Engineering Manager in London

Relay is fundamentally reshaping how goods move in an online era. Backed by Europe’s largest-ever logistics Series A ($35M), Relay is scaling faster than 99.98% of venture-backed startups. We're assembling the most talent-dense team the logistics industry has ever seen. Relay’s mission is to free commerce from friction. Today, high delivery costs act as a hidden tax on e-commerce, quietly shaping what can be sold online and limiting who can participate. We envision a world where more goods move more freely between more people, making the online shopping experience seamless and accessible to everyone.

THE TEAM

• ~110 people, more than half in engineering, product and data
• 45+ advanced degrees across computer science, mathematics and operations research
• Thousands of data points captured, calculated, analysed and predicted for every single parcel we handle
• An intellectually vibrant culture of first-principles thinking, tight feedback loops and relentless experimentation

The Opportunity

As an Engineering Manager, you are accountable for both leading the team and shipping outcomes. Your primary focus is building a team that executes well: setting clear direction, coaching engineers and tech leads, and ensuring work moves from idea to production reliably and at pace. You stay close to the codebase. While this is not a full-time individual contributor role, you actively review meaningful changes, pair on complex problems, and step in on high-impact or time-sensitive work when needed. You understand the system deeply enough to make good technical calls, unblock the team, and raise the quality bar through example.

You run a team that owns what it builds. That means turning ambiguity into plans, plans into delivery, and delivery into real-world impact. You work tightly with Product, Design, and Operations to make tradeoffs explicit and keep the team focused on what matters most. You continuously raise standards across developer velocity, code quality, observability, incident response, user analytics, and product engagement. When things break, you’re involved. When execution slows, you diagnose the root cause. When the bar needs to move, you move it.

You also grow the team by hiring strong engineers, giving direct and timely feedback, running a fair performance process, and helping people grow in ways that compound over time.

Who Will Thrive in This Role?

• You’re comfortable spending most of your time leading and enabling others, while still being willing, and able, to dive into the work when it matters.
• You take full ownership of outcomes and don’t wait for permission to improve things.
• You care deeply about the people using and operating the systems you build: couriers, retailers, operatives, teammates, and consumers.
• You do well in fast-moving, ambiguous environments and bring structure through action, not ceremony.
• You communicate clearly, give direct feedback, listen carefully, and collaborate deliberately.
• You’ll take on any problem, technical or otherwise, if it unblocks the team or improves results.

Fast and Focused Hiring Process

• Talent Acquisition Interview - 30 min
• Hiring Manager Interview - 60 min
• Technical Interview - 2 hours
• Values & Impact Interview - 1 hour
• Decision and offer within 48 hours. Our process mirrors our pace of work.

Who Thrives at Relay?

• Aim with Precision: You define problems clearly and measure your impact meticulously.
• Play to Win: You chase bold bets, tackle the hard stuff, and view constraints as fuel, not friction.
• 1% Better Every Day: You believe that small, consistent improvements lead to exponential growth. You move quickly, deliver results, and learn from every experience.
• All In, All the Time: You show up and step up. You take ownership from start to finish and do what it takes to deliver when it counts.
• People-Powered Greatness: You invest in your teammates. You give and receive feedback with care and candour. You build trust through high standards and shared success.
• Grow the Whole Pie: You seek out win-win solutions for merchants, couriers, and our customers, because when they thrive, so do we.

If these resonate, and you combine strong technical fundamentals with entrepreneurial drive, let’s connect.

Relay is an equal-opportunity employer committed to diversity, inclusion, and fostering a workplace where everyone thrives.