Senior Software Manager, QA in Manchester

At Anaplan, we are a team of innovators focused on optimizing business decision‑making through our leading AI‑infused scenario planning and analysis platform so our customers can outpace their competition and the market. What unites Anaplanners across teams and geographies is our collective commitment to our customers’ success and to our Winning Culture. Our customers rank among the who’s who in the Fortune 50. Coca‑Cola, LinkedIn, Adobe, LVMH and Bayer are just a few of the 2,400+ global companies who rely on our best‑in‑class platform.

Our Winning Culture is the engine that drives our teams of innovators. We champion diversity of thought and ideas, we behave like leaders regardless of title, we are committed to achieving ambitious goals, and we love celebrating our wins – big and small. Supported by operating principles of being strategy‑led, values‑based and disciplined in execution, you’ll be inspired, connected, developed and rewarded here. Everything that makes you unique is welcome; join us and let’s build what’s next - together!

Team Description: As part of the ADO team under GPTO Engineering, you’ll report to the Sr. Director of Engineering. This team is accountable for Performance test automation, configuration, and verification delivering repeatable performance comparison testing and diagnosis across a range of ADO operations at enterprise scale, enabling high‑performance AI‑driven workloads, and acting as a technical bridge between engineering and architecture.

Your Impact:

• Build, mentor, and scale a high‑performing engineering team based on actual demand and delivery needs.
• Provide hands‑on coaching and guidance to Principal Engineers and team members, fostering technical excellence and career growth.
• Quickly establish trust with team members, peers, and stakeholders through authentic engagement and delivery.
• Champion an engineering culture that balances pragmatic delivery with sustainable practices.

Delivery Excellence:

• Drive fast‑paced, continuous delivery practices—leading the transformation from monthly to daily release cycles.
• Balance process rigor with delivery velocity; know when documentation adds value and when it creates friction.
• Apply and evangelize proper use of DORA metrics to measure and improve team performance.
• Ensure platform capabilities for data processing, AI, and developer acceleration ship reliably and on schedule.
• Take ownership of delivery outcomes; work proactively with Product Management without waiting for perfect requirements.

Technical Strategy & Collaboration:

• Partner closely with architects to align implementation patterns with long‑term technical direction.
• Create clear, compelling strategy papers, roadmaps, and presentations for technical and executive audiences.
• Collaborate across globally distributed teams with awareness of time zone considerations and asynchronous work patterns.
• Guide teams in embedding AI/ML features—prompt engineering, model inference, feature pipelines—into platform services.
• Contribute to technical planning, architecture decisions, and incident retrospectives.

Platform & Product Mindset:

• Apply product thinking to platform solutions, ensuring they meet real business and customer needs.
• Champion innovation in performance, tooling, and platform capabilities.
• Oversee design and delivery of full stack solutions spanning React, Java, and Python.
• Facilitate cross‑functional collaboration across engineering, product, and architecture.

Your Qualifications:

• 10+ years of software engineering experience with 5+ years in engineering management or technical leadership.
• Proven track record managing teams through significant process transformations (e.g., monthly to daily releases).
• Experience managing both technical leads/Principal Engineers and individual contributors.
• Demonstrated ability to scale teams thoughtfully based on demand, not politics.

Technical Depth:

• Strong software development background with hands‑on experience in platform, infrastructure, or data‑centric environments.
• Deep expertise in event‑driven architectures, streaming technologies (e.g. Apache Kafka, Flink, and/or Pulsar).
• Proficiency across full stack technologies (Java, .Net, React) with the ability to guide technical decisions.
• Knowledge of hybrid/cloud‑agnostic infrastructure, CI/CD, GitOps, and continuous delivery workflows.

Delivery & Process:

• Pragmatic approach to balancing process, documentation, and speed of delivery.
• Deep understanding of DORA metrics and their proper application to drive improvement.
• Experience leading high‑velocity engineering organizations with a daily release cadence.
• Skilled at change management and cultural transformation in engineering teams.
• Exceptional communication skills—written and verbal—with the ability to influence across all levels.
• Experienced creating executive‑level strategy documents, roadmaps, and presentations.
• Comfortable working with globally distributed teams across multiple time zones.
• Strong collaborative partnership with Product Management; proactive problem‑solving mindset.

Preferred Skills:

• Track record of building trust rapidly in new environments.
• Passion for technical mentorship and elevating team capabilities.
• Experience scaling systems and teams under high throughput demands.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and drive delivery without perfect information.
• Comfort with asynchronous collaboration and remote team dynamics.
• Experience in hybrid engineering‑management roles (player‑coach background).

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB): We believe attracting and retaining the best talent and fostering an inclusive culture strengthens our business. DEIB improves our workforce, enhances trust with our partners and customers, and drives business success. Build your career in a place where diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging aren’t just words on paper – this is what drives our innovation, it’s how we connect, and it contributes to what makes us a market leader. We believe in a hiring and working environment where all people are respected and valued, regardless of gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, disability status, citizenship, or any other aspect which makes people unique. We hire you for who you are, and we want you to bring your authentic self to work every day!

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive equitable benefits and all privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.