Chapter lead and Engineering Manager

Michael Page; Chennai District; On-site; INR 2,400,000 - 4,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Michael Page is seeking an Engineering Chapter Lead to build and guide high-performing squads across multiple teams. The role emphasizes people leadership, engineering excellence, capability building, and ongoing improvement of delivery quality, with autonomy to align engineering with product goals and strong collaboration with product managers, architects, and domain leads.

You will manage up to four squads, with cross-functional engineers, and drive scalable architectures, modern development

Qualifications

• Experience in software engineering leadership and building high-performing teams.
• Proven ability to hire, onboard, and develop engineers across multiple squads.
• Strong understanding of modern development practices, CI/CD, DevOps, and observability.

Responsibilities

• Lead up to 4 cross-functional squads consisting of Principal, Senior, Mid-Level, and Junior Software Engineers.
• Foster ownership, collaboration, quality, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.
• Drive scalable architectures and engineering productivity across domains with Architects and Product Managers.

Skills

People leadership

Engineering leadership

Software development

CI/CD

DevOps

Mentoring

Stakeholder management

Job description

The Engineering Chapter Lead is responsible for building, leading, and developing high-performing engineering squad teams. The primary focus of the role is people leadership, engineering excellence, capability building, and the continuous improvement of engineering effectiveness and delivery quality.

• The role is designed to establish focused engineering leadership with sustainable spans of control, stronger people development, and improved engineering capability management. It separates engineering leadership from product ownership, enabling both functions to operate more effectively while maintaining shared accountability for delivery outcomes.
• The Engineering Chapter Lead operates across multiple squads to ensure consistent engineering standards, capability development, and technical leadership while remaining closely aligned with squad delivery. The role collaborates closely with Product Managers, Domain Leads, Architects, and squad teams to ensure scalable, reliable, and high-quality software delivery.
• The Engineering Chapter Lead is responsible for up to 4 squad teams with a target organization size of approximately 1825 FTEs (maximum ~30 FTEs).

Role & responsibilities

Preferred candidate profile

Key Responsibilities

• People & Talent Management
• Act as the primary people leader for engineers across the chapter
• Responsible for hiring, onboarding, retention, and workforce planning
• Drive capability building, upskilling, coaching, and mentoring initiatives
• Manage performance reviews, career development, succession planning, and growth paths
• Ensure balanced skill distribution and growth opportunities across teams and seniority levels
• Foster employee engagement and a strong engineering culture
• Engineering / Technical Leadership
• Lead and develop up to 4 cross-functional squad teams consisting of:

Principal Software Engineers

Senior Software Engineers

Mid-Level Software Engineers

Junior Software Engineers

• Foster a strong engineering culture focused on ownership, collaboration, quality, operational excellence, and continuous improvement
• Ensure scalable, maintainable, and operationally stable solutions through strong engineering standards and modern development practices
• Drive engineering productivity, automation, developer experience, and adoption of modern practices such as CI/CD, DevOps, observability, and AI-supported development
• Maintain technical and architectural oversight across the domain in close collaboration with Architects and Principal Engineers
• Mentor and support engineering teams on best practices related to scalability, automation, operational stability, and maintainability
• Support sustainable organizational growth, team scalability, and effective engineering team composition
• Drive continuous improvement of engineering processes, quality standards, and operational maturity

Collaboration & Delivery Support

• Partner closely with Product Line Managers and Product Managers to ensure sustainable delivery and engineering feasibility while maintaining clear accountability boundaries between Product and Engineering
• Support squads in resolving technical dependencies, engineering risks, and operational challenges
• Ensure alignment between product requirements, architecture, operational readiness, and implementation approaches
• Support Build+Run operational excellence and engineering readiness across teams

Profile & Qualifications

• Several years of experience in software engineering and engineering leadership
• Experience leading multiple engineering teams and organizations with 20+ engineers
• Strong understanding of scalable software architecture and modern engineering practices
• Strong coaching, mentoring, and people leadership capabilities
• Experience in hiring, workforce planning, and organizational scaling
• Strong understanding of DevOps, operational excellence, and engineering productivity
• Experience working in agile, cross-functional, and product-oriented environments
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills