Engineering Manager

We are looking for an Engineering Manager, with a Backend focus, to join us in Berlin. Reporting directly to the CTO, you will support our existing cross-functional team: Search.

The Search team is at the heart of Ecosia’s product. We integrate search results and advertising solutions from our external providers (including Google and Microsoft). We develop and operate highly available and high-performing backend services, as well as parts of Ecosia’s search user experience. Security, reliability, speed, and efficiency are core to our backend and frontend solutions.

As our people lead, you will enable our engineers to grow professionally and empower the team to work autonomously. As part of a creative cross-functional team, you will work on products that directly improve the search experience of millions of users, ensure that our ad revenue is growing, and that internal and external stakeholder expectations are managed.

In addition, you will assist our team in maintaining high operational standards, establishing software development & cloud infrastructure best practices, and growing the company’s knowledge in Backend and Search technologies.

You will enhance our equitable, inclusive, curious, and fun Engineering culture with your Product and Engineering management peers. Join us to be a part of the evolution of Search!

What you’ll be doing:

• Be on top of a highly available search technology, and ensure operational excellence.

• Enable your team to be self-sufficient by removing roadblocks, facilitating technical decisions, providing the right tools, and assisting the team.

• Work alongside the team to overcome backend-specific challenges. Readily engage at all levels, from detailed execution to strategic high-level insights, based on your team’s needs.

• Ensure the seamless execution and timely delivery of backend and frontend projects.

• Collaborate with stakeholders across our Search teams to implement cross-team initiatives, e.g. search layouts, ML intent recognition, & data pipelines.

• Manage stakeholders and engineering efforts with our joint venture to build European Search Perspective.

• Advise Product and Engineering stakeholders on strategic backend and search technology investments.

• Work with the CTO and Engineering Management peers on the company’s Engineering Strategy.

• Onboard great engineering talent to build an innovative, fun, and diverse team.

• Inspire an atmosphere of continuous improvement and ensure that engineers learn and share their knowledge and insights across teams.

• Hold regular 1:1s, feedback, and growth conversations to plan and support career development, including coaching and mentoring.

• Review team's performance, ensuring compensation and evaluation are fair and equitable.

• Embrace diversity and co-create a collaborative and inclusive culture in line with our company values.

What you bring:

• You are skilled at developing and growing people and have a documented history of leading, managing, coaching, and mentoring software engineers, for at least 3 years.

• You possess a solid background in Software Engineering (Backend) (including programming languages such as Go & JavaScript and AWS cloud), showcasing the ability to effectively guide the team through the whole development life cycle.

• You have prior experience working as a software or ML engineer and know how to apply modern engineering practices to ensure continuous delivery and experimentation.

• You have a bias towards action and pragmatism, both in your work, as well as in your enablement of others.

Process:

1. Recruiter call

2. Management Interview

3. Technical Interview (can be on-site for Berliners and combined with nr 4)

4. People mgmt / Coaching (can be on-site and combined with nr 3)

5. Product Management and Culture Interview

Why Ecosia?

• What if your job made a real difference in the climate crisis? Join Ecosia and help plant millions of trees where people and ecosystems need them most.

• We are a diverse team, committed to equality, equity, and inclusion, with members of various backgrounds: sexual orientations, genders, ages, races, ethnicities, nationalities, physical and mental disabilities, family structures, and religions.

• We offer you the opportunity to balance work with other parts of your life. (Flexible working hours, 30 vacation days/year on a five-day week, designated Focus Times, remote work options) (not applicable to freelance contracts + different labor laws apply in other countries).

• Moving to Berlin for the first time? We welcome everyone and offer relocation support and visa/work permit assistance to new employees and their loved ones coming from abroad and within Germany (applicable for unlimited contracts).

• Our green benefits program, including subsidized public transport cards and bike inspection services, supports your sustainable living choices, varying by location (not applicable to freelance contracts).

• We support your professional growth through monthly learning days, hack days, online and physical libraries, a 2000€ development allowance per year, continuous feedback, etc. (not applicable to freelance contracts).

Q&A

How many people work at Ecosia?

113 (January 2025) - our departments include Engineering (incl. Platform), Product (incl. Design & BI), Marketing, Trees, Operations, and People and Culture.

Where is Ecosia based and what kind of a work set-up do we have?

We are a remote-friendly company with one office in Berlin-Wedding. People come to the office or work from home per their wishes and/or circumstances. Some roles require presence in the office at least from time to time. The Talent Partner will tell you more.