JobLeads names Andreas Westendörpf chief technology officer

JobLeads appointed former Babbel, Emma and Zalando technology leader Andreas Westendörpf as CTO in September to guide the Hamburg company’s next growth phase. The move comes as the AI career assistant expands across the full job-search journey for more than 20 million users in 42 countries.

Why it matters: - JobLeads is adding a CTO with experience scaling technology during hypergrowth and rebuilding platforms while businesses kept expanding. - The hire is meant to support JobLeads’ push to make AI central to the full career journey, from discovering jobs to landing one. - JobLeads now serves more than 20 million job seekers in 42 countries.

What happened: - Andreas Westendörpf joined JobLeads in September as chief technology officer. - Westendörpf now leads JobLeads’ technology organization. - The company is based in Hamburg. - The appointment was announced on October 7, 2026.

The details: - Westendörpf joins from Babbel, where he was most recently SVP Technology and earlier interim chief technology and product officer. - Before Babbel, he was CTO at Emma, where he led international growth and a move to a composable commerce architecture. - In 2017, he became managing director and CTO of Engel & Völkers Technology in Hamburg. - Earlier in his career, he led more than 100 employees at Zalando. - Westendörpf has more than 20 years of experience in technology, product development and IT consulting. - JobLeads said Westendörpf will focus on AI-native engineering and a platform that can keep pace with growth. - Co-founder and Managing Director Martin Schmidt said JobLeads wanted a CTO who had grown a tech organization through hypergrowth and rebuilt a platform while the business kept growing. - Westendörpf describes his leadership principle as “outcome over output,” meaning technology should be measured by impact for users rather than feature volume. - Westendörpf said JobLeads builds AI for job seekers, not employers. - Westendörpf said his role is to put AI at the core of the product and help candidates land jobs faster. - Since 2022, Westendörpf has been an ambassador of the MACH Alliance, an industry body for modular technology architectures. - He has spoken at Web Summit and the OMR Festival. - Westendörpf also mentors startups, serves on an advisory board and invests as an angel investor.

Between the lines: - JobLeads is signaling that its next growth phase will depend on technical leadership that can scale both product and infrastructure at the same time. - The focus on AI native engineering suggests the company wants AI built into core systems, not added on as a separate feature. - Westendörpf’s background in composable commerce and modular architectures points to a preference for flexible, scalable technology design.

What’s next: - JobLeads plans to extend its AI assistant across the full career journey. - Westendörpf will help steer engineering as the company grows its platform and user base. - JobLeads employs 130 people from 33 nations and operates remotely plus from offices in Hamburg and Timișoara. - The company, founded in Hamburg in 2007, offers AI tools for job matching, resumes and applications alongside personalized career support.

The bottom line: - JobLeads is betting that a veteran scaling executive can turn its AI career assistant into a larger, faster-growing platform for job seekers.