Engineering Manager

Motion Recruitment; Sydney; On-site; AUD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Motion Recruitment client seeks an experienced Engineering Manager to lead high-performing product engineering squads, partnering with Product Managers to deliver customer value while driving platform reliability and cloud-native architectures.

You will be a pivotal people and technical leader, balancing leadership, delivery, and operational health, fostering accountability, continuous improvement, and technical excellence across teams.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in software engineering with 3+ years in engineering management or people leadership roles.
• Proven track record in mentoring, coaching, hiring, and capability uplift.
• Experience with cloud-native architectures (AWS, microservices, serverless) and modern stacks.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering squads and partner with Product Managers to shape roadmaps and balance feature velocity with tech debt.
• Oversee end-to-end software delivery using Agile methodologies and promote timely delivery.
• Guide architectural decisions with Staff/Principal Engineers and drive cloud-native modernization.
• Drive operational excellence with observability, incident response, and platform health metrics.

Skills

People leadership

Cloud-native

AWS

DevOps practices

Communication

Job description

Our client is seeking an experienced Engineering Manager to join their Product Engineering function. In this role, you will lead high-performing engineering squads, partnering closely with Product Managers to deliver meaningful customer value while driving platform reliability and modern cloud architectures.
As an Engineering Manager, you will operate as a pivotal people and technical leader. You will balance direct people leadership, delivery execution, and operational health. You'll be fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and technical excellence.

• People Leadership & Coaching (25%): Recruit, mentor, and grow a talented engineering team. You will lead 1:1s, performance coaching, career growth plans, and promote a psychologically safe, high-performing engineering culture.
• Delivery Execution & Product Partnering (25%): Partner directly with Product Managers/Owners to shape roadmaps, balance feature velocity with tech debt reduction, and oversee end-to-end software delivery using Agile methodologies.
• Technical Strategy & Modernisation (25%): Guide architectural decisions alongside Staff/Principal Engineers, driving cloud-native migration efforts and ensuring adherence to robust engineering standards and code quality.
• Operational Excellence (25%): Drive system reliability, observability, and incident response frameworks. You will monitor platform health (using DORA/SLO metrics) and maintain overall availability for production applications.

What We Are Looking For

• 7+ years in software engineering, with at least 3+ years in formal engineering management or people leadership roles.
• Proven track record in people development, 1:1 coaching, hiring, and capability uplift.
• Strong background in cloud-native technologies and architectures (e.g., AWS, Microservices, Serverless, Event-Driven Architecture) and modern programming stacks.
• Demonstrated experience partnering with Product Managers to align technology roadmaps with commercial business goals.
• Exposure to modern engineering and DevOps practices (CI/CD, TDD, pair programming, observability, DORA metrics).
• Strong focus on operational health, system availability, and incident response.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.