Lead Controls & Data Engineer

About the role

At DeWarmte, we develop technology that helps homes move away from gas. Our heat pumps combine hardware, embedded control software, cloud services and data—and the quality of the software connecting those elements directly determines how well our products perform in customers’ homes. We are looking for a Lead Controls & Data Engineer to take ownership of two foundations of our products: the control software that operates our heat pumps and the data platform that helps us monitor, understand and improve them. This is a hands-on leadership role. Initially, most of your time will be spent writing code, diagnosing real-world behaviour, improving reliability and delivering new functionality. At the same time, you are in the lead for collaborating with external partners, ensuring data reliability and scalability. Additionally, you will build the technical foundations, documentation and team that move us away from dependence on any one engineer. Your mission Build reliable, scalable controls and data capability that is owned by a team—not an individual. You will inherit working systems and products already operating in the field. Your job is to understand them deeply, keep them running, improve their performance and evolve their architecture. You will then recruit and develop the engineers needed to create durable, shared ownership. What you'll do Own and improve our control software Work directly in the production code that controls our heat pumps. Design, build, test and deploy new control functionality. Improve product performance, stability, safety and energy efficiency. Diagnose and understand complex behaviour across software, electronics, sensors, hydraulics and the physical installation. Manage controlled software rollouts across both new products and the installed fleet. Establish appropriate automated testing, simulation, observability and release practices. Current stack includes Bash/Shell, Python, Kafka, Telegraf and Influx. You will own the evolution of the stack together with our Hardware R&D team. Build our product data platform Take technical ownership of the systems that collect, process and expose data from our connected smart heat pumps. Make product behaviour and fleet trends observable for engineering, service and product teams. Improve the quality, reliability and accessibility of operational data. Ensure pipeline and server capabilities are able to handle rapid scaling. Create the foundations for performance analysis, remote diagnostics and continuous product improvement. Define clear interfaces between device software, cloud systems, the customer app and internal tools. Build a team and eliminate key-person dependency Turn implicit knowledge into clear documentation, tooling and repeatable engineering practices. Design systems that other engineers can intuitively understand, easily test and safely change. Define the roles and capabilities the team will need as DeWarmte scales. Recruit, onboard and mentor controls, embedded-software and data engineers. Introduce effective code reviews, technical decision-making and shared operational ownership. Gradually move from being the primary implementer to leading a capable team—without losing touch with the code. Work across the product You will collaborate closely with colleagues in hardware, software, data, product development, assembly, installation and service. You will help resolve immediate customer and operational issues while protecting the long-term quality of the platform.   What success looks like In your first months You understand the existing controls, data flows and operational risks. You can independently maintain, debug and release the current systems. The most important technical risks and knowledge gaps are visible and prioritised. Monitoring, documentation and development practices begin to improve. As the role develops New control functionality can be delivered predictably and safely. You work closely together with Hardw

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