disciplines

• Competitive compensation, pension, and benefits

We believe the best work happens when people feel safe to contribute fully — regardless of background, identity, or how they got here. We're committed to building a team where different perspectives are genuinely valued, where work and life can coexist, and where everyone can do their best work. We encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn't match every requirement listed — curiosity, empathy, and a growth mindset matter just as much to us.

Learn More

About Autodesk

Welcome to Autodesk! Amazing things are created every day with our software – from the greenest buildings and cleanest cars to the smartest factories and biggest hit movies. We help innovators turn their ideas into reality, transforming not only how things are made, but what can be made.

We take great pride in our culture here at Autodesk – it’s at the core of everything we do. Our culture guides the way we work and treat each other, informs how we connect with customers and partners, and defines how we show up in the world.

When you’re an Autodesker, you can do meaningful work that helps build a better world designed and made for all. Ready to shape the world and your future? Join us!

Salary transparency

Salary is one part of Autodesk’s competitive compensation package. Offers are based on the candidate’s experience and geographic location. In addition to base salaries, our compensation package may include annual cash bonuses, commissions for sales roles, stock grants, and a comprehensive benefits package.

Diversity & Belonging
We take pride in cultivating a culture of belonging where everyone can thrive. Learn more here: https://www.autodesk.com/company/diversity-and-belonging

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