Engineering Manager

There's a big difference between inheriting an engineering team and being the person who helps shape how it grows.

We're working with an early stage AI startup looking for its first Engineering Manager. Until now, the team has reported directly to the CTO. With the business growing, it's time for someone to take ownership of how the team develops, hires and delivers.

This isn't a turnaround job or an opportunity to introduce process for the sake of it. The foundations are good. The opportunity is to build on them.

The role

There's no established playbook to inherit. You'll work directly with the CTO and founders to shape how the engineering team operates, from developing people and making hiring decisions to improving delivery as the business scales.

You'll get to know the team properly, help each engineer progress and create an environment where people can do their best work without being bogged down in unnecessary process.

You'll also have a big say in who joins next; identifying gaps, shaping hiring decisions, and building out the team thoughtfully, drawing on your own experience of what changes as an engineering team grows.

Delivery will sit firmly with you, too. You'll help the team make realistic commitments, spot problems early and give the CTO confidence that things are moving in the right direction, without needing to oversee every decision.

There's an interesting AI angle here as well. The team uses coding agents in its everyday workflow, and you'll help figure out what good engineering looks like when AI changes how software gets built. That means thinking about everything from code review and testing to planning and quality.

You won't need to write production code all day, but you'll need to stay close enough to the technical detail to have a meaningful opinion.

Who are we looking for?

You've moved from software engineering into management and have already taken a team through a meaningful period of growth. You can explain what worked, what started to break as the team got bigger and what you did about it.

You're comfortable in an early stage environment where people have plenty of autonomy, and things move quickly. You know when to introduce structure and when to get out of the way.

You're deliberate about developing people, confident making hiring decisions and technically credible. You're also actively using AI tools yourself, rather than just keeping an eye on developments from a distance.

Most importantly, you want the ownership that comes with being the first person in this role. You don't need everything figured out for you; you'd rather work it out alongside the CTO and build something that lasts.

Why it's worth a conversation

You'll have a genuine say in how the engineering function develops, working directly with the CTO and founders to build out the team and establish how it operates as the business grows.

There's already a strong team and plenty of momentum. Your job is to make it even better, without losing what makes it good in the first place.

If you've scaled an engineering team before and fancy having that sort of ownership again, I'd be keen to have a chat.