Senior Engineering Manager

We are looking for a highly motivated and experienced engineering manager - backend (Java) to lead a team of software engineers in designing, building, and scaling high-performance backend systems. The ideal candidate will have a strong technical background in Java, microservices, cloud platforms, and distributed systems, along with proven people management and leadership experience. You will be responsible for driving technical excellence, mentoring engineers, and collaborating with product, architecture, QA, and DevOps teams to deliver reliable and scalable software solutions.

The candidate will have responsibilities across the following functions:

Engineering Leadership:

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of backend engineers.
• Conduct regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and career development discussions.
• Foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Hire and onboard top engineering talent.
• Drive sprint planning, estimation, and delivery commitments.

Technical Responsibilities:

• Architect and design scalable, secure, and high-performance backend systems.
• Develop and maintain microservices using Java and Spring Boot.
• Define coding standards, best practices, and design patterns.
• Review code and provide technical guidance to the team.
• Ensure system reliability, scalability, and maintainability.
• Lead troubleshooting and root cause analysis for production issues.

Delivery and Execution:

• Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to define roadmaps and priorities.
• Ensure timely delivery of high-quality software.
• Manage technical debt and system modernisation initiatives.
• Track engineering metrics and continuously improve team productivity.

Cloud and DevOps:

• Oversee deployment and infrastructure management on AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Implement CI/CD pipelines and automation.
• Ensure monitoring, logging, and alerting are in place.
• Promote DevOps and site reliability engineering practices.

Architecture and Innovation:

• Drive architecture discussions and technical decision-making.
• Evaluate new technologies and tools.
• Promote system observability, security, and cost optimisation.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field.
• 8-12+ years of software development experience.
• 2-5+ years of engineering management experience.
• Strong expertise in Java (Java 8/11/17+) and Spring Boot.
• Experience with microservices architecture and RESTful APIs.
• Strong knowledge of distributed systems and event-driven architecture.
• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases.
• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms, preferably AWS.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong understanding of software design principles and best practices.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Kafka or other messaging platforms.
• Exposure to GraphQL.
• Knowledge of security best practices (OAuth2 JWT, SSO).
• Experience in high-scale SaaS or fintech platforms.
• Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies.

Technical Skills:

• Programming and Frameworks: Java 8/11/17+, Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Spring Data, Spring Security, Hibernate/JPA.
• Architecture: Microservices, event-driven architecture, domain-driven design (DDD), design patterns.