Engineering Manager

9x Dev; United Arab Emirates; Remote; AED 360,000 - 540,000; Full time

Job summary

9x Dev is seeking an experienced engineering manager to lead and grow engineering teams across engagements. You will hire, coach, and retain engineers, while owning the people and systems that power multiple client engagements.

You will perform architecture reviews, pair on challenging problems, and stay hands-on enough to understand each codebase. The role focuses on growth, delivery metrics, and strong, clear communication across teams.

Qualifications

• Three years managing engineers, including hiring, performance conversations, and at least one learning from a misstep.
• Still reads code and reviews pull requests, not just calendars or plan reviews.
• Hiring at volume with screening, structured interviews, and clear decision rationale.
• Delivery metrics without theater: cycle time, review latency, incident load to fix root causes.
• Performance and pay conversations, including promotions and tough feedback.
• Staffing across engagements: matching people to clients without burning them.
• Escalation ownership: calm voice when production is down and client is on the line.
• Former engineer who can follow architecture discussions and ask clarifying questions.
• Interview loop builder: designed or rebuilt a hiring process with clear selects.
• Fluent English, written and spoken; Arabic is a regional advantage.
• Has the hard conversation early, kindly, and without outsourcing.
• Client-world awareness: understanding external client impact on management role.
• AI-native management: hiring and coaching for agents-driven engineering.
• Trusted and fair: consistent standards across all engineers.
• Organized: hiring at pace without disorganization.

Responsibilities

• Run one-to-ones worth having and actionable after-effects.
• Own engineering hiring, from bar to candidate experience.
• Staff engagements by matching people to work while balancing client needs.
• Spot trouble early in overloaded teams and stalled projects.
• Build growth ladders with meaningful progression beyond titles.
• Guard capacity by aligning commitments with reality.
• Keep a hand in the technical picture with architecture reviews and codebase familiarity.

Skills

Managing Engineers

Code Review

High-volume Hiring

Delivery Metrics

Performance Conversations

Staffing Across Engagements

Escalation Ownership

Former Engineer

Interview Loop Design

English Fluency

Hard Conversations

Client Awareness

AI-Native Management

Trust & Fairness

Organizational Skills

Job description

As the engagements multiply, the engineers need someone whose actual job is them. Hiring, growth, staffing, and noticing that a team is drowning before the client notices for you.

You'd work alongside the tech leads, who own technical direction, and the delivery leads, who own scope and money. Your remit is the people and the system they work inside, which in a small company means you do the work yourself instead of delegating it.

Expect to interview a lot, write a lot, and keep a hand in the technical picture: the architecture reviews across engagements, the odd pairing session on a problem that's stuck, and enough time in each codebase to know what your team is dealing with. Nobody's waiting on your pull requests, but you could still open one.

Agents change what a good engineer looks like, and the people side is yours: hiring for judgment over typing speed, growing engineers who get more out of the tools, and noticing when someone's shipping code they don't understand.

What you'll do

• Run one-to-ones worth having. The kind people prepare for, and which lead to changes they can point at afterwards.
• Own engineering hiring. The bar, the loop, the feedback, and the experience candidates have of us whether or not they get an offer.
• Staff the engagements. Match people to work so the client is served and the person grows, and say plainly when those two conflict.
• Spot trouble early. The overloaded team, the stalled project, the person halfway out the door.
• Build the growth ladder. Levels, expectations and progression that mean something beyond a title change.
• Guard capacity. Work with delivery leads so commitments and reality stay within sight of each other.
• Keep a hand in the technical picture. Sit in the architecture reviews across engagements, pair on a stuck problem now and then, and know each codebase well enough to call a risk before the tech lead has to.

What we look for

• Three Years Managing Engineers: including hiring, performance conversations, and at least one you got wrong and learned from.
• Still Reads Code: you review pull requests, not only calendars, even after you stopped writing features.
• Hiring at Volume: screening, structured interviews, and a bar you can explain to the candidate you turned down.
• Delivery Metrics Without Theater: cycle time, review latency and incident load used to fix causes rather than rank people.
• Performance and Pay Conversations: reviews, promotions, and the difficult one with someone who isn't making it.
• Staffing Across Engagements: matching people to clients without burning either of them.
• Escalation Owner: the calm voice when production is down and a client executive is already on the phone.
• Former Engineer: you can follow an architecture discussion and ask the question that unsticks it.
• Interview Loop Builder: you have designed or rebuilt a hiring process and can explain what it selects for.
• Fluent English, Written and Spoken: most of our work happens in a written thread or on a call, and both have to be clear. Arabic is a genuine advantage across the region.
• Has The Hard Conversation: early, kindly, and without outsourcing it to a process.
• Client-World Aware: you understand how an external client changes the management job.
• AI-Native Manager: you understand how agents change what good engineering looks like, and you hire and coach accordingly.
• Trusted: people tell you things before they become resignations.
• Fair: the same standard applies to the star and to the struggler.
• Organized: hiring at pace punishes the disorganized, and you aren't.

Nice to have

• Agency, consultancy or studio experience with several engagements at once.
• You have grown a team fast without the culture falling over.
• Distributed teams across MENA time zones.

Why you'd like it here

• Remote across MENA. Work from wherever you are in the region, with hours built around your team's overlap rather than someone's attendance spreadsheet.
• Work that ships. Products go live in weeks, not quarters. When someone asks what you have been building, you can open it on your phone and show them.
• Small teams, no ticket queue. Four to eight people carry a product from the first client call to handover. Nobody hands you a spec and disappears.
• Kit and tools you choose. A budget for your setup, and for the editor, licenses and services that make you fast. No three-week procurement saga.
• A learning budget with time attached. Money for the course or the conference, plus room in the week to use it. The second half is the part most places skip.
• Client contact from day one. You sit in the room where the decisions get made. Plenty of engineers wait a decade for that seat.
• Time off people take, and no timesheets. We measure engagements, not humans in fifteen-minute increments. Book the holiday, go, come back.