Engineering Manager

Readytech; Auckland; Hybrid; NZD 186,000 - 261,000; Full time

Job summary

ReadyTech is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead software engineering across delivery, operations, and platform strategy. You will drive AI-first practices, modernise legacy systems, and oversee payroll-related reliability and governance.

Lead Tech Leads, manage incidents, and optimize cloud and licensing costs. You will shape roadmaps, collaborate with Product and executives, and ensure delivery with balance between speed, quality, and cost.

Qualifications

• 5+ years leading software engineering teams.
• Experience owning technical roadmaps and modernising legacy systems.
• Proven experience leading major production incidents.

Responsibilities

• Translate strategy into actionable engineering roadmaps and own platform-level architecture decisions.
• Lead the adoption of AI-first engineering practices across the SDLC — design, code generation, testing, security, and incident analysis.
• Own engineering delivery, ensuring predictable outcomes with the right quality, reliability, and cost balance.
• Lead, coach, and develop Tech Leads and engineers, building a culture of ownership and AI-first thinking.
• Own operational outcomes for your platforms, including leading P1 and critical incident response.
• Understand platform economics and identify opportunities to optimise cloud, licensing, and support costs.
• Present technology strategy, risk, and investment proposals to executives and senior stakeholders.

Skills

Leadership

Incident management

Communication

Coaching/mentoring

Tools

.NET

SQL

REST APIs

Kubernetes

Linux

Job description

This role can be based out of Auckland (NZ), Hamilton (NZ), or Melbourne (AU)

ReadyTech (ASX:RDY) exists to help communities thrive, and ReadyTechers flourish on making that change happen. We take on challenges that matter to our customers, communities, and the world, solving them with technology that navigates complexity while delivering real outcomes. ReadyTechers are enterprising, hungry to make a difference, and ready for anything.

About the Role

As Engineering Manager, you'll be a senior technology leader accountable for engineering outcomes across delivery, operations, technology, people, and cost for your platform(s). You'll balance customer and commercial outcomes with technical health, reliability, and long-term platform strategy, working closely with Product, Technology, and executive stakeholders on pragmatic trade-offs across roadmap delivery, support, security, and legacy renovation.

A key focus of this role is driving AI-first software engineering, using modern tools like Claude Code and CodeRabbit, to materially improve engineering velocity, quality, and developer experience. You'll also play a critical role in payroll platform reliability, leading major incidents and driving systemic fixes over short-term patches, while leading the modernisation of legacy software toward secure, scalable, cost-effective architectures.

What You'll Do

• Translate strategy into actionable engineering roadmaps and own platform-level architecture decisions
• Lead the adoption of AI-first engineering practices across the SDLC — design, code generation, testing, security, and incident analysis
• Own engineering delivery, ensuring predictable outcomes with the right quality, reliability, and cost balance
• Lead, coach, and develop Tech Leads and engineers, building a culture of ownership and AI-first thinking
• Own operational outcomes for your platforms, including leading P1 and critical incident response
• Understand platform economics and identify opportunities to optimise cloud, licensing, and support costs
• Present technology strategy, risk, and investment proposals to executives and senior stakeholders

What We're Looking For

Skills

• Proven ability to lead and grow engineering teams with accountability for delivery, support, cost, and strategy
• Strong incident management experience, including acting as P1 incident commander
• Excellent communication skills, able to translate technical decisions into business outcomes for executives
• Ability to coach Tech Leads, prioritise competing demands, and perform under pressure

Knowledge

• Strong grasp of modern engineering practices — architecture, CI/CD, observability, security, DevOps
• Understanding of AI-first engineering, including coding agents, AI-assisted code review, and workflow automation
• Experience with AI tools such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or CodeRabbit
• Experience with .NET, SQL, REST APIs, modern frontend frameworks, and cloud platforms (AWS/Azure)
• Understanding of platform financials and Agile/product engineering practices

Experience

• 5+ years leading software engineering teams, including direct people leadership
• Experience owning technical roadmaps and modernising substantial legacy systems
• Demonstrated experience scaling AI-assisted engineering practices
• Proven experience leading major production incidents
• Experience with business-critical, regulated software — payroll, HR, or financial systems highly regarded
• Hands‑on engineering background (C#, .NET, SQL, APIs) with credibility among senior engineers
• Exposure to cloud-native/containerised environments (Kubernetes/Linux) highly regarded

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Engineering Manager • Auckland Central, Auckland, NZ