Engineering Manager

We are looking for an Engineering Manager to lead our Product Engineering team in Aarhus.

This is a leadership role, not a hands-on coding role. You own the production engine of Product Engineering: the people, the process, and the tools that turn ideas into shipped software. Your job is to build a strong team, keep our way of working lean and effective, and make sure engineers have the environments they need to do great work.

We work AI-augmented. Modern AI tools are a natural part of how we design, write and review software, so more of the typing is handled for us. That makes judgement the valuable work: what to build and whether it holds up as the platform grows. You make sure the team gets the most out of that, while keeping delivery healthy and predictable.

You join the Products leadership group and report to the CTO. The Lead Architect owns the platform, including the production platform. You own the people, process, and tools that build and deliver on it. The two roles work closely and depend on each other.

Your team's work reaches hundreds of thousands of people across the Nordics: job seekers navigating labour market reforms, employment professionals adapting to new digitalisation strategies, and the institutions managing that change.

Candeno serves municipalities, unemployment funds, and educational institutions across Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The platform has three sides: candidates navigating the labour market, advisors guiding them through digitalisation and compliance workflows, and companies recruiting talent. One platform, many contexts.

You will lead a team of roughly 8 to 12 engineers, growing through our H2 2026 upscaling. You will:

People

• Take full personnel responsibility for the engineers: performance, development, wellbeing, and day-to-day leadership.

• Run regular one-to-ones, give feedback, and set clear development plans for each engineer.

• Own hiring for the team, and handle underperformance and offboarding when needed.

• Grow the team through the upscaling, and build a culture of ownership and craft.

Process (delivery)

• Own the delivery part of the process (build and operate), and align closely with the discovery part (analysis and design), which is owned by the Head of Product Management.

• Keep delivery predictable and healthy: sensible planning, clear priorities, and steady flow, without heavy ceremony.

• Make sure AI tools are used well across the team, so we work faster and still build the right things.

• Remove blockers and protect focus time so the team can deliver.

Tools

• Own the development and test environments, and keep them reliable, fast, and fit for purpose.

• Work with the Lead Architect so tooling and environments fit the platform and production setup.

• Keep improving the developer experience as the team grows.

You are an engineering leader who builds strong teams and lean delivery. You have a solid engineering background, enough to earn the respect of senior engineers and to partner with a Lead Architect, even if you are no longer hands-on in code.

You will need:

• Proven experience leading and developing software engineering teams, with real people management responsibility.

• A track record of building lean, effective delivery in a fast-moving SaaS or product company.

• A solid engineering background across modern web or SaaS development.

• Experience with modern delivery tooling: development and test environments, CI/CD, containers, and running services in the cloud.

• A considered approach to AI. You help a team use modern AI tools well, and keep a critical eye on what they produce.

• Experience hiring, and comfort handling performance and difficult conversations.

• Clear communication. You can align engineers, product, and leadership, and make it feel simple.

• The kind of person who does well here:

• A leader people want to work for: supportive, clear, and fair.

• Decisive. You own the hard calls on people and priorities.

• Bias for a lean, pragmatic process over heavy structure.

• Curious about the problem, not only the delivery.

• Direct. You give feedback clearly and push back when something is not right.

After one month

You know the team, the platform, and our discovery and delivery process. You have started one-to-ones and built trust with each engineer, and you understand the current state of our development and test environments.

After three months

You own the development process day to day, with clear priorities and steady delivery. Each engineer has a development plan, and you have a plan for improving the environments. You are an active member of the Products leadership group.

After six months

Your team delivers predictably and owns its way of working. You have grown the team as planned through the upscaling, with a strong hiring bar, and you have measurably improved delivery, developer experience, and the environments.

Working at Candeno

We are a scale-up. That means real ownership, real impact, and a product that is still being shaped by the people who work on it.

We are based in Aarhus, and this is an on-site role. You join the Products leadership group, reporting to the CTO, and you work closely with the Lead Architect, the Head of Product Management, and the Product Support Manager.

We are direct and focused on doing the right thing for users. We share work early and expect you to do the same.

• Pension scheme and health insurance

• 5 extra days off after 2 years of seniority (10 in total)

• Daily lunch from Meyers Madhus

• A shared milestone programme that celebrates successes big and small

• An active social life: team events, clubs, and an engaged social committee

This is a fully on-site role in Aarhus with no remote option. You must already have the right to work in Denmark and be able to be in our office every working day from your start date. We do not offer visa sponsorship or relocation support. Applications that do not meet these conditions will not be considered, so please only apply if all of them apply to you.

• A short screening call

• A first interview, a deeper conversation about your experience and the role

• A case interview, a practical brief sent in advance

No cover letter. You will answer three short questions when you apply.

Candeno is a Nordic employment technology company based in Aarhus. We build the platform that connects candidates, advisors, and companies across municipalities, unemployment funds, and educational institutions in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Our work sits at the intersection of public sector compliance and modern product thinking, and we take both seriously.