Engineering Manager

We are looking for a talented Engineering Manager to join a dynamic German startup (heavily AI-driven). This is NOT a traditional engineering manager role. We don't want process-heavy management, micromanagement, or someone who needs to review code. We want a servant leader who creates the environment for senior engineers to thrive!

The Role

You'll manage 9+ senior engineers organized in 3 semi-autonomous pods. Your job is to enable, not control - remove blockers, foster ownership, scale the team, and free up the CTO to focus on strategy and sales.

How We're Different

AI-first development:

• Engineers code primarily with Claude Code (agentic AI coding)
• We believe AI amplifies engineering capability, not replaces it
• You don't need to use AI tools yourself, but you must understand they're core to how we work
• Old-school "AI is a crutch" mindset won't work here

Product-driven engineers:

• CTO defines WHAT to build (which clients, which integrations, business priorities)
• Engineers define HOW (technical approach, architecture, implementation, create their own tickets)
• Engineers own outcomes, not just tasks
• You facilitate, you don't dictate

Startup:

• small team people, fast-growing, things aren't set in stone
• We try things, learn, iterate quickly
• A lot of interviews!
• Light process, high trust, high autonomy
• If you need structure and predictability, this isn't for you

Autonomous pods:

• 3 pods: Core Platform, Content/Integrations, B2B Client Integrations
• Pods self-organize their daily work
• You coordinate across pods, you don't manage within them

What You Actually Do

People management (40%):

• 1-on-1s with 9 engineers (bi-weekly or weekly)
• Performance coaching, career development, growth paths
• Build and maintain team culture (autonomy, ownership, collaboration)
• Live and breath our core values: ownership, transparency, simplicity
• Handle interpersonal conflicts and team dynamics
• Manage Staff Engineer/Tech Lead who's brilliant technically but occasionally difficult interpersonally
• Create psychological safety and high-performance environment

Hiring & scaling (30%):

• Scale team from 9 to 16 engineers over next 6-12 months
• Run hiring process (sourcing, interviews, offers)
• Hire senior product-minded engineers who thrive with autonomy
• Screen for AI-first mindset and ability to work with agentic coding tools
• Build diverse, high-performing team

Coordination & delivery (20%):

• Attend 2-3 pod dailies to understand what's being built and spot blockers
• Translate CTO's high-level priorities into business context engineers need
• Weekly cross-pod sync to surface dependencies and conflicts
• Track delivery without micromanaging
• Remove blockers (vendor credentials, unclear requirements, cross-pod conflicts)
• Weekly status to CTO: what's shipping, what's blocked, what needs decisions

Culture & process (10%):

• Foster autonomy and product-mindset in engineers
• Keep process lightweight - add only what serves the team
• Protect team from unnecessary meetings and bureaucracy
• Scale culture as team grows (autonomy + ownership + AI-first)
• Challenge and improve what's not working

You ARE Responsible For:

1. Team health, performance, and growth of 9+ engineers
2. Hiring and scaling to 16 engineers
3. Daily coordination and cross-pod alignment
4. Delivery tracking (projects ship on time with quality)
5. Removing blockers and enabling autonomy
6. Translating CTO's priorities into context engineers understand
7. Maintaining high-trust, low-process culture as team scales
8. Making operational decisions (who works on what, pod structure, etc.)
9. Weekly reporting to CTO

You Are NOT Responsible For:

1. Code reviews or technical decisions (Staff Engineer + engineers own this)
2. Deciding WHAT to build (CTO owns product strategy and priorities)
3. Technical architecture (Staff Engineer + engineers decide)
4. Writing specs or creating tickets (engineers do this)
5. Implementing heavy process or ceremonies
6. Sales or client relationship ownership (CTO owns this, you support)

You're a Great Fit If:

Must-haves:

1. 5+ years managing engineering teams (10-20+ engineers, senior teams preferred)
2. CRITICAL: Servant leader mindset - You enable and remove blockers, you don't control or micromanage
3. CRITICAL: Startup experience - You've worked in fast-moving, chaotic environments where things change quickly
4. CRITICAL: Product-driven culture experience - You've managed engineers who own outcomes and make decisions, not just execute tasks
5. Comfortable with AI-augmented development - You understand AI coding tools are the future, even if you don't code yourself
6. High autonomy environment - You've fostered independence and ownership instead of creating dependency
7. Scaling experience - You've grown teams from 10 to 30+ while maintaining culture
8. Technical credibility - You don't code anymore, but you understand engineering well enough to have credibility with senior engineers
9. Comfortable with brilliant but difficult people - You can manage a technically strong but interpersonally rough tech lead
10. Low-process advocate - You add process only when it serves the team, not because "that's how it’s done”

Nice-to-haves:

• B2B SaaS or integration/API product experience
• Travel/tourism industry knowledge
• Experience with distributed/remote teams
• Hired and managed engineers from multiple countries/cultures

Red Flags - You Won't Work Here If:

1. You want to review code or make technical decisions (that's not your job)
2. You believe in heavy process (Scrum ceremonies, status reports, strict planning)
3. You think AI coding tools make engineers lazy or produce bad code
4. You need predictability and structure (startup chaos will frustrate you)
5. You want to shield engineers from clients/stakeholders (we want direct communication)
6. You micromanage or need to know every detail of what engineers are doing
7. You came from big tech and expect corporate structure/resources/process
8. You're uncomfortable giving engineers autonomy to make decisions
9. You need engineers to ask permission before acting
10. You're uncomfortable with ambiguity and making decisions with incomplete information