Engineering Manager

About the Role

As our projects increase in number, there is a growing need for someone focused on managing engineers directly. This role involves hiring, supporting professional growth, managing staffing, and identifying issues within teams before clients become aware. You'll collaborate closely with technical leads who focus on the technology direction and delivery leads responsible for scope and budget. Your main responsibility is managing the people and the environment they operate in, which in our small company means you will be hands-on rather than delegating tasks entirely.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct meaningful one-on-one meetings that are well-prepared and result in actionable outcomes.
• Oversee all aspects of the engineering recruitment process, ensuring a high standard, efficient interview loop, constructive feedback, and a positive candidate experience regardless of the outcome.
• Assign engineers to projects effectively, balancing client satisfaction and individual professional development, and communicate clearly when these objectives conflict.
• Recognize early signs of potential problems such as overloaded teams, stalled projects, or disengaged employees.
• Develop a clear career progression framework outlining levels, expectations, and criteria beyond mere title changes.
• Maintain capacity control by collaborating with delivery leads to align commitments with realistic resource availability.
• Stay technically engaged by participating in architectural reviews, pairing on challenging problems, and being familiar with each codebase to anticipate risks before leads do.

Qualifications and Desired Experience

• At least three years of experience managing engineering teams, including conducting hiring and performance reviews, and learning from less successful decisions.
• Active engagement with code through reviewing pull requests despite not necessarily coding new features.
• Experience in high-volume hiring using structured interviews and the ability to clearly articulate the hiring standards to candidates.
• Use of delivery metrics such as cycle time, review latency, and incident rates to address root causes rather than assign blame.
• Competency in handling performance management including reviews, promotions, and difficult discussions with underperformers.
• Proven ability to staff projects effectively to satisfy both client needs and engineer development.
• Experience acting as the point of escalation during production incidents, communicating calmly with clients and internal stakeholders.
• Background as an engineer, enabling meaningful participation in architecture discussions.
• Designing or improving interview processes that clearly define selection criteria.
• Fluent verbal and written English communication skills; Arabic proficiency is an advantage.
• Comfortable addressing difficult conversations promptly and personally.
• Understanding the impact of client-driven constraints on management roles.
• Awareness of AI tools influencing engineering standards and ability to hire and mentor accordingly.

Personal Attributes

• Highly trusted by team members who confide in you before decisions like resignations occur.
• Fair and equitable, applying consistent standards across all team members.
• Well-organized, particularly important for managing rapid hiring processes.

Additional Preferences

• Experience working in agencies, consultancies, or studios with multiple simultaneous projects.
• Successful track record of rapidly growing teams without compromising culture.
• Familiarity with managing distributed teams across MENA time zones.

Why Join Us?

• Remote work opportunities throughout the MENA region with schedules tailored to team collaboration rather than enforced attendance.
• Opportunity to deliver live products within weeks instead of quarters, allowing you to showcase your work readily.
• Small teams handling projects end-to-end, providing significant ownership and involvement.
• Autonomy to select your own equipment, software licenses, and tools without bureaucratic delays.
• A dedicated learning budget accompanied by time allocations to pursue courses or conferences.
• Direct client interaction from day one, participating in important decision-making meetings.
• Generous time-off policy without timesheet tracking, focusing on project outcomes rather than time logged.