Jobs in Stoke On Trent, United Kingdom

Airportr is re-architecting the way baggage moves through the world. We’re building the digital rails for baggage, transforming a legacy, manual process into a seamless, data driven network that connects passengers, airlines, airports, and logistics partners in real time.

Headquartered in London, we partner with some of the world’s leading airlines to deliver Baggage-as-a-Service, fully integrated into their booking and check-in journeys. Our platform is live across multiple European markets and expanding rapidly through strategic global partnerships that enable deployment across hundreds of airports and carriers.

Airportr sits at the intersection of travel technology, logistics, and automation, combining deep operational know-how with modern engineering to solve one of air travel’s hardest problems at global scale. We’re on a mission to make baggage handling invisible : intelligent, automated, and effortlessly connected from doorstep to destination.

We’re looking for a brilliant, highly experienced Software Engineering Manager to ignite and lead our distributed tech function. You will be responsible for ensuring our teams are delivering high quality, scalable software that powers our global logistics operation.

Reporting directly to our CTO, you'll be the pivotal operational leader for engineering, translating technical vision into tangible success and accelerating our ambitious business goals.

Your primary mission will be to empower, support, and develop our Tech Leads, fostering their growth and ensuring our engineering squads thrive. We need a proactive, hands‑on leader, someone who dives in, takes initiative and gets stuck in to make extraordinary things happen.

We understand that some people value a highly structured, predictable environment. If that's your preference, we probably aren't the right company for you. Our pace is rapid, our priorities are agile, and our roadmap often shifts based on opportunity. We're looking for individuals who see this dynamic environment as an opportunity to contribute, innovate, and grow, not a challenge to stability. If you are passionate about deep collaboration and bringing ingenuity to solve problems on the fly, then we may be a match!

• Cultivate an unwavering obsession with quality, delivery speed, and flawless execution. You'll refine our Agile processes to empower high‑performing remote teams, ensuring we ship quickly, predictably, and with excellence.
• Collaborate closely with the CTO and Product team to transform visionary technical strategies into clear, actionable plans and inspiring quarterly goals. You'll orchestrate scoping, resource allocation, and manage dependencies across all squads, driving collective success.
• Become a master of foresight, spotting and swiftly resolving technical and process bottlenecks across the entire development pipeline. You won't wait for problems to emerge—you'll proactively solve them, keeping our momentum unstoppable.
• Embrace continuous innovation, constantly refining our software architecture as we achieve key milestones and push the boundaries of what's possible.
• Act as the senior technical voice who gets stuck in to help Tech Leads troubleshoot complex decisions or unblock critical issues. You will provide direct, practical mentorship required by a lean team.
• Instil a culture of accountability for technical quality, coding standards, and security. You'll ensure that speed never compromises the stability and regulatory compliance of our critical airline and logistics systems—because excellence is non‑negotiable.
• You’ll be brilliant at getting the best out of our distributed (offshore) teams. This includes setting up clear communication strategies and maintaining high morale and culture across different time zones.
• Build strong, trusting relationships with all internal teams, including Product, Operations, Commercial, and Customer Experience. You will ensure tech priorities perfectly support urgent business goals and operational reality.
• Champion platform stability, overseeing uptime, latency, and incident response. You'll establish robust monitoring and on‑call procedures, ensuring our teams are always prepared and responsive.

Your impact will be measured by clear, quantifiable improvements in delivery velocity and predictability, ensuring the on‑time achievement of strategic goals. You will directly elevate engineering quality and platform stability, evidenced by improved uptime, lower latency, and a reduction in critical incidents. Crucial metrics will also include your leadership in the successful execution of architectural roadmaps, proactive resolution of technical bottlenecks, and the demonstrable growth and high retention of our distributed engineering teams.

• A proven track record in software engineering management, ideally within a scaling, fast‑growth organisation where you've made a significant impact.
• Proven experience driving and maturing Agile methodologies to significantly improve team processes and velocity in a dynamic, fast‑paced environment.
• Highly analytical, data‑driven and inquisitive , constantly seeking insights and opportunities for improvement.
• Solid grasp of modern cloud infrastructure and our stack : MS Azure, .NET, React, Angular, Micro‑services and Service‑bus.
• Proven technical expertise in intricate, highly available and distributed systems, preferably within travel tech or regulated industries.
• Exceptional communication and written skills, enabling you to articulate complex ideas with clarity and impact.
• Expertise in leading and scaling remote‑first, global, or offshore engineering teams , inspiring them to achieve greatness regardless of location.
• The exceptional ability to communicate clear execution status and technical trade‑offs to all levels of the organisation, fostering transparency and alignment.
• Masterful prioritisation skills, allowing you to expertly balance competing requests and laser‑focus on high‑impact work that drives our mission forward.

This is a remote with requirement to travel to London office for meetings / team days monthly.

Our salaries are determined by experience and location and are benchmarked at the 75th percentile.