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