Engineering Manager

We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to lead and grow our core engineering teams.

This is a hands-on leadership role sitting at the intersection of people management, delivery, and technical decision-making. You're a hands on manager comfortable going deep into technical discussions, challenging designs, and helping the team make the right trade-offs.

You’ll be responsible for building a high-performing team, ensuring predictable delivery, maintaining engineering quality, and partnering closely with Product, DevOps, and other engineering leaders to scale Runware’s platform.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership & People Management

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of engineers in a fast-scaling environment
• Create a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement
• Support individual growth through regular 1:1s, feedback, and coaching
• Participate in hiring, onboarding, and performance management

Delivery & Execution

• Own team execution: planning, prioritization, and delivery of engineering work
• Ensure projects are delivered on time, with high quality and clear ownership
• Identify risks early and proactively remove blockers
• Balance speed, reliability, and technical debt in a pragmatic way

Technical & Architectural Oversight

• Act as a technical sounding board on system design, architecture, and trade-offs
• Ensure backend systems are scalable, reliable, and performant
• Promote best practices around code quality, testing, observability, and security
• Partner closely with other teams like DevOps and Product to align technical direction

Cross-functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Product, DevOps, ML and other teams to ensure strong alignment
• Translate business and product goals into clear engineering execution plans
• Communicate clearly and proactively in a fully remote environment

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 3 years in an engineering management or tech lead role
• Strong backend background (PHP, Python, Go, Rust or similar), with solid understanding of distributed systems
• Proven experience leading teams and delivering complex technical projects end-to-end
• Comfortable discussing system design, APIs, performance, and scalability
• Experience with modern engineering practices: CI/CD, testing, code reviews, monitoring
• Strong people leadership skills: empathy, clarity, and the ability to raise the bar without burning teams out
• Excellent communication skills and ability to operate autonomously in a remote setup

Nice to Have

• Experience working on high-scale platforms, infrastructure, or developer-facing APIs
• Exposure to AI/ML platforms, inference systems, or performance-critical workloads
• Previous experience in fast-growing startups or scale-ups

Benefits

We’re a remote-first collective, meeting in person twice a year to plan, brainstorm, celebrate wins, and enjoy some face-to-face time. We have core hours for cooperative working and calls, but outside of that your calendar is yours. Work the hours that let you perform at your peak while also building a healthy life.

Our release cycles are fast and intense, but they’re followed by real downtime. After big pushes we expect the team to unplug, recharge, and come back ready & stronger than ever for the next leap.

• Generous paid time off – vacation, sick days, public holidays
• Meaningful stock options – share in the upside you create
• Remote-first setup – work from home anywhere we can employ you
• Flexible hours – own your schedule outside core collaboration blocks
• Family leave – paid maternity, paternity, and caregiver time
• Company retreats – twice-yearly gatherings in inspiring locations

Please note: We are unable to offer visa sponsorship in the UK at this time. Candidates must have existing right to work in the UK.

Requires 8+ years in software engineering, including 3+ years in engineering management or tech leadership, backend expertise, distributed systems knowledge, project delivery, and strong people leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• leading teams
• planning delivery
• overseeing architecture

Skills & Tools

PHP, Python, Go, Rust, CI/CD, APIs

Job Details

• Category: Engineering
• Seniority: Senior Level
• Commitment: Full Time
• Workplace: Remote — London or United Kingdom
• Languages: English

Benefits

• Generous paid time off
• Generous parental leave

About Runware

An AI API platform that helps developers add media generation capabilities without managing infrastructure. — Industry: Information Technology