Senior Engineering Manager

About the role

Leapsome is the AI-powered people platform revolutionizing HR for modern teams. The company drives HR excellence and empowers high-performing teams by automating, connecting, and simplifying every HR process across the employee lifecycle, from onboarding and performance management to engagement and development. Built with ease of use in mind, the platform ensures high adoption by employees, managers, and People teams alike. The purpose of the company is to make work fulfilling for everyone, and the vision is to reshape the future of work by becoming the leading People platform for HR excellence and high-performing teams. This role owns the responsibility for one of the core People Enablement-focused cross-functional squads, directly influencing critical product areas such as reviews, goals, instant feedback meetings, learning management system, and calendar integrations. The Senior Engineering Manager will guide engineers toward thoughtful, scalable decisions emphasizing simplicity and maintainability, focusing on core user challenges with a strong product engineering mindset. This position will also shape squad rituals, performance expectations, and decision-making frameworks, balancing autonomy with alignment while mentoring fellow Engineering Managers and contributing to cross-squad leadership topics.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Lead, coach, and grow a team of highly capable engineers, supporting their career development, motivation, and performance across the entire lifecycle of our HRIS modules.
• Own the technical strategy and delivery of HRIS modules, navigating complex workflows, compliance requirements, and scalability demands of a global platform.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, Legal, and Leadership to ensure your squad delivers secure, scalable, and user-focused solutions that align with enterprise needs.
• Stay hands-on and contribute code regularly, especially in moments of complexity, risk, or when unblocking the team to maintain momentum and quality.
• Drive architectural decisions, advocate for quality, and ensure consistent, pragmatic engineering practices across the backend and frontend stacks.
• Guide engineers to avoid over-engineering, prioritize high-impact solutions, and foster sustainable, scalable decision-making that supports long-term growth.
• Encourage long-term thinking, clear trade-offs, and curiosity-driven problem solving to navigate evolving requirements and technical constraints.
• Evolve and improve our workflows, team structure, and use of tooling (including AI-assisted development) with a focus on productivity, sustainability, and engineering excellence.
• Own communication with stakeholders, proactively aligning priorities, sharing context, and providing visibility into progress for all HRIS-related initiatives.
• Shape squad rituals, performance expectations, and decision-making frameworks to create a high-trust environment that balances autonomy with alignment.
• Contribute directly to the codebase by writing, reviewing, and refactoring code to uphold the highest standards of maintainability and performance.
• Partner closely with Product Managers to translate user needs into technical specifications that are robust, scalable, and secure.
• Ensure all solutions comply with relevant data protection regulations and industry standards through careful planning and implementation.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing within the engineering organization.
• Track and report on squad health, delivery metrics, and technical debt to inform strategic decisions and improve engineering processes.

Requirements

• Have 6+ years of experience as a software engineer and 4+ years as an engineering manager, with a track record of growing people and delivering impactful software in complex environments.
• Be comfortable working across the full technology stack, switching context between frontend, backend, and infrastructure tasks as needed for the success of the squad.
• Demonstrate a willingness to dive into code directly when necessary, diagnosing issues, performing critical code reviews, and unblocking team members during high-pressure situations.
• Have led teams working on transactional, compliance-sensitive systems such as HRIS, payroll, finance, or SaaS platforms where security, reliability, and scalability are non-negotiable.
• Show a strong understanding of software architecture patterns, data modeling, and integration strategies required for enterprise-grade applications.
• Exhibit excellent judgment in making trade-offs between speed, quality, and long-term maintainability while communicating rationale clearly to stakeholders.
• Bring experience with modern JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystems, including practical knowledge of frameworks and libraries used in production-grade web applications.
• Proven ability to work effectively in Agile environments, participating in ceremonies, refining backlogs, and adapting plans based on feedback and changing priorities.

Nice to have

There are no preferred items listed in the SOURCE beyond the core requirements and responsibilities.

Practical notes

The role is based in Berlin and requires full-time engagement. No specific hours, travel requirements, visa information, or application deadlines are provided in the SOURCE.