Engineering Manager

We are looking for an experienced Engineering Manager to lead three SCRUM teams working on HotSchedules Labor, our workforce management product. You will own delivery, people management, and engineering processes across teams of full-stack Java developers, tech leads, and QA automation engineers. This is a management-focused role. You will not write code daily, but you need strong technical depth to evaluate architectural decisions and challenge technical trade-offs. The teams use AI coding agents in their daily work, and you will be expected to support and grow this practice.

The teams are distributed across Ukraine, Latin America, and the US. EU-timezone working hours are required. You will run cross-team ceremonies, stakeholder updates, and escalation calls, so strong English communication skills are a must.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead three SCRUM teams end-to-end: sprint planning, backlog refinement, retrospectives, and delivery commitments

• Own delivery outcomes and make sure teams consistently hit sprint goals and roadmap milestones

• Manage ~15-20 engineers across three teams: tech leads, senior full-stack developers, and QA automation engineers

• Run regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and career development conversations

• Remove blockers, manage cross-team dependencies, and escalate risks early

• Work with product management to align engineering capacity with business priorities

• Maintain engineering standards: code reviews, CI/CD discipline, test coverage, and release quality

• Expand the use of AI coding agents across all three teams, track adoption and productivity metrics, and report results to leadership

• Coordinate cross-team technical initiatives such as platform upgrades, migrations, and tech-debt reduction

• Own hiring for your teams: define staffing needs, run interviews, and onboard new members

• Report delivery status, risks, and metrics to senior leadership and client stakeholders

• Build and maintain a strong team culture across distributed time zones

Requirements

Must-Have

• Proven experience managing multiple engineering teams simultaneously, navigating cross-team dependencies and balancing competing priorities

• 8+ years of professional software development experience with a strong Java background

• Advanced English proficiency (daily meetings, stakeholder calls, and written communication)

• At least 6 months of hands-on experience with AI coding agents (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor) or direct experience managing teams that actively use them

• Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud platform (AWS or Azure)

• EU-timezone availability

Strongly Preferred

• Track record of delivering software in Agile/SCRUM environments with distributed, international teams

• Solid understanding of the Java/Spring ecosystem, relational databases, and modern front-end frameworks (React)

• Experience managing QA functions, including test automation strategy and quality metrics

• Experience with capacity planning and delivery forecasting

Nice to Have

• Domain experience in workforce management, scheduling, or labor optimization

• Familiarity with event-driven and message-queue architectures

• Experience managing teams through legacy-to-modern migration efforts

• Exposure to Playwright-based test automation frameworks

• Experience with Azure DevOps pipelines and CI/CD orchestration across multiple teams

We offer*:

• Flexible working format - remote, office-based or flexible

• A competitive salary and good compensation package

• Personalized career growth

• Professional development tools (mentorship program, tech talks and trainings, centers of excellence, and more)

• Active tech communities with regular knowledge sharing

• Education reimbursement

• Memorable anniversary presents

• Corporate events and team buildings

• Other location-specific benefits

*not applicable for freelancers (part time)