At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead engineering teams to innovate and maintain integration platforms for a major UK brand.
- Company: Join Marks & Spencer, a leading retailer transforming the tech landscape.
- Benefits: Enjoy a 20% discount, competitive holidays, and tailored training from day one.
- Other info: Be part of a diverse team committed to innovation and operational excellence.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on millions while shaping the future of integration technology.
- Qualifications: Proven experience in integration or platform engineering with strong leadership skills.
The predicted salary is between 70000 - 90000 £ per year.
We’re changing the way we do things and putting industry leading innovation at the heart of how we operate; we need a stellar engineering team to make it happen. You'll be joining one of the most iconic brands in the UK on its most exciting cycle yet. We're more integrated and product led in our tech teams than ever before: learning, changing, and adapting constantly, with millions of people benefiting from your work every single day.
You’ll be joining the M&S Central Tech team as a Software Engineering Manager - Integration CORE. Our mission is to power the connectivity across M&S by building and operating the integration platforms and messaging backbone that underpin every major system, from warehouse management and food distribution through to SAP financials and partner ecosystems.
You will lead engineering teams responsible for the integration CORE domain, shaping the future of our integration estate while ensuring the stability of mission-critical systems that process millions of messages every day. This is a transformative role at the heart of M&S’s integration modernisation journey, where you’ll balance platform innovation with operational excellence.
You will define and deliver the roadmap for a modern, cloud-native integration platform, creating reusable patterns and enabling product teams to integrate efficiently, while maintaining the reliability and performance of our existing estate.
We want to make M&S one of the best places for engineers to build and operate platforms at scale - reducing friction, improving reliability and enabling teams to move faster with confidence.
What You'll Do
- Being accountable for engineering excellence across integration teams, from technical direction to operational performance and service reliability.
- Leading and developing engineers, cultivating ownership, accountability and a strong engineering culture.
- Defining the future integration platform architecture and roadmap in partnership with Principal Engineers and Architects.
- Building platform capabilities, including self-service integration patterns and reusable components to enable product teams.
- Maintaining operational excellence across the messaging backbone, ensuring stability, resilience and fast incident resolution.
- Driving improvements in reliability, reducing incident rates, mean time to resolution and operational burden.
- Partnering with other engineering leaders to ensure consistency in patterns, standards and ways of working.
- Owning vendor relationships and third-party delivery, focusing on outcomes and platform performance.
- Balancing priorities across operational stability, platform modernisation and technical debt reduction.
Who You Are
- Experienced engineering leader with a background in integration or platform engineering.
- Hands-on experience with enterprise messaging technologies such as IBM MQ, Azure Service Bus or similar.
- Strong knowledge of integration middleware including ACE, MuleSoft, Azure Functions or Logic Apps.
- Proven track record leading teams through platform modernisation or legacy-to-cloud transformation.
- Strong understanding of reliability engineering, including SLOs, observability, incident management and operational excellence.
- Ability to balance operational stability with transformation in a complex, high-volume environment.
- Excellent leadership, communication and stakeholder management skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
- A servant-leadership mindset, focused on enabling teams and owning outcomes.
- Comfortable operating at both strategic and hands-on levels, from architecture discussions to incident support.
Our Tech Stack
- IBM MQ, App Connect Enterprise, DataStage, DB2
- MuleSoft and Apigee
- Azure cloud services (Service Bus, Functions, Logic Apps, Event Hub)
- MongoDB Atlas
- Dynatrace (observability)
- GitHub Actions and Terraform (CI/CD)
What’s In It For You
Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We’re inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.
Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:
- 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you’ve completed your probation
- Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more
- Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours
- Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future
- Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one
- Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal
- Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave
- 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services
- One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you
Everyone’s Welcome
We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.
We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.
If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.
Software Engineering Manager - Integration employer: Marks & Spencer
At M&S, we are committed to fostering a dynamic and inclusive work environment where innovation thrives. As a Software Engineering Manager in our Central Tech team, you'll not only lead talented engineers in shaping the future of our integration platforms but also enjoy a range of benefits including a generous colleague discount, competitive holiday allowance, and tailored training from day one. Join us in making a meaningful impact while enjoying a supportive culture that prioritises employee well-being and growth.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Software Engineering Manager - Integration
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Marks & Spencer or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Marks & Spencer.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Marks & Spencer.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Marks & Spencer that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Software Engineering Manager - Integration
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Marks & Spencer.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Marks & Spencer and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Marks & Spencer
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Marks & Spencer uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
