Director of IT

About the role

This role defines the technical leadership backbone for Preply's next chapter of growth. The Director of IT will own the end to end strategy, execution, and maturity of the global IT organization. You will architect the technology roadmap while remaining deeply hands on with scripting, automation, and day to day operations. The position is centered on making IT a strategic, measurable driver of efficiency, cost control, and employee experience. You will operate at the intersection of visionary planning and practical delivery, ensuring IT infrastructure scales in lockstep with the business. Every decision you make will directly impact how quickly and smoothly Preply can serve millions of learners and tutors around the world.

Key facts

1. Strategy, vision and business enablement

• Own and evolve a multi-quarter IT roadmap tied directly to Preply's business goals, treating IT as an enabler of growth rather than a cost center.
• Set the tooling strategy and standards across the organization: decide what we adopt, consolidate, and retire, and articulate why.
• Operate fluidly across altitudes: set direction with leadership one moment, and make sharp technical calls the next.
• Plan ahead, anticipating what a fast-scaling company will need from IT 12 to 18 months out, and building toward it.

2. AI-native operations and automation

• Bring an AI-first, automate-first mindset to how IT runs: provisioning, access, support deflection, and asset reconciliation.
• Lead by example. Build and ship automations yourself, and show both your team and the wider company what good looks like.
• Continuously surface AI tooling that makes employees' lives easier, with a clear, opinionated view on where it adds value and where it's just noise.
• Bring those AI-native ways of working to the rest of the organization, not just to IT.

3. Team leadership and capability maturity

• Lead, grow, and mature a lean IT team into a senior, process-driven function.
• Raise the technical bar across the team, coaching toward more technical, AI-fluent ways of working.
• Stay hands-on where it counts: scripting, automation, and MDM and identity configuration.
• Build the operating rhythm (SLAs, runbooks, prioritization) that lets the team scale its impact without scaling headcount one-for-one.

4. Global infrastructure, fleet and workplace technology

• Own international fleet and device lifecycle end to end, from procurement and enrollment to retirement, across multiple countries.
• Run identity, access, and endpoint management to a high standard of reliability for a distributed workforce.
• Manage the Barcelona hub's on-site technology: the office network, meeting-room AV, and video conferencing tools and devices.
• Own the IT services behind company off-sites and events, from connectivity and AV to on-the-ground support, wherever the company gathers.
• Treat IT's own security and compliance hygiene (endpoint compliance, identity hygiene, least privilege on IT-managed systems) as a core operating principle.

5. Procurement, software spend and FinOps

• Own visibility into what Preply spends on IT, SaaS, and software tools, and help Finance understand, forecast, and plan that spend.
• Partner with Finance and Procurement on contracts, renewals, and vendor rationalization.
• Drive cost and compliance efficiency: eliminate shadow IT, consolidate overlapping tools, and negotiate from a position of data.

6. Data, dashboards and stakeholder management

• Build dashboards and reporting that give leadership a clear, current view of IT health, spend, and the status of every initiative.
• Provide crisp, proactive follow-ups on where things stand, so leadership never has to chase.
• Manage and influence C-level stakeholders directly, translating technical reality into business decisions.
• Make decisions from data, not anecdotes.

Requirements

• 10+ years leading and growing IT teams or functions in a fast-scaling technology or SaaS company.
• A true architect who can design and deliver complex, secure, and scalable technology foundations in a distributed, cloud-first environment.
• Hands-on fluency across identity, endpoint management, networking, and security fundamentals for a distributed workforce.
• Demonstrable experience building and running automations that reduce manual effort and improve reliability.
• A track record of managing multi-country fleet, device lifecycle, and procurement in a regulated, growth-stage environment.
• Comfort working directly with executive stakeholders and translating business needs into technical priorities.
• Deep experience with SaaS and software spend management, contract negotiation, and rationalization in a multi-currency, multi-vendor setup.
• Strong data literacy: the ability to build and interpret dashboards that drive decisions on IT health, performance, and cost.

Practical notes

The role is full time based in Barcelona.

There are no travel, visa, or application deadline requirements specified in the source.