Engineering Manager

About the role

Flow Traders is looking for an experienced Engineering Manager to take ownership of their engineering teams based in Amsterdam. In this role, you will be responsible for guiding a group of software engineers who build and maintain the systems that power electronic trading across global markets. The position requires someone who can balance hands-on technical leadership with people management, setting the vision for how engineering teams should operate and grow. You will play a key part in shaping the technical culture of the organization, ensuring that the team delivers reliable, performant software that meets the demanding needs of the trading floor.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Lead and mentor a team of software engineers, providing guidance on technical approaches and career development.
• Define and enforce engineering best practices around code quality, system design, documentation, and operational reliability.
• Work alongside product and business stakeholders to plan feature delivery and manage engineering priorities effectively.
• Own the full software development lifecycle, from initial requirements gathering through deployment and production monitoring.
• Conduct regular performance reviews and facilitate growth conversations that help each engineer reach their potential.
• Drive architectural decisions for trading systems, ensuring designs meet requirements for speed, scalability, and fault tolerance.
• Identify bottlenecks in development workflows and implement process improvements that increase team velocity and output.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for the engineering team in cross-departmental planning and strategy sessions.
• Oversee recruitment efforts, including writing job descriptions, screening candidates, and leading technical interviews for open roles.
• Foster an inclusive team environment where engineers feel empowered to take ownership of their work and share ideas.
• Coordinate with other engineering managers to align roadmaps, share knowledge, and solve cross-team dependencies.
• Establish key performance indicators and dashboards to track team health, delivery progress, and system reliability metrics.

Requirements

• Several years of experience managing engineering teams, with demonstrated success in delivering complex software products.
• Deep knowledge of distributed systems architecture and the challenges involved in building low-latency, high-throughput applications.
• Strong written and verbal communication abilities, with the capacity to explain technical trade-offs to diverse audiences.
• Hands-on experience with agile or iterative development frameworks and modern DevOps practices for continuous delivery.
• A university degree in computer science, software engineering, or a closely related technical discipline.
• Track record of building, scaling, and retaining high-performing engineering teams in demanding environments.
• Understanding of financial markets, electronic trading, or related domains is considered a strong advantage.
• Ability to make timely, well-reasoned technical decisions while balancing competing priorities and resource constraints.
• Comfort with ambiguity and the willingness to roll up your sleeves when the team faces difficult technical challenges.

Nice to have

• Hands-on experience with cloud computing platforms such as Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform for building scalable infrastructure.
• Previous exposure to mentoring other managers or leading engineering organizations through periods of significant growth and change.
• Familiarity with containerization technologies like Docker and orchestration systems such as Kubernetes for managing application deployments.
• Background in real-time data processing, event streaming, or message queue systems commonly used in trading environments.
• Experience contributing to open-source projects or publishing technical content that demonstrates thought leadership in the engineering community.

Skills & tools

• Proficiency in general-purpose programming languages including Java, C++, or Python for developing high-performance backend services.
• Working knowledge of version control systems, particularly Git, for managing collaborative codebases and branching strategies.
• Experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines that automate testing, building, and deployment of software changes.
• Familiarity with observability and monitoring tools that provide visibility into application performance and system health.
• Ability to use project management and issue-tracking platforms to organize sprints, prioritize backlogs, and measure progress.
• Understanding of relational and non-relational database systems for storing, querying, and managing application data efficiently.

Practical notes

• This position is located in Amsterdam and requires regular on-site attendance at the Flow Traders office during business hours.
• The Engineering Manager will report into the VP of Engineering or an equivalent senior technical leadership role within the company.
• The working environment is fast-paced and performance-sensitive, reflecting the real-time nature of electronic trading operations.
• Specific details regarding visa sponsorship, relocation support, or other employment benefits have not been disclosed in the available information.
• Candidates should expect to participate in on-call rotations or incident response duties as part of the engineering responsibilities.
• The hiring process may include multiple technical and behavioral interviews designed to assess both leadership capability and engineering depth.