Engineering Leadership Program

This program is built for tomorrow’s tech leaders ready to move beyond daily execution toward becoming strategic, business-minded agents of change who drive technology as a lever for growth and boost teams to develop tomorrow’s competitive advantage. Our program will empower future tech leaders with hands-on insights into technology strategy,team leadership, scaling architecture, high-performing teams and engineering culture.

The programme is structured around 3 categories of leadership challenges translated in 10 interactive courses brought to life by frontrunning tech leaders:

Pillar 1 – Architecture & Scalability

• Turning Technical Vision into Organisational Buy-In
• Architecture at Every Stage of a Company
• Technology Choices That Scale
• Simplexity: Designing for Scale

Pillar 2 – Performance & Culture

• Performance & Observability
• Security & Multi-Tenancy

Pillar 3 – Strategy & Leadership

• AI Integration
• Scalable UX
• Scaling Engineering Organizations
• Future Trends in Software Architecture

Explore how emerging tech — from AI to cloud-native systems — is reshaping software. You’ll learn how to lead through technical change, design scalable systems, and build engineering cultures that grow with you.

Format: each of the ten sessions (running from September to June) follows a proven, interactive structure designed for deep learning & real-world application.

Every session embeds impact learning and great moments of networking & hospitality at the iconic Wintercircus. The course's format includes:

• Guest tech leaders share a “war story” – a real technical or leadership challenge they’ve faced, followed by a class peer breakout, to engineer their solution
• Class debrief & Unfolding of the case – solutions are shared the expert shares how the challenge was tackled and what they learned
• In depth Q&A with the moderator, expert and reflection participants, diving deeper into decisions, trade-offs and lessons 
• Informal peer exchange and frameworks to apply in your own context

Live Q&A: a participant-driven discussion that connects the case to individual realities and cross-company hurdles.

Supported by

Your teams are growing fast: are your systems and leaders scaling too? This programme helps to dissect transition from hands-on execution to strategic oversight:

• Learn how to drive engineering transformation and evolve your tech stack without losing speed.
• Spot and apply emerging tech trends—cloud-native, AI, DevOps —to stay ahead of your next growth curve.
• Translate user needs into product and architecture decisions using design thinking and customer insight.
• Build a team culture that encourages innovation,resilience, and ownership at every level
• Master system design and architecture that aligns with enterprise goals, speed, and security.
• Navigate the impact of AI, automation, and platform shifts to future-proof your organization’s needs.
• Create a sustainable innovation culture while managing risk, compliance, and legacy systems.

Expand your leadership influence with strategies that balance stability and transformation.

Experienced (+5 years of experience) technical leaders within mid & large size enterprises of high growth scale-ups ready to move beyond daily execution toward becoming strategic, business-minded agents of change who drive technology as a lever for tomorrow’s competitive advantage. Experienced technology leaders navigating fast growth, complexity, or transformation: 

• Engineering Executives 
• Principal Software Architects 
• Product & Tech Leaders 
• Innovation Decision Makers 
• Transformation Leaders 
• Platform Operators & Product Execs

The Engineering Leadership Program is a one year peer-led, practice-based leadership program for senior engineers, tech leads, and architects. 10 in-person, live sessions from September to June, held every Thursday or Friday morning, each month from September to June, including 3 exclusive networking events and a graduation ceremony and celebration.

1. Online application

Begin your journey by completing an online application. You’ll be asked to upload your CV, explain your motivation, and describe a key engineering or technical challenge you’re currently facing. This challenge will not only help us tailor your intake interview, it will also be brought during the program to connect theory with your real-world context and focus. Applications are reviewed continuously, so we recommend applying early to secure your place.

2. A personal conversation

Step two is a live, 1-hourintake interview with the program lead. Together, we’ll explore your experience,the communicated challenges and link these to the program, and leadership goals—so we can bridge with the program’s cases & peer groups,to your specific context. This ensures a highly relevant and engaging journey from day one.

3. Confirmation & registration

The final step is the formal registration form to confirm your individual seat in the program. You’ll have two weeks to complete and return the form. Upon confirmation, we’ll issue the invoice with a standard paymentterm of 30 calendar days. Your spot is fully secured once paymentis received. As spots are limited to 30. Confirm before July 30 to join September’s cohort

• Standard: €14,000 per person — apply until full.
• Early Bird: €12,000 per person — apply by June 30.
• Scale-Up Duo Deal: €9,000 per person — valid for max. 2 participants from the same scale-up.
• Wintercircus Collective Discount: -10% on any price tier — available to members of the Wintercircus Collective.