Software Engineering Manager

Software Engineering Manager – Manchester

On behalf of our leading client based in Manchester, we are recruiting for an exceptional Software Engineering Manager. This is a senior leadership role within a fast-moving, ambitious organisation that is scaling its digital capabilities and building high-impact products across the finance and technology space.

This role is ideal for someone who brings energy, passion, and an entrepreneurial mindset, and who thrives in a startup-style environment with enterprise backing.

We are open to strong candidates from Senior / Principal / Lead Engineer backgrounds who are ready to take a step up into engineering leadership, or already operating at Engineering Manager level looking for a more impactful challenge.

You will be leading high-performing teams of up to 5-10 engineers, driving technical excellence while shaping product delivery and engineering culture.

The Software Engineering Manager will be responsible for:

Leading, inspiring, and motivating engineering teams to deliver high-quality, scalable solutions

Building a strong engineering culture centred on ownership, innovation, and rapid delivery

Partnering closely with Product to translate vision into robust technical solutions

Coaching, mentoring, and developing engineers through 1:1s, feedback, and career development support

Driving agile delivery and embedding DevOps best practices across teams

Championing a “build fast, learn fast” mindset while maintaining engineering quality and discipline

Contributing to solution design, architecture decisions, and technical direction

Ensuring systems are designed with strong attention to non-functional requirements (security, scalability, reliability, performance)

The Software Engineering Manager will have the following:

Proven experience leading or mentoring engineering teams (or strong senior/principal engineers ready to step into leadership)

Strong hands-on background in modern software development

Experience working in fast-paced, product-led or startup-style environments A genuine passion for building scalable, high-quality technical solutions

Desirable but not essential:

Experience with distributed systems and microservices architectures

Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines and DevOps culture

Exposure to mobile-first or cross-platform product development

Background in data-driven or high-availability systems

What we are really looking for:

Entrepreneurial mindset with a strong sense of ownership

Someone who challenges the status quo and drives improvement

Passion for building products that deliver real business and customer value

Ability to balance technical depth with people leadership and delivery focus

Generous holiday allowance plus additional birthday day off

Pension scheme and annual salary review

Opportunity to shape engineering culture in a scaling business

High autonomy and real influence on product and technical direction

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