Software Engineering Manager (Hands-On, Frontend)

Academic Key; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Pigment in London is seeking an Engineering Manager who loves coding as much as leading people. You will remain hands-on, contributing to frontend features while guiding a team responsible for building the AI-powered planning platform.

You will work primarily with React and TypeScript, mentoring engineers, running regular 1:1s and shaping the technical direction alongside product and design. Join a fast-growing SaaS company driving business planning at scale.

Qualifications

• Substantial professional software engineering experience.
• Experience mentoring/leading engineers.
• Strong frontend focus with React/TypeScript.

Responsibilities

• Remain an active contributor to production frontend codebase with other engineers.
• Write, review, refactor and ship production code using React, TypeScript and JavaScript.
• Design and build sophisticated user interfaces for large datasets and complex configurations.
• Take ownership of engineering tasks from design through testing and deployment.
• Solve frontend performance, scalability, state management and UX challenges.
• Collaborate with Product Managers, Designers, Tech Leads and Engineers to deliver high-quality features.

Skills

React

TypeScript

JavaScript

Frontend architecture

Tools

Redux

Webpack

Job description

Software Engineering Manager (Hands-On, Frontend)

Pigment · London

Abroad London Full Time Link validated Join Pigment: The AI Platform Redefining Business Planning Pigment is the AI-powered business planning and performance management platform built for agility and scale. We connect people, data, and processes in one intuitive, feature-rich solution, empowering every team - from Finance to HR - to build, adapt, and align strategic plans in real time. Founded in 2019, Pigment is one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies globally. Industry leaders like Unilever, Uber, Anthropic, Snowflake or Siemens, use Pigment daily to make more informed decisions and confidently navigate any scenario. With a team of 700+ across Paris, London, New York, Toronto, San Francisco and Austin, we've raised nearly $400M from top-tier investors and were named a Visionary in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Financial Planning Software. At Pigment, we take smart risks, celebrate bold ideas, and challenge the status quo - all while working as one team. If you're driven by innovation and ready to make an impact at scale, we’d love to hear from you. We're hiring an Engineering Manager who wants to spend 80% of their time writing code, not attending management meetings. About the role Are you an experienced Software Engineer who loves writing code, solving complex technical problems and helping other engineers become better at what they do? At Pigment, our Engineering Managers are engineers first. Unlike traditional Engineering Manager positions, this role is designed for someone who wants to remain deeply involved in building software while taking on meaningful people-management responsibilities. You'll spend approximately 80% of your time designing, coding and shipping production features , with the remaining 20% dedicated to coaching engineers, running regular 1:1s, providing feedback and supporting their development. We're particularly interested in Senior Software Engineers who have naturally taken on coaching, mentoring or technical leadership responsibilities and are ready to develop further as people managers. You don't necessarily need to have held an Engineering Manager title before. What matters most is your technical ability, your experience helping others grow and your motivation to combine engineering with people leadership. You'll join Pigment's Reporting & Collaboration community, building sophisticated frontend experiences that help customers interact with complex data, configure workflows and make better business decisions.

What you’ll do

Software Engineering (80%)

• You’ll remain an active contributor to our production codebase, working alongside other engineers on challenging frontend projects.
• Write, review, refactor and ship production code regularly using React, TypeScript and JavaScript.
• Design and build sophisticated user interfaces for interacting with large datasets, including filtering, visualisation and complex configuration.
• Take ownership of engineering tasks and features from technical design through implementation, testing and deployment.
• Solve challenging problems involving frontend performance, scalability, state management and user experience.
• Participate in technical discussions, code reviews, debugging and architectural decisions.
• Collaborate closely with Product Managers, Designers, Tech Leads and Software Engineers to deliver high-quality features.
• Contribute to AI-powered product experiences and use modern development tools where appropriate.
• Maintain the same technical expectations and engineering standards as our Senior Software Engineers.
• You’ll continue to write production code, not simply oversee the engineers who do.

Coaching & People Management (20%)

• Alongside your engineering responsibilities, you’ll help other engineers develop their skills, confidence and careers.
• Coach and mentor engineers, sharing technical knowledge and helping them improve their problem-solving abilities.
• Hold regular 1:1 meetings with your direct reports to discuss progress, challenges and career development.
• Provide constructive feedback, recognise achievements and support individual development plans.
• Help engineers establish clear goals and understand the skills required to progress.
• Support performance reviews and development discussions, including more challenging conversations when necessary.
• Work alongside Tech Leads to understand engineers' technical contributions and development needs.
• Help foster a collaborative engineering culture where people continuously learn from one another.
• At Pigment, technical leadership and people management are intentionally separated.
• Tech Leads own the technical direction of teams, while Engineering Managers focus on coaching and developing engineers alongside their own coding responsibilities.
• You’ll initially focus on contributing as a Senior Engineer before gradually taking on direct reports.

Who we’re looking for You’re an engineer first, with a genuine interest in developing people. You have substantial professional software-engineering experience and are technicall

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