Senior Software Engineering Manager

About talabat

talabat stands as the premier on-demand platform for food and non-food deliveries across the MENA region, operating in eight countries and handling hundreds of millions of orders annually. As part of the global leader Delivery Hero, talabat prioritizes an engineering-first approach. Our teams embrace eXtreme Programming (XP) principles such as Test-Driven Development (TDD), pair programming, continuous refactoring, and trunk-based development to drive quality and speed. Our engineering culture forms a vital competitive edge, and we seek leaders who embody these values.

Role Overview

In the role of Senior Engineering Manager, you will oversee multiple engineering teams—typically 4 squads consisting of about 20 engineers—within a defined technical domain. Your responsibilities include defining the domain's technical strategy aligned with product leadership, fostering a supportive and growth-oriented environment for engineers, ensuring delivery excellence through effective planning and feedback mechanisms, driving technical solutions that align with business goals, and collaborating across functions to maintain alignment and resolve uncertainty.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a 12 to 18 month technical vision for your domain in coordination with product leadership and engineering teams.
• Create and maintain a healthy team environment by leading hiring efforts, mentoring individual contributors and junior managers, and fostering psychological safety.
• Ensure project delivery excellence by guiding your teams through discovery, planning, and iterative execution using small-batch delivery and continuous feedback.
• Translate product goals into practical technical implementations and communicate the domain’s impact on business outcomes.
• Partner with product, design, and business stakeholders to clarify ambiguities and align objectives.
• Lead critical technical decisions around system design, architecture, and engineering practices focusing on scalability, security, and performance standards.

Expected Milestones

• Within 90 days: Complete team onboarding, understand current technical challenges and roadmaps, and provide feedback on domain health and priorities.
• Within 6 months: Teams consistently deliver value, identify and mentor emerging technical leaders, support cross-domain initiatives, and improve code quality and shipping speed.
• Within 12 months: Establish and effectively communicate a clear technical vision for the domain, significantly develop at least one engineer towards senior roles, lead key strategic initiatives beyond your domain, and mentor future managers.

Qualifications

• At least 4 years of experience in hands-on technical leadership managing engineering teams.
• Proven capability in hiring, mentoring, and nurturing engineers beyond just technical expertise.
• Comfort and effectiveness in cross-functional leadership with product, design, and business counterparts.
• Strong emotional intelligence to manage ambiguity, constructively handle conflict, and ensure psychological safety.
• Minimum 8 years of practical software engineering experience with production systems.
• Deep expertise in at least one technical area such as distributed systems, backend infrastructure, data platforms, mobile, or web-scale systems.
• Demonstrated experience making impactful architectural decisions across diverse technology stacks.
• Understanding or willingness to lead using XP practices including TDD, pair programming, continuous refactoring, and trunk-based development.
• Insight into non-functional requirements including scalability, reliability, latency, cost efficiency, and security.
• Experience balancing speed with technical debt and knowing when to optimize or simplify solutions.
• Leadership involvement in domain-level decisions like tech stack migrations and architectural transformations.

Desirable Experience

• Managing multiple teams or domains within fast-growing companies.
• Exposure to eXtreme Programming methodologies and culture.
• Background in marketplaces, delivery services, or logistics optimization.
• Experience mentoring or developing engineering managers.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.

Why Join talabat?

• Drive impact at scale by influencing millions of daily orders throughout MENA and building scalable technical foundations.
• Work within a genuine XP engineering culture emphasizing quality through TDD, pair programming, and continuous delivery, resulting in faster shipping.
• Lead autonomous teams with ownership over their roadmaps and quality without being a bottleneck.
• Access clear career advancement paths with mentoring opportunities towards higher leadership roles such as Director or Tribe Leader.
• Solve complex real-world problems in food delivery operating across multiple countries balancing speed, quality, and sustainability.