Engineering Manager (Python) - AI/ML SaaS Platform

Creo Recruitment; England; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading tech recruitment firm is seeking an Engineering Manager for their AI/ML SaaS platform in the UK. This role requires a hands-on leader with a strong technical background in Python and AWS, capable of guiding a squad of engineers in building high-performance systems. Responsibilities include setting technical direction, ensuring system reliability, and fostering a culture of excellence among team members. The position offers a salary of up to £120k and an opportunity to influence cutting-edge data processing technologies.

Qualifications

• Prior experience as an Engineering Manager or Tech Lead managing small, high-performing teams.
• Strong technical background in Python and cloud-native architectures, ideally AWS.
• Excellent delivery management and simplifying ambiguity.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a squad of 4 engineers, coaching and supporting growth.
• Set technical direction across Python services and large-scale data processing.
• Champion operational excellence through observability, testing discipline, and incident management.

Skills

Python

Large-scale data systems

AWS

Technical leadership

Coaching engineers

Tools

Redshift

Lambda

ECS

S3

Job description

Engineering Manager (Python) - AI/ML SaaS Platform

Base pay range

Engineering Manager – London OR Manchester - Salary up to £120k

We’re hiring a Hands‑On Engineering Manager with deep technical leadership experience across Python, large‑scale data systems, and modern AWS infrastructure. You’ll lead a squad of 4 engineers, guiding them through complex technical decisions and helping them deliver high‑performance, data‑intensive systems operating over hundreds of millions to billions of rows.

The product itself is an AI/ML‑driven SaaS platform, and your contributions will train new models, enabling new features and having large greenfield elements to it.

This role blends hands‑on technical context with people leadership, delivery focus, and architectural oversight. You’ll drive engineering excellence, ensure high reliability, and cultivate a culture that values clarity, ownership, and strong execution.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead and develop a squad of 4 engineers, supporting growth, coaching, and high‑quality delivery.
• Set technical direction across Python services, distributed systems, and large‑scale data processing.
• Work heavily with AWS – especially Redshift, Lambda, ECS, S3, plus data formats like Parquet.
• Shape high‑throughput data pipelines and SQL‑based workflows, ensuring scalability and performance.
• Run technical design reviews, guide architecture decisions, and support engineers in navigating trade‑offs around performance, cost, and reliability.
• Champion operational excellence – strong observability, testing discipline, incident response, and SLO ownership.
• Collaborate with Product & Design to define technical requirements, prioritise road‑maps, and drive measurable outcomes.

Tech Environment You’ll Influence

• Primary language: Python
• AWS stack: Redshift, Lambda, ECS, S3
• Scale: systems processing hundreds of millions to billions of rows
• Focus areas: performance tuning, reliability, cost optimisation, architectural clarity

What You’ll Bring

• Prior experience as an Engineering Manager or Tech Lead managing small, high‑performing engineering teams.
• Strong technical background in Python, large‑scale data systems, and cloud‑native architectures (ideally AWS).
• Experience owning and improving complex data pipelines and high‑throughput systems.
• Ability to coach engineers across multiple levels while maintaining hands‑on architectural and design credibility.
• Excellent delivery management – simplifying ambiguity, unblocking dependencies, and driving predictable execution.

What Success Looks Like

• Your squad of 4 consistently delivers high‑quality software and scalable data pipelines with predictable velocity.
• Clear improvements in system reliability, throughput, and cost efficiency.
• Strong engineering discipline across design, testing, observability, and incident management.
• Improved technical foundations and reduced operational toil.
• Clear, thoughtful communication and alignment across engineering, product, and design.

Seniority level

Mid‑Senior level

Employment type

Full‑time

Job function

Staffing and Recruiting