At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead a dynamic engineering team and drive AI adoption in software development.
- Company: Fast-growing tech company in Derry, focused on mission-critical election software.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, bonus, hybrid work, free food, gym membership, and flexible hours.
- Other info: Exciting growth phase with opportunities for personal and professional development.
- Why this job: Join a high-trust team making a real impact in the tech space with direct CEO access.
- Qualifications: Proven AI fluency, hands-on engineering experience, and leadership skills.
The predicted salary is between 56700 - 69300 £ per year.
Our client is a fast-growing technology company based in Derry, delivering mission-critical, ISO 27001-certified software for UK Election campaigns. Having successfully delivered against multiple UK election cycles, they're now entering a significant growth phase, with their client base forecast to expand substantially over the next 12–18 months. This is a genuinely AI-first engineering culture — not as a buzzword, but as the operating standard.
The Opportunity
Our client is seeking an experienced Engineering Manager to lead their engineering team through its next phase of growth. This is a hands-on, delivery-focused leadership role for someone who wants to stay close to the code while owning the people, process, and output of a growing engineering function. Reporting directly to the CEO, you'll be the most senior engineering voice in the business — setting technical standards, shaping how the team works, and translating between engineering reality and business priorities.
What You'll Be Doing
- Leading the engineering team day-to-day — running 1:1s, setting performance expectations, hiring, developing people, and holding the line on quality
- Driving AI adoption across the engineering function — from coding practice through design and code review — setting the standard and role-modelling the change
- Managing relationships with senior leadership, translating between engineering reality and business intent, and negotiating scope without damaging trust
- Owning engineering processes and tooling — CI/CD, code review, testing, observability, and incident response — improving them in the right sequence without breaking delivery
- Owning AWS and engineering capability spend, understanding the architectural decisions that drive cloud cost
- Leading by example — using AI agents to build software, reviewing pull requests with judgement, and weighing in on architecture
- Setting the cultural tone for the engineering function — how you give feedback and behave under pressure sets the floor for the team
What We're Looking For
- Demonstrable AI fluency in your own engineering work, with clear evidence of driving AI adoption within a team — this needs to be visible on your CV, as applications without it won't progress
- A proven track record managing engineers directly — hiring, performance management, and team development
- Experience reporting to or working closely with non-technical executive leadership
- A hands-on engineering background, with recent, credible experience in a modern web and cloud stack
- Composure and integrity under pressure — direct feedback, willingness to admit mistakes, and a calm head when things get difficult
- Comfort operating in a small startup environment
Nice to have (not essential — you'll be supported to develop these):
- Experience with UK election technology or other regulated, mission-critical software
- Ownership of an engineering or cloud budget line
- Experience working effectively alongside third-party delivery partners
The Tech Stack
- TypeScript across the stack
- AWS-native serverless architecture, primarily Lambda
- Relational and document-based data stores
- Modern frontend CI/CD pipelines on AWS, infrastructure as code via AWS CDK
- ISO 27001 certified environment — you'll be working with sensitive election data to high security and compliance standards
What's On Offer
- Market-competitive salary with a defined bonus on agreed targets
- Hybrid working pattern — minimum 3 days per week in the Derry office
- Free food and drinks from the onsite café
- Subsidised gym membership
- Bike-to-work scheme
- Flexible and hybrid working, including condensed hours
To find out more about this opportunity, in the strictest confidence, please get in touch. Please note: Applications can only be accepted from candidates who already hold the legal right to work in N. Ireland.
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