Engineering Manager

SR2; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

SR2 in London is seeking an Engineering Manager to scale a growing AI product engineering team. Hybrid role with 2 days in the office each week; leadership will suit someone moving from Senior Engineer/Tech Lead into management or an existing Engineering Manager who wants to influence a smaller, fast-moving product environment.

You’ll be responsible for mentoring engineers, guiding delivery, and partnering with Product and Design on trade-offs, while staying close to architecture and technical

Qualifications

• Experience leading engineering teams in a product environment.
• Mentoring engineers and shaping career development.
• Ability to balance people, product and technical priorities.

Responsibilities

• Manage and support a team of product engineers with regular 1:1s and feedback.
• Grow engineers while maintaining technical and delivery standards.
• Lead delivery across ambiguous product work and convert priorities into plans.
• Improve prioritisation, forecasting, risk management and cross‑team communication.
• Collaborate with Product and Design on technical and commercial trade-offs.
• Support emerging technical leaders and foster ownership within the team.
• Stay close to architecture and system design, with hands‑on coding when useful.
• Introduce lightweight processes to scale without overloading calendars.
• Assist with hiring and onboarding as the team grows.

Job description

Engineering Manager | Step into Management | London | Hybrid | AI Product Company

Location: London (hybrid - 2x a week in office)

Tech: Python & TypeScript

You don't necessarily need Engineering Manager on your CV for this one.

A growing AI product company is looking for an Engineering Manager to help scale its product engineering organisation, and they're particularly open to Tech Leads/Senior Engineers who are already mentoring, leading delivery and supporting other engineers, but haven't yet been given the formal management title.

If you've reached the point where you're increasingly the person others come to for technical guidance, you're leading projects rather than simply contributing to them, and you're more excited by making a whole team better than being the person who writes the most code, this could be a natural next step.

Equally, they're open to existing Engineering Managers who still enjoy being close to the technology and want significant influence in a smaller, fast-moving product environment.

The company has strong commercial traction and a growing customer base, and is now at the stage where engineering maturity, delivery confidence and developing its people matter just as much as shipping quickly.

What you'll be doing:

• Managing and supporting a team of product engineers, including regular 1:1s, feedback and career development
• Helping engineers grow while maintaining a high technical and delivery bar
• Leading delivery across ambiguous product work and turning changing priorities into clear, achievable plans
• Improving prioritisation, forecasting, risk management and communication across the team
• Working closely with Product and Design on technical and commercial trade-offs
• Supporting emerging technical leaders and creating more ownership within the team
• Remaining close to architecture, system design and technical planning, with some hands‑on coding where useful
• Introducing lightweight processes that help the team scale without turning everyone's calendar into their full‑time job
• Supporting hiring and onboarding as engineering continues to grow

What they're looking for:

• An existing Engineering Manager or an experienced Senior Engineer/Tech Lead ready to make their first formal move into management
• For step‑up candidates, evidence that you're already doing parts of the job: mentoring engineers, leading projects, giving feedback, influencing technical decisions and taking responsibility beyond your own code
• Strong experience building and delivering customer‑facing software in a product environment
• The ability to balance people, product and technical considerations rather than defaulting to purely technical solutions
• Good judgement around priorities, trade‑offs and when to coach, challenge or simply make a decision
• Strong communication skills and willingness to have difficult conversations when needed
• Enough technical depth to retain credibility with strong engineers
• Comfort operating with ambiguity and changing priorities

Experience with the exact stack isn't essential. Strong technical and product engineering foundations in another modern stack are welcomed.

For someone making their first move into management, there's a particularly nice opportunity here. You're not stepping into a huge organisation where "management" means inheriting 12 direct reports and spending your life in meetings. The team is still small enough to stay close to engineering, learn the management side properly and gradually shift where you have the most impact.

There's already real product usage, commercial traction and a strong engineering foundation, but still plenty left to shape. You'll have experienced engineering leadership around you while getting meaningful responsibility for how the team performs and grows.

If you've been thinking I love engineering, but I'm increasingly more interested in helping other engineers and teams succeed, I'd be keen to hear from you.

Engineering Manager | Step into Management | London | Hybrid | AI Product Company