At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead a team of engineers to enhance the card spending experience.
- Company: Join Perk, a global leader in travel and spend management.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, career growth, and a vibrant work culture.
- Other info: Work in a dynamic environment with opportunities for relocation.
- Why this job: Shape the future of work while making a real impact on businesses.
- Qualifications: 5-8 years managing software engineers with a technical background.
The predicted salary is between 60000 - 80000 £ per year.
About Us
Perk (formerly TravelPerk) is the intelligent platform for travel and spend management. Built to tackle the time-consuming, manual work that gets in the way of real work, our tools automate everything from travel bookings to expenses, invoice processing, and more. By eliminating this shadow work that wastes hours, erodes morale, and saps innovation, we’re on a mission to power real work, with real impact.
We’re trusted by more than 10,000 companies worldwide, including Wise, On Running, Breitling, and Fabletics, and we’re tackling the 7 hours of lost productivity per employee each week, a $1.7 trillion problem. Founded in 2015, Perk has grown into a global company of more than 1,800 people across 12 offices globally, with headquarters in London and Boston. We combine innovation, control, and simplicity to transform how businesses work and how people feel at work.
At Perk, we’re driven by our values, like being an owner, delivering a 7-star experience, and working as one team. We value curiosity, purpose, and mindset, not just knowledge, to unlock the power in your potential. Our talent team brings together leading minds from the travel and SaaS industries, representing over 70 countries. If you’re excited about having a real impact and shaping how millions of people experience work, we’d love you on the team.
As an Engineering Manager for the Cards Experience EU team, you’ll lead a distributed group of experienced engineers responsible for building and evolving the core card spending experience within the Spend domain. You’ll manage a team of predominantly senior engineers located across multiple European hubs, partnering closely with staff engineers and cross-functional stakeholders to deliver complex, high-impact initiatives in a fast-moving environment. The team is currently focused on several urgent strategic projects, requiring strong technical leadership, thoughtful prioritization, and the ability to help teams execute effectively while maintaining engineering quality.
In this role, you’ll help shape the technical direction of the platform and you’ll support the team in navigating a highly specialized domain that includes card infrastructure, banking integrations, and complex flows of funds, helping balance immediate delivery needs with long-term platform sustainability and maintainability. While deep domain expertise in payments, banking integrations, or financial systems is not a strict requirement, experience working within complex transactional systems is essential.
Through strong people leadership, technical judgment, and operational excellence, you’ll help scale a reliable and seamless cards experience for customers across Europe.
As an Engineering Manager, you will:
- Be accountable for the delivery and personal development of your team(s).
- Act as servant leader to your engineers and adapt your leadership style to the needs of the situation.
- Take care of individuals' performance in the organisation and support their journey and ownership of their career using coaching and mentoring where appropriate.
- Act as a technical champion, ensuring that the team has the time and context to build systems that meet the needs and standards of our organisation.
- Enable fluent and effective collaboration within the team, and support them through challenges in system architecture, design or implementation.
- Develop and evolve a long-term strategy and roadmap for the team, working with the Product Manager and aligned with the Tribe mission.
- Strategic team building and planning for delivering highly available features that scale with our growth.
- Be a key part of the recruitment and growth of the engineering team.
- Work with the business and team metrics to deliver a 7-star experience to our customers.
- Provide feedback to stakeholders within Builders (Product and Eng) and sometimes the wider business.
Required skills and experience:
- You have around 5-8 years of experience managing software engineers.
- For this role, we’re looking for someone who has managed (and will continue to) around 8-10 software engineers.
- You come from a technical background - ideally in software engineering, where you were a hands-on IC.
- You are a people manager who builds an effective work culture that improves the working lives of your team.
- You have experience managing larger teams where it’s necessary to build processes and systems of delegation to get work done.
- You act as a problem finder and solver technically and organisationally, helping the team to overcome any issue that prevents your engineering fellows from performing at their best.
- You run effective performance reviews that celebrate achievements and help your team identify where to grow next in line with their aspirations and the needs of the business.
- Pragmatism and obsession for simplicity, efficiency, and performance.
- You have the ability to adapt and react fast to an ever-changing environment.
How We Work
At Perk, we take an IRL-first approach to work, where our team works together in-person 3 days a week. As such, this role requires you to be based within commuting distance of our hubs. We fundamentally believe in the value of meeting in real life to improve connectivity, productivity, creativity and ultimately making us a great place to work.
For certain roles, we can help with relocation from anywhere in the world, English is the official language at the office. Please submit your resume in English if you choose to apply. Do not forget to submit an updated portfolio and/or resume.
Perk is a global company with a diverse customer base, and we want to make sure the people behind our product reflect that. We’re an equal opportunity employer, which means you’re welcome at Perk regardless of how you look, where you’re from, or anything else that makes you, well, you.
Protect Yourself from Recruitment Scams
All official communication from Perk will always come from email addresses ending in @perk.com or @externalperk.com, our verified social media channels, or recruiters listed on our official LinkedIn page. We will never ask you to pay for equipment, training, or fees, request sensitive personal information such as bank details early in the process, or communicate through unofficial apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal. If you receive a message claiming to be from Perk that seems suspicious, please do not respond. Forward it to security [at] perk .com, and we will confirm whether it is legitimate.
Engineering Manager - Cards Experience EU in London employer: Perk
At Perk, we pride ourselves on fostering a dynamic and inclusive work culture that empowers our employees to thrive. As an Engineering Manager in the vibrant European hubs, you will lead a talented team of engineers while enjoying opportunities for personal growth and professional development. With a commitment to innovation and collaboration, we ensure that every team member contributes to meaningful projects that have a real impact on how businesses operate, all while enjoying the benefits of a supportive and engaging workplace.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Engineering Manager - Cards Experience EU in London
✨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 Perk 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 Perk.
✨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 Perk.
✨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 Perk 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 Manager - Cards Experience EU in London
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 Perk.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Perk 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 Perk
✨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 Perk 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.