Hands-On Engineering Manager, Scalable Systems & Leadership

Agoda; Helsinki; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Agoda is seeking an Engineering Manager in Helsinki who can be hands-on, technically excellent, and a strong leader. You will guide one or more engineering teams, coach engineers, and own delivery of scalable, high‑quality software across infrastructure, backend, data, and client layers.

You will develop people, hire top talent, and implement data-driven decisions, while maintaining a strong focus on architecture, performance, and reliability in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Proficiency in at least one core language (Java/Scala/C#).
• Experience with large-scale distributed systems and architecture.
• Operational ownership and ownership mindset in previous roles.
• Strong understanding of garbage collection, threading and low-level concepts.
• DevOps culture with CI/CD and automation.
• Good security awareness and data-driven decision making.
• Experience leading engineering teams with 5+ direct reports.

Responsibilities

• Be hands-on – write and review code; coach and guide engineers.
• Maintain passion for scalable, elegant solutions and modern architecture.
• Do full stack engineering spanning infrastructure to backend and data layers.
• Develop people; attract top talent and integrate them into the business.

Skills

Java

Scala

C#

System architecture

Distributed systems

DevOps

CI/CD

Security

Agile

Leadership

KPIs

Tools

Kafka

Aerospike

Job description

Agoda is seeking an Engineering Manager in Helsinki who can be hands-on, technically excellent, and a strong leader. You will guide one or more engineering teams, coach engineers, and own delivery of scalable, high‑quality software across infrastructure, backend, data, and client layers.

You will develop people, hire top talent, and implement data-driven decisions, while maintaining a strong focus on architecture, performance, and reliability in a fast-paced environment.