Engineering Manager

Modern Democracy; Derry/Londonderry; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free food and drinks from onsite cafe

Subsidised gym membership

Bike-to-work scheme

Flexible and hybrid working (condensed

Job summary

Modern Democracy is seeking an Engineering Manager to steer a growing engineering team while delivering high-quality, reliable software. The role blends hands-on technical leadership with strategic planning, emphasizing AI-enabled development and scalable practices.

You will guide architecture, review code, and mentor engineers, reporting to the CEO. A hybrid work model with close collaboration across operations, product, and sales is expected.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading engineering teams in a delivery-focused environment.
• Demonstrated ability to adopt and scale AI tooling within a development workflow.
• Experience collaborating with executive leadership and cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the engineering team on day-to-day delivery and quality.
• Drive AI adoption across engineering, from coding to design and review.
• Own engineering processes, tooling, and cloud cost management.

Skills

AI fluency

People management

Hands-on engineering

Cloud experience

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related

Tools

AWS

CI/CD

Code reviews

Job description

Modern Democracy is recruiting an Engineering Manager to lead our engineering team through its next phase of growth. Following the successful delivery of multiple UK Election campaigns, our client base is forecast to expand significantly over the next twelve to eighteen months. We need a hands-on engineering leader who can deliver against that growth while continuing to raise the bar in how we build and ship software.

This is a highly delivery-focused leadership role. You will be responsible for guiding the day-to-day work of the engineering team, ensuring high-quality, reliable releases, and building the practices that allow us to scale effectively. Working closely with the Senior Leadership Team, you will align engineering output with operational priorities, client needs, and business timelines.

AI-first engineering is central to how we work. We are looking for someone who is already fluent with AI tooling in their own development workflow, has supported adoption within a team, and can help embed these practices into our day-to-day delivery. You will lead by example—using AI to accelerate development, improve code quality, and increase team productivity. You will use AI agents to build software, review pull requests with judgement, and lead by example in architectural decisions.

The role reports to the CEO and works closely with operations, product, and sales. You will manage the internal engineering team, support planning and prioritisation, and ensure the team delivers consistently against business goals. While this is a management role, you will remain close to the work—contributing to technical decisions, guiding architecture, and supporting code reviews where needed.

You will be expected to get up to speed quickly on our product domain, systems, and architecture, and to bring a pragmatic, solutions-oriented approach to improving how we build and deliver software. You will contribute often, and will be expected to come up to speed quickly on our product domain, architecture, and systems

What you'll do

• Drive the adoption of AI across the engineering function, from coding practice through design and review. Set the standard, role-model the change, and challenge engineers who are not using the tools well.
• Lead the engineering team day to day. Run 1:1s, set performance expectations, hire, develop people, and hold the line on quality.
• Manage relationships with senior business leadership. Translate between engineering reality and business intent. Push back when needed; negotiate scope and commitments without damaging the relationship.
• Own engineering processes and tooling. CI/CD, code review, testing, observability, incident response. Improve them in sensible sequence without breaking delivery.
• Own AWS spend and engineering capability spend. Understand the architectural levers behind cloud cost, not just the bill.
• Lead by example. Use AI agents to build software, review pull requests with judgement, weigh in on architectural decisions, and challenge weak technical reasoning. You will be the most senior engineer in the room and the team will look to you to set the bar.
• Set the cultural tone for the engineering function. The way you treat people, give feedback, and behave under pressure defines the floor for the team.
• Operate independently and deal with ambiguity. You will be the only senior engineering leader in the building. We need someone who can owner problems end to end, make calls when the answer isn't obvious, and defend them.

What we need from you

• Demonstrable AI fluency in your own engineering work, with evidence of driving AI adoption on at least one team. This must be visible on your CV. Applications without visible AI experience will not progress.
• A track record managing engineers directly, with examples of hiring, performance management, and team development.
• Experience reporting to or working closely with non-technical executive leadership.
• Hands-on engineering background, with recent or current credibility in a modern web and cloud stack.
• Composure and integrity under pressure: direct feedback, willingness to admit mistakes, and calm under stress.
• Comfortable working in a small startup environment.

Not essential but helpful:

If you do not have these on day one, you will be expected to develop them in the role.

• Experience with UK election technology or other regulated, mission-critical software.
• Ownership of an engineering or cloud budget line.
• Experience working effectively alongside third-party delivery partners.

Our stack

• TypeScript across the stack.
• AWS-native serverless architecture, primarily Lambda.
• Relational and document-based data stores.
• Modern frontend.
• CI/CD pipelines on AWS, infrastructure as code via AWS CDK.
• ISO 27001 certified; you will be working with sensitive election data and should expect to operate to high security and compliance standards.

Working with us

• Location: Modern Democracy offices, Bay Road, Derry/Londonderry.
• Working pattern: Hybrid. A minimum of three days per week in the office.
• Salary: A market competitive salary with a defined bonus on agreed targets.
• Benefits: Free food and drinks from the onsite café, subsidised gym membership, bike-to-work scheme, flexible and hybrid working including condensed working.

Modern Democracy is committed to building a diverse engineering team. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds.