At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead engineering and operations, ensuring smooth delivery and transformation of our platform.
- Company: Join OnCommerce, a fast-growing global selling platform revolutionising ecommerce.
- Benefits: Up to £100k salary, company equity, 25 days leave, and career development opportunities.
- Other info: Remote or hybrid work options available; we value diversity and inclusion.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in a dynamic environment with ownership and growth potential.
- Qualifications: Strong full-stack engineering background and leadership experience required.
The predicted salary is between 100000 - 100000 £ per year.
OnCommerce is a global selling platform that powers a growing network of retail channels, including OnBuy, easyShop, and Comet. OnCommerce is growing fast, launching new brands and scaling to power the future of ecommerce.
OnCommerce is constantly evolving. Everyone here plays a hands-on role in shaping what comes next, building brands that make an impact across global markets. The pace is fast, priorities shift, and you’ll often need to get stuck in and solve problems. If you thrive in that kind of environment, you’ll have real influence, real ownership, and the chance to grow with a rapidly scaling business.
This role exists to hold both the standard the engineering team is held to, the resilience of what's live today, and the continuity of delivery and culture as the organisation restructures around it.
This is a senior leadership role accountable for the day-to-day performance and long-term evolution of OnCommerce’s engineering function, spanning both the current platform and its transformation to a modern, composable architecture. The Engineering & Operations Lead owns engineering delivery, operational resilience, and standards across all squads, ensuring strong processes translate into reliable services, predictable delivery, and high-performing teams.
Success in this role requires leading people, setting clear expectations, and driving accountability for outcomes, while making effective trade-offs between short-term delivery and long-term sustainability.
Key Responsibilities
- Product Engineering Ownership & Accountability: Define and enforce clear ownership boundaries across the engineering team, by domain (Buyer / Seller / Platform), holding every contributor accountable regardless of sourcing model. Track and report Throughput and Instability per domain.
- Transformation Continuity: Hold delivery consistent through every point of disruption the transformation introduces. Partner with the Transformation Lead to ensure structural change doesn't degrade live delivery.
- Standards & Engineering Governance: Own the engineering standard across both the current platform and the target state. Review the Transformation Lead's roadmap for engineering-standard and operational impact before commitments are made.
- People Leadership & Team Engagement: Lead and develop engineering capability across squads. Coach and support Tech Leads to build consistent leadership standards across teams. Identify capability gaps and support hiring, development, and succession planning.
- Operational Resilience & Incident Ownership: Establish and run a two-tier resolver model. Build rota depth so resolution doesn't depend on any one individual. Drive a genuinely blameless Post-Incident Review culture.
- Security & Risk: Embed secure coding practice and route security risk to the appropriate decision-maker.
- Technical Debt Management: Identify, log, and manage technical debt within day-to-day delivery. Escalate strategic trade-offs to the Solution Architecture Lead.
- Delivery & Execution: Work with Product Owners to translate roadmap items into scoped, sequenced engineering execution. Own technical design and implementation choices day to day.
Essential:
- Strong full-stack engineering background with Laravel/PHP.
- People leadership: hiring, mentoring, performance management.
- Direct experience leading an engineering transformation.
- Strong API design and system architecture experience.
- Production experience with MySQL, Couchbase or MongoDB, and Redis.
- GCP, deploying and operating live services at scale.
- Startup or scale-up experience.
Desirable:
- Experience with a MACH or composable architecture migration.
- Multi-cloud or cloud-agnostic experience.
- Comfortable working beyond PHP where the future stack calls for it.
The salary on offer for this role is up to £100k per annum depending on experience. We also offer company equity, 25 days annual leave + Bank Holidays, 1 extra day off for your Birthday, Employee Assistance Programme, and opportunities for career development and progression.
This role is UK remote or Hybrid if you live near our Manchester or Bournemouth's offices.
OnBuy is an equal opportunities employer. We are dedicated to creating a fair and transparent workforce.
Engineering & Operations Lead in Manchester employer: OnBuy Limited
OnCommerce is an exceptional employer that fosters a dynamic and innovative work culture, where every team member has the opportunity to take ownership and make a real impact in the fast-paced world of ecommerce. With a commitment to employee growth, we offer extensive career development opportunities, competitive benefits including company equity, and a flexible working environment, whether remote or hybrid from our Manchester or Bournemouth offices. Join us to be part of a transformative journey, where your contributions will shape the future of our platform and the retail landscape.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Engineering & Operations Lead in Manchester
✨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 OnBuy Limited 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 OnBuy Limited.
✨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 OnBuy Limited.
✨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 OnBuy Limited 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 Engineering & Operations Lead in Manchester
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 OnBuy Limited.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at OnBuy Limited 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 OnBuy Limited
✨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 OnBuy Limited 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.
