IT Team Leader

It's more than a job

In this IT role, you will manage, develop, and support the technology infrastructure that powers Kuehne+Nagel’s global systems and operations. This contribution is vital to making both special and ordinary moments in the lives of people a reality. In fact, your work enables our teams to deliver fresh fruit, time-sensitive healthcare products and much more to people all around the world. Working in IT at Kuehne+Nagel contributes to more than we imagine.

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We are looking for a hands-on IT Team Lead (m/f/d) to build and lead our new Sea Logistics BPA (Business Process Automation) team in Wroclaw. This is a greenfield opportunity: you will be the first hire on the ground, shaping the team culture, leading subsequent hiring decisions, and establishing how the team operates from day one.

You will work in close partnership with the Product Lead based in Hamburg — acting as their operational and technical proxy in Wroclaw. Your team will design, build, and own the process orchestration layer for SeaLOG: the logic that steers automated freight workflows worldwide.

This is not a people-manager role with occasional code reviews. For a team of this size, the Team Lead is expected to be technically present — taking on architectural decisions, supporting the team through complex problems, and handling smaller implementation tasks when needed. You lead by doing, not only by directing. And you do it with AI as your primary productivity lever.

How you create impact

• Lead the BPA Wroclaw team with full disciplinary responsibility, including performance reviews, capacity planning, vacation management, and individual development.

• Serve as the architectural lead for the team, owning technical design decisions, reviewing critical code, and ensuring implementations remain coherent, scalable, and maintainable.

• Provide hands-on technical leadership by taking on support activities, resolving complex technical blockers, and contributing directly to implementation when required.

• Establish and model AI-augmented engineering best practices by effectively leveraging AI agents, maintaining accountability for outcomes, and continuously introducing new AI capabilities into team workflows.

• Partner with the Product Lead to define team OKRs, translate strategic priorities into actionable goals, and monitor and report on delivery performance and key metrics.

• Lead hiring efforts for the Wroclaw team, including defining candidate profiles, conducting interviews, making hiring decisions in collaboration with the Product Lead, and ensuring effective onboarding across the BPA domain, technology stack, AI tooling, and team practices.

• Represent the BPA team in cross-functional collaboration with the Product Owner, Business Analyst, and Sea Logistics platform teams to align priorities, dependencies, and delivery plans.

• Champion the adoption of the orchestration-first BPA philosophy, driving the development of processes that proactively steer freight workflows rather than simply reacting to events.

What we would like you to bring

• Technical Depth: Strong Java background — capable of making architecture decisions, unblocking the team hands-on, and contributing directly to implementation when needed. Camunda and BPMN experience is not required, but you must be genuinely motivated to master them.

• AI Ownership: Hands-on experience working with AI agents in day-to-day development — directing, reviewing, and taking full ownership of what they produce. You model this practice for the team, not just encourage it.

• System Reasoning: Ability to reason about system behavior, failure modes, and long-term evolution — the architectural judgment that makes AI-agentic development sustainable at team scale.

• Leadership Maturity: Demonstrated experience leading a software development team with full disciplinary responsibility. You run the team autonomously, know when to decide and when to escalate, and develop people through coaching rather than control.

• Process-Oriented Mindset: You think of workflows, dependencies, and system behavior — not just features and sprints. A background in BPA, workflow orchestration, or similar is a strong advantage.

• Remote Leadership Readiness: You are comfortable being the primary on-site lead for a team whose Product Lead is in a different country. You maintain alignment proactively, not reactively.

• Cultural Builder: A greenfield team has no inherited culture — only what you establish. You create environments where people communicate openly, grow deliberately, and take ownership of what they ship.

• Engineering Foundation: Degree in Computer Science or equivalent; several years of hands-on Java experience. Familiarity with agile delivery practices and modern tooling (Maven, Git, Jenkins). As a plus: Angular, OpenShift, Docker.

• Language: Fluent written and spoken English.

What's in it for you

Your work will have a direct influence on the future of logistics and IT. Your colleagues are experts who shape the IT industry in Poland and worldwide. We want you to feel comfortable in your working surroundings. Therefore, we are offering you flexible working hours and a mobile working arrangement. We value teamwork, continuous learning and diversity. Kuehne + Nagel is offering you a custom-made career through individual planning and supervisors who support and advice you in every way. Personally, you get supported by a lot of work-life balance offerings and supplementary health insurance.

Who we are

Logistics shapes everyday life - from the goods we consume to the healthcare we rely on. At Kuehne+Nagel, your work goes beyond logistics; it enables both ordinary and special moments in the lives of people around the world.

As a global leader with a strong heritage and a vision to move the world forward, we offer a safe, stable environment where your career can make a real difference. Whether we help deliver life-saving medicines, develop sustainable transportation solutions or support our local communities, your career will contribute to more than you can imagine.

We kindly advise that placement agencies refrain from submitting unsolicited profiles. Any submissions of candidates without prior signed agreement will be considered our property and no fees will be paid.