Engineering Manager - Compute Team (Contract role)

Pragmatike; Berlin; Remote; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Pragmatike seeks an Engineering Manager to lead the Compute Team building the core compute platform powering backend services. You will mentor 8 engineers, guide architecture, and stay hands-on with production-grade code about 50% of the time.

You will drive reliability, scalability, and developer experience, work with Kubernetes, IaC, and CI/CD, and influence platform evolution across teams. This is a remote, Europe-based leadership role.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience.
• 2+ years in a technical leadership or engineering management role.
• Strong expertise in cloud platforms (AWS preferred: EC2, ECS, Lambda, IAM, CloudWatch).

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of software engineers focused on compute and platform engineering.
• Drive architectural direction for the compute platform emphasizing reliability, scalability, and DX.
• Hands-on design and optimization of core compute services (orchestration, provisioning, scaling, runtimes).
• Collaborate with Infrastructure, Security, and Backend teams to define priorities and ensure integrations.
• Conduct 1:1s, performance reviews, and technical coaching.
• Foster ownership, engineering excellence, and continuous improvement.

Skills

Leadership

Golang

Distributed systems

Linux & Networking

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Communication

Tools

Terraform

Pulumi

AWS CDK

GitHub Actions

CircleCI

Istio

Envoy

Job description

Location: Remote (Europe Time Zone)Start date: ASAPLanguage: EnglishTeam: Compute

We are looking for an Engineering Manager to lead the Compute Team responsible for the core compute platform that powers all backend services. This team owns the foundational systems on which infrastructure, applications, and automation run. You will combine leadership and technical depth mentoring a team of 8 engineers, setting direction, and staying hands-on with production-grade code 50%. This is a key role for a technical leader who can make strategic decisions, guide architecture, and ensure the delivery of scalable, reliable compute systems.

What You'll Do

• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing team of software engineers focused on compute and platform engineering
• Drive architectural direction for the compute platform with an emphasis on reliability, scalability, and developer experience
• Contribute hands-on to design, implementation, and optimization of core compute services (orchestration, provisioning, scaling, runtimes)
• Collaborate closely with Infrastructure, Security, and Backend teams to define priorities and ensure smooth integrations
• Conduct regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and technical coaching
• Foster a culture of ownership, engineering excellence, and continuous improvement
• Translate strategic objectives into actionable execution plans and ensure timely delivery
• Influence platform evolution with pragmatic, forward-looking technical decisions
• Champion best practices across software development, automation, and operational excellence

What We're Looking For

• 7+ years of experience in software engineering, including 2+ years in a technical leadership or engineering management role
• Strong expertise in cloud platforms (AWS preferred: EC2, ECS, Lambda, IAM, CloudWatch)
• Solid experience building distributed backend systems with Golang
• Proven track record in infrastructure, platform engineering, compute orchestration, reliability, and observability
• Familiarity with Kubernetes, containerization, and service mesh technologies (Istio, Envoy)
• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, Pulumi, AWS CDK)
• Understanding of CI/CD automation (GitHub Actions, CircleCI, or similar)
• Strong knowledge of Linux systems, networking fundamentals, and monitoring/alerting best practices
• Excellent communication and leadership skills able to guide performance, set expectations, and motivate engineers
• Strong technical judgment and the ability to balance hands-on coding with people and strategic responsibilities

Why This Role Matters for You

• Lead a high-impact team: Shape the compute platform that underpins core services and critical infrastructure
• Grow as a leader: Manage, mentor, and inspire a talented engineering team while influencing strategic technical decisions
• Stay hands-on: Balance leadership with coding in a modern, high-scale platform environment
• Work with cutting-edge technology: Deepen your expertise in cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, Golang, and distributed systems at scale
• Drive platform evolution: Directly impact architecture, reliability, and developer experience across the organization
• Collaborate across teams: Work closely with Infrastructure, Security, and Backend teams, expanding your cross-functional expertise
• remote-first flexibility: Enjoy a fully remote role while aligning with the European time zone

Pragmatike is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants without discrimination. We recruit on behalf of our clients and prohibit discrimination and harassment based on race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training. We are committed to a fair and inclusive hiring process. We process your personal data solely for recruitment purposes, in accordance with applicable privacy laws, and maintain reasonable safeguards to protect your information. Your data may be shared with our client(s) for hiring consideration, but will not be disclosed to third parties outside of the recruitment process.