{"id":135435,"url":"https://alion.io/job/arbor-education-technical-engineering-manager-php","title":"Engineering Manager - PHP","company":{"id":2214532,"name":"The Key Group","domain":"thekeygroup.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/thekeygroup","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workable","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":4,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-20T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Thiruvananthapuram, India"],"countries":["IN"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":28000,"max_usd":73000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":33},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Kanban","optional":false},{"name":"Scrum","optional":false},{"name":"API Gateway","optional":true},{"name":"AWS","optional":true},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":true},{"name":"Kong","optional":true},{"name":"Node JS","optional":true},{"name":"PHP","optional":true},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-14T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-14","last_verified_at":"2026-10-20T14:53:40Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":98,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":98},"description":"The Engineering Manager exists to lead the delivery performance and professional development of engineers within a designated product domain or problem area. The role is responsible for driving team health, engagement, and operational predictability across multiple cross-functional engineering squads. The position focuses purely on people leadership and delivery optimisation rather than hands-on coding, serving to connect engineering execution directly with an ambitious product roadmap. Ultimately, this role ensures the sustainable delivery of high-quality SaaS solutions that directly advance the organisation's mission to transform how schools work.\nDimensions\nFinancials: No direct budget ownership; indirectly impacts infrastructure efficiency and resource allocation across assigned squads to ensure projects are delivered.\nTeam: Direct line management, coaching, and career development of software engineers and Technical Leads within a designated domain, coordinating squads typically composed of a Tech Lead, QA Engineer, and multiple developers, alongside cross-team DevOps and Staff Engineers.\nScope: Tactical and operational leadership across the Ecosystem engineering area, impacting distributed teams situated across the UK and Serbia.\nKey Responsibilities\n1. Delivery Leadership & Roadmap Execution\nDrive delivery performance and predictable execution across multiple product and engineering teams.\nLead planning sessions, technical estimations, sprint reviews, and delivery tracking activities.\nPartner with Product Managers to define priorities, shape feature roadmaps, and ensure alignment between business objectives and engineering capabilities.\nProvide visibility into delivery progress, risks, dependencies, and mitigation plans.\nEnsure engineering outputs meet agreed quality standards and delivery commitments.\n2. Performance Metrics & Flow Optimization\nManage engineering workflow and optimize team throughput, efficiency, and software reliability.\nEstablish, monitor, and improve operational engineering metrics using DORA and SPACE frameworks.\nIdentify bottlenecks and implement data-driven improvements to delivery processes.\nSupport and embed Agile delivery practices, including Scrum and Kanban methodologies.\nPromote sustainable delivery cadences while maintaining team autonomy.\n3. People Leadership & Talent Development\nCoach, mentor, and develop engineers and Technical Leads.\nCreate and support individual development and career progression plans.\nConduct performance reviews and provide regular feedback and development guidance.\nAddress performance concerns proactively and fairly.\nFoster a high-performing, inclusive culture based on accountability, ownership, and collaboration.\n4. Team Wellbeing & Psychological Safety\nChampion psychological safety, employee engagement, and overall team wellbeing.\nPromote sustainable engineering practices that balance delivery speed with long-term maintainability.\nResolve team conflicts and remove barriers that impact productivity and engagement.\nEncourage open communication and continuous feedback across teams.\n5. Process Excellence & Engineering Governance\nStandardize delivery workflows, release management practices, and operational processes across teams.\nEnsure adherence to quality standards, deployment governance, documentation requirements, and testing best practices.\nCollaborate with Staff Engineers and Technical Leads to align delivery practices with the organization's technical strategy.\nDrive continuous improvement initiatives that enhance engineering effectiveness and quality.\n6. Cross-Functional Collaboration & Dependency Management\nManage technical dependencies and delivery risks across engineering teams and business functions.\nPartner with Portfolio, Product, and Engineering Leadership teams to track roadmap progress and resolve blockers.\nFacilitate transparency and alignment across stakeholders.\nContribute to strategic planning and organizational prioritization activities.\n7. Organizational Capability & Leadership\nActively contribute to engineering leadership forums and organizational improvement initiatives.\nPromote a data-driven culture focused on continuous learning and operational excellence.\nRepresent the engineering function in leadership meetings, presentations, and external professional communities.\nSupport the maturation of engineering management practices across the organization.\n8. Distributed Team Leadership\nBuild and maintain a strong, unified culture across distributed engineering teams.\nFacilitate collaboration across multiple locations and time zones.\nLead team offsites, workshops, and collaborative engagement initiatives.\nEnsure equitable access to development, mentorship, and growth opportunities for all team members.\nRequirements\nProven experience leading multi-disciplinary engineering teams comprising Software Engineering, QA, and DevOps professionals.\nExperience managing teams of at least 5+ engineers.\nStrong expertise in engineering performance frameworks such as DORA and SPACE metrics.\nExtensive experience with Agile delivery methodologies, including Scrum and Kanban.\nDeep understanding of CI/CD pipelines, continuous delivery, and modern software development practices.\nStrong people management experience, including coaching, mentoring, career development, and performance management.\nExperience working with distributed teams across multiple locations and time zones.\nExcellent stakeholder management, communication, and presentation skills.\nStrong systems-thinking mindset and understanding of software engineering principles.\nDesirable\nPrevious background in software engineering or technical leadership.\nFamiliarity with PHP, Node.js, TypeScript, AWS, Kong API Gateway, or similar technologies.\nExperience delivering SaaS, platform, or API-driven products.\nUnderstanding of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and platform performance management.\nExperience leading engineering transformations and scaling delivery practices within growing organizations.\nExposure to DevOps culture, cloud-native technologies, and modern engineering operating models.\nBenefits\nWhat we offer\nThe chance to work alongside a team of hard-working, passionate people in a role where you’ll see the impact of your work every day.\nWe also offer:\nFlexible work environment (3 days work from office)\nGroup Term Life Insurance paid out at 3x Annual CTC (Arbor India)\n32 days holiday (plus Arbor Holidays). This is made up of 25 days annual leave plus 7 extra companywide days given over Easter, Summer & Christmas\nWork time: 9.30 am to 6 pm (8.5 hours only)\nCompensation - 100% fixed salary disbursement and no variable component.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6670,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Annual leave","Continuous learning","Flexible schedule","Growth opportunities","Life insurance","Professional development"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["E-learning","Custom Software Development"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-04-22T00:00:00Z"},{"event":"open","at":"2026-08-31T02:53:57Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":10,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.347,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":98,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:0","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-20T05:45:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/arbor-education-technical-engineering-manager-php","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/arbor-education-technical-engineering-manager-php.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-20T15:39:15Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":17720,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2214532},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2214532"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Farbor-education-technical-engineering-manager-php"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Farbor-education-technical-engineering-manager-php"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Farbor-education-technical-engineering-manager-php"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/arbor-education-technical-engineering-manager-php\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Farbor-education-technical-engineering-manager-php"}]}