Engineering Manager

About the role

You will own the end-to-end delivery and health of multiple engineering squads, translating product strategy into technical execution through your leadership and hands-on contributions. You are responsible for coaching engineers, elevating technical practices, and driving sustainable delivery rhythms that improve quality and reliability over time. This role requires you to act as a thought partner to product and business stakeholders, challenging assumptions and shaping solutions based on data and customer insight. You will build coalitions across functions, removing blockers and aligning teams around a clear, shared vision even when direction is ambiguous. You will mentor senior and mid-level engineers, creating growth paths that enable them to take on greater ownership and impact. When complexity increases, you will bring calm, make timely decisions, and communicate tradeoffs transparently to keep momentum and trust. You will use feedback loops, service metrics, and experimentation to identify improvements and drive measurable changes in how we build and serve our customers. As a leader of leaders, you will champion engineering excellence, psychological safety, and continuous learning within your tribe and across the wider Zopa community.

Key facts

What you'll do

Lead multiple agile delivery teams, providing clear direction, removing impediments, and ensuring alignment with product and business objectives.

Own the end-to-end delivery lifecycle, from discovery and planning through execution, delivery, and retrospective learning.

Elevate engineering standards by driving improvements in code quality, testing, deployment practices, and operational reliability.

Analyse customer feedback, service data, and business metrics to uncover opportunities and prioritise work that maximises impact.

Partner with product managers, designers, and business stakeholders to shape solutions and navigate trade-offs in ambiguous environments.

Champion technical practices such as modularity, observability, and automation to enable faster, safer delivery cycles.

Build and maintain strong working relationships across functions, influencing without formal authority to advance shared goals.

Mentor engineers at all levels, providing guidance, feedback, and development opportunities that strengthen the overall capability of the team.

Act as a thought partner in cross-functional discussions, bringing data, insight, and alternative perspectives to inform strategic decisions.

Identify and mitigate risks early, establishing guardrails and contingency plans to maintain service quality and customer trust.

Promote a culture of experimentation, using controlled tests and measured outcomes to validate ideas and refine approaches.

Serve as an operational leader during incidents, guiding triage, communication, and resolution while driving improvements to prevent recurrence.

Engage with the wider Zopa community of managers to share practices, learn from peers, and contribute to enterprise-level engineering standards.

Represent the voice of the engineering organization in company forums, ensuring team priorities, constraints, and learnings are reflected in broader discussions.

Requirements

You have a proven track record of managing and growing engineering teams in a fast-paced, product-driven environment.

You hold a strong technical foundation and can comfortably navigate architectural discussions, trade-offs, and implementation details.

You have experience using customer feedback and service data to inform priorities and validate the impact of delivered solutions.

You are comfortable operating in ambiguous, rapidly changing environments where decisions must be made with incomplete information.

You demonstrate a history of building coalitions and influencing stakeholders across product, design, operations, and technology functions.

You have led the delivery of significant products or features that have impacted customers at scale.

You are passionate about mentoring engineers, creating clear growth paths, and fostering a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.

You communicate clearly and persuasively, both in writing and verbally, adapting your style for executives, engineers, and stakeholders.

Nice to have

Experience working in regulated financial services environments and understanding the associated compliance and risk considerations.

Hands-on experience with modern cloud platforms, observability tools, and automation practices that support resilient services.

Background in developing or launching consumer-facing digital products that demonstrate measurable outcomes.

Exposure to building and scaling agile delivery frameworks and coaching teams through evolutionary changes.

Practical notes

This role requires a minimum of three days per week in our London office, reflecting our hybrid working model.

Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and we encourage early submission to ensure full consideration.

We are an equal opportunities employer, committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace for all Zopians.