Inside Nuki Home Solutions Engineering: Dual leadership, dedicated QA, and a security-first posture — insights from Manuel Fegerl

What we learned from “Manuel Fegerl, Head of Engineering von Nuki”

In the session “Manuel Fegerl, Head of Engineering von Nuki” (Nuki Home Solutions), Speaker Manuel Fegerl lays out how the tech organization is structured, how hiring and onboarding work, and where the engineering focus lies. The picture is concrete: a tech team of more than 20 people, leadership shared by two, each development team with clear roles, a straightforward recruiting process, structured welcome days, and an explicit emphasis on scaling the infrastructure and on security.

The takeaways are highly relevant for candidates evaluating where to apply. We see a setup that values clarity and speed: a clean separation between people leadership and technology leadership, a dedicated testing role in every team, a transparent and respectful hiring funnel, and an onboarding approach that prioritizes orientation and effectiveness through welcome days and a buddy system.

This structure signals that Nuki Home Solutions treats leadership not as a monolith but as a set of distinct levers: people, process, and technology — each handled by the right expertise.

Dual leadership: people and technology clearly delineated

Nuki Home Solutions adopts a dual leadership model. Manuel Fegerl explains how he and Stefanie share the lead: Stefanie is responsible for personal development, organizational tasks, and mentorship; Manuel focuses on technology — including security, cross-team topics, and other technology aspects.

From an engineering management perspective, this split offers tangible benefits:

• Clarity for teams: People topics like development talks, mentoring, and organizational matters have a clear owner. So do technological decisions, security, and cross-team technical standards.
• Smoother decisions: People-centric and technology-centric decisions are made where the expertise lives.
• Sustained focus on scale and security: With a Head of Engineering explicitly committing to technology and security, these areas retain visibility and momentum — critical when “more and more doors are equipped with our solution” and the infrastructure must scale.

For tech talent, this is an attractive sign that career development and technical excellence are pursued in parallel, not pitted against each other.

Team topology: platform lead, multiple developers, and a dedicated test engineer — supported by Product

Each development team follows a consistent structure: a platform lead, multiple developers, and a dedicated test engineer. Teams are supported by the product organization with a product manager and a product owner.

This composition creates several clear advantages:

• Defined ownership: The platform lead orchestrates responsibilities for a given product/platform area.
• Quality by design: A dedicated test engineer role bakes quality into the team’s daily work — not as a late-stage gatekeeper but as a core function.
• Strong product partnership: Product manager and product owner provide continuity in requirements and prioritization as well as product context.

For engineers who care about dependable quality and crisp accountability, this setup offers clear lines and sensible collaboration paths.

From requirements to job posts: how Product and HR connect

Before any role is advertised, the relevant team defines the requirements. HR then refines the content and publishes it on the Nuki website, followed by social media and job platforms.

This approach situates requirement definition with the experts who own the work while leveraging HR to sharpen communication and reach. For candidates, this increases the signal in job descriptions: they originate from the team’s reality.

The hiring funnel at Nuki Home Solutions

The remaining steps are as straightforward as they are respectful to applicants.

In practice, this means:

1. Incoming applications are handled carefully and quickly.
2. The interview focuses on understanding the candidate’s technical knowledge, with the tech leaders involved.
3. Team leads make the final decision.
4. Beyond technical qualifications, cultural fit explicitly matters.

This cadence suggests respect, speed, and seriousness about technical depth — while making the decision-making locus transparent. Candidates meet the people who matter to the work and have clear criteria for evaluation.

Onboarding, welcome days, and the buddy system

Joining Nuki starts with company-wide welcome days and a buddy to help with questions.

The emphasis is on orientation and effectiveness:

• Organizational immersion: New hires learn how the company works and how people collaborate.
• Product depth: A “deep dive into the Nuki product world” builds shared understanding early.
• Practical support: The buddy system keeps momentum and removes friction in the first weeks.
• Team-level productivity: After welcome days, new hires join their teams and learn the tools and specifics needed for their role.

This is more than a warm welcome; it is an operating model for making new hires effective sooner and with fewer detours.

Tooling and tech stack: native, firmware, and web

Manuel Fegerl outlines a stack that spans native development, firmware, and web — and names the key technologies.

For candidates, this indicates breadth across layers and runtimes:

• Native: Skills in Swift and Kotlin are relevant. The scope extends “from Swift to Kotlin” and “even C for the firmware,” i.e., down to system-near firmware work.
• Web: Java-based backend complemented by Angular and Ionic on the frontend.

This gives room for specialists and those who like to navigate different abstraction layers: from firmware to application logic to web UIs.

Azure DevOps as connective tissue for workflows, build pipelines, and CI

Beyond languages and frameworks, Manuel mentions a central platform supporting multiple process layers.

Practically speaking, a common platform underpins parts of the HR workflow and the engineering release process. That can reduce friction, improve traceability, and create a shared source of truth for automation and status across functions. For engineers, test engineers, and leads, this alignment tends to improve delivery hygiene and speed.

Scaling and security: two enduring priorities

Manuel underscores two non-negotiables: scaling the infrastructure and security.

The message is grounded: growth expands complexity and attack surface. Scaling and security are therefore ongoing disciplines, not one-off projects. For engineers and test specialists, this means substantial, meaningful problems to solve — and a clear rationale for the investment of care.

Why this setup appeals to engineers

From our DevJobs.at editorial vantage point, the attractiveness is clear. If you are weighing where to contribute next, several specifics stand out:

• Clear leadership and accountability: The dual leadership separates people development from technical decisions, providing clarity and focus in both domains.
• Built-in quality: A dedicated test engineer role inside each team embeds quality into daily work.
• Product proximity: Product manager and product owner directly support dev teams. Requirements originate with the team and are only then refined by HR — keeping them grounded.
• Respectful, fast hiring: Quick responses and involvement of team leads in interviews signal a practical, fair process.
• Thoughtful onboarding: Welcome days, a buddy system, and immediate team integration maximize early effectiveness.
• Broad stack options: Swift, Kotlin, C (firmware), and Java/Angular/Ionic provide multiple paths for depth and growth.
• DevOps-aligned delivery: Azure DevOps underpins HR workflow as well as build pipelines and CI — encouraging end-to-end visibility.
• Real challenges at scale and in security: The work remains substantive as the product equips more and more doors.

How to prepare as a candidate

The session offers clear hints for positioning your application and interview narrative:

• Demonstrate technical depth: The interview aims “to get a better understanding of the technical knowledge of the candidate.” Be ready to discuss designs, trade-offs, debugging strategies, testing approaches, and CI habits.
• Show how you collaborate: “Besides technical qualifications, we always look for a good cultural fit as well.” Highlight teamwork, feedback habits, and ownership.
• Bring a quality mindset: With a dedicated test engineer role per team, testing is part of the daily flow. Experience with structured testing and pragmatic automation can be compelling.
• Reference tooling and delivery: Azure DevOps is used for workflow support and for build pipelines/CI. Experience with this or similar platforms is likely relevant.
• Emphasize security awareness: Security is “one of the focus points.” Call out examples where you identified risks, improved resilience, or handled threats.
• Connect to the stack: If you have experience in Swift, Kotlin, C (firmware), or Java/Angular/Ionic, make that front and center.

Collaboration patterns that emerge from the session

For many engineers, collaboration patterns matter as much as the stack. From the session, we see:

• Requirements emerge in the team: This reduces translation error and ensures relevance.
• Team leads decide on hiring: You speak to and are evaluated by the people you will work with.
• Onboarding is structured: Welcome days and a buddy reduce ramp-up time.
• Product context is emphasized: The “deep dive into the Nuki product world” suggests shared understanding is valued.

The throughline is consistent: clear responsibilities, product-aware collaboration, and integrated quality.

In closing

From “Manuel Fegerl, Head of Engineering von Nuki” (Nuki Home Solutions), a coherent engineering organization emerges: a tech team of 20+ with dual leadership and crisp role separation; teams composed of a platform lead, multiple developers, and a dedicated test engineer; direct support from product; a respectful, efficient hiring process with technical depth and cultural fit; onboarding via welcome days and a buddy system; a stack spanning Swift/Kotlin, C for firmware, and Java/Angular/Ionic; Azure DevOps supporting HR workflows and engineering delivery; and a relentless focus on scaling and security.

For engineers who value clear structures, product proximity, embedded quality, and technically meaningful problems, this is an attractive setup. It brings people, process, and technology together — with the understanding that scaling and security are not endpoints but continuous commitments.

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