Senior Engineering Manager - Platform (Remote)

Position Summary:

Crystal Intelligence is seeking an experienced Senior Engineering Manager to lead our Platform Squads, which form the backbone of our engineering efforts. These squads oversee the Core Platform, Core Data (including blockchain integrations), Developer Experience (DevEx), and DevOps. This is an 80% management role and 20% hands-on, focusing on driving technical excellence, fostering a high-performing team culture, and ensuring efficient processes to deliver scalable and reliable platform solutions that power our products and services.

At Crystal Expert, Engineering Managers are accountable for the process, ensuring that workflows run smoothly, priorities are aligned with business goals, and teams adhere to best practices in agile development. The successful candidate will work directly with a team of approximately 20 engineers while being part of a broader engineering organization of 50+ engineers, managing cross-squad dependencies and scaling engineering processes to meet organisational needs.

This is a fully remote role, open to candidates across Europe.

More details: crystalintelligence.com

Duties and responsibilities:

Leadership & Team Development:

• Manage and mentor a team of engineers and engineering leads across multiple squads, fostering growth and professional development.
• Build a collaborative and inclusive team culture that promotes innovation, quality, and accountability.
• Set clear goals and expectations, provide regular feedback, and ensure team alignment with company objectives.

Process Management & Accountability:

• Own and refine team processes, ensuring adherence to agile methodologies (e.g., Scrum) and facilitating key ceremonies (standups, sprint planning, retrospectives).
• Oversee task management in JIRA, ensuring proper prioritization, assignment, and execution of work.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define and manage roadmaps, timelines, and deliverables.
• Drive a culture of accountability for respecting and optimizing team processes.

Technical Strategy & Execution:

• Drive the technical vision and roadmap for the Core Platform, Data Pipelines, DevEx, and DevOps squads.
• Ensure the delivery of robust, high-performance data pipelines, including blockchain integrations, with a focus on scalability and reliability.
• Advocate for best practices in software development, DevOps, and developer productivity across all squads.
• Occasionally contribute hands-on to solve critical challenges or guide technical direction.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Partner with product managers, engineering managers, and other stakeholders to align platform goals with business priorities.
• Work closely with DevOps and Developer Experience teams to enhance developer productivity and streamline workflows.
• Collaborate with Core Data Pipeline squads to enable seamless blockchain integrations and data flow.

Process & Operational Excellence:

• Define and implement processes that ensure high-quality, on-time delivery of platform initiatives.
• Monitor and improve key performance metrics, such as lead time to changes, system uptime, pipeline latency, team velocity, and sprint success rate.
• Ensure platform components comply with security, compliance, and scalability requirements.

Required:

Experience:

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 5 years working as a backend engineer and 3+ years in a senior leadership role managing multiple teams or squads.
• Proven experience managing a team of approximately 15 engineers while being part of a larger 50+ engineer organization with cross-squad dependencies.
• Strong technical background in system architecture, data engineering, and infrastructure management.

Process & Management Skills:

• Proven ability to manage tasks using JIRA, ensuring prioritization, tracking, and alignment with roadmaps.
• Experience in defining and managing roadmaps and aligning them with company objectives.
• Deep understanding and application of agile methodologies, including Scrum, and a strong track record of facilitating ceremonies and ensuring process adherence.
• Performance Monitoring: Ability to monitor and improve team performance using key metrics/KPIs such as velocity, throughput, and cycle time, ensuring continuous improvement.

Technical Skills:

• Familiarity with scalable architecture patterns, microservices, and distributed systems.
• Hands-on experience with data pipeline technologies, APIs, and DevOps tools (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform).
• Solid understanding of CI/CD processes, cloud-native tools, and developer productivity enhancements.

Leadership Skills:

• Proven ability to build, manage, and mentor high-performing engineering teams.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to engage effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience driving cultural change and promoting a growth mindset within engineering organisations.

Problem-Solving:

• Exceptional analytical skills with a track record of solving complex engineering challenges.
• Strong decision-making abilities with a focus on balancing business and technical priorities.

Would be a plus:

• Experience with blockchain technologies and integrations.
• Familiarity with developer tooling, developer experience optimization, or DevOps practices.
• Passion for software engineering, demonstrated through an active GitHub profile, technical blog, conference speaking engagements, or contributions to open-source projects.
• Experience scaling engineering teams and processes in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.