Software Engineering Manager (Hands On) in London

Here’s a summary of the role: Lead a strong engineering team, deliver software that matters, and help people do the best work of their careers. This is a hands-on team management role for someone who enjoys combining people leadership, technical fluency, and modern AI-enabled ways of working to build reliable products at scale. You’ll lead engineers building secure, scalable microservices and APIs using TypeScript and AWS. You’ll partner closely with Product, Security, DevOps, and peer engineering leaders to deliver roadmap outcomes, improve team effectiveness, and create an environment where engineers can grow, own their work, and build high-quality systems with confidence.

Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll do, not all of it, just the important stuff:

• Lead, coach, and support a team of engineers, creating clarity around priorities, ownership, expectations, and growth goals.
• Partner with Product, Security, DevOps, and peer engineering leaders to plan and deliver roadmap commitments while balancing quality, pace, and sustainability.
• Create a healthy delivery environment by improving team processes, removing blockers, supporting planning and estimation, and reinforcing strong engineering practices.
• Maintain enough technical depth to guide design discussions, challenge risks, review trade-offs, and support the team in building secure and maintainable systems.
• Use AI tools and encourage responsible AI-assisted ways of working that improve productivity while protecting privacy, security, quality, and good judgment.
• Support hiring, feedback, performance conversations, and career development so the team continues to grow in capability and confidence.

These are the essentials you’ll need to get an interview:

• 8 or more years of software engineering experience, including experience leading projects and supporting or managing engineers in an agile product environment.
• Experience managing teams that build cloud-native microservices in AWS.
• Strong people leadership skills, with experience coaching engineers, building accountability, and helping teams plan and deliver effectively.
• A solid technical background in backend engineering, including Node.js, TypeScript, AWS, APIs, and production systems supported by SQL or NoSQL data stores.
• Good understanding of CI/CD, observability, incident support, and modern engineering practices such as Docker-based workflows and infrastructure as code.
• Practical understanding of AI-enabled engineering and product use cases, including common LLM concepts and considerations such as privacy, security, bias, governance, and cost.
• Clear communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with engineers, product managers, and senior stakeholders.
• A quality, security, and delivery mindset, with the judgment to balance business outcomes, team health, and sustainable engineering practices.

It would be great if you had these too, but we’ll support you if you don’t:

• Exposure to hiring, organizational planning, or broader cross-team delivery initiatives.
• Experience helping teams adopt AI-assisted development tools or AI-enabled product capabilities in a practical and responsible way.