Engineering Manager
Department: Tech - Engineering
Employment Type: Full Time
Location: Zinc - London
Reporting To: Rob Leonard
Compensation: £95,000 / year
Description
We are looking for a people-first Engineering Manager to lead two of our core product engineering squads. Our platform is at a critical inflection point: we are evolving from a fast-growth startup into a mature, scaled engineering organisation.
You will lead a group of eight senior and mid-level engineers. This is not a hands‑on coding role; instead, your “code” is the team itself. You will focus on building a high‑trust environment, refining our delivery engine, and ensuring our engineers have the clarity and support they need to ship high‑quality, compliant software.
Key Responsibilities
- People Leadership & Growth
- Coach & Mentor: Manage 1:1s, career progression frameworks, and performance reviews for 8 engineers.
- Hiring & Onboarding: Own the talent pipeline for your squads, ensuring we hire for both high skill and high cultural add.
- Performance Management: Set a high bar for excellence. You’ll celebrate wins and directly address underperformance with clear, actionable feedback.
- Delivery & Process Evolution
- Scaling Maturity: Lead the transition from “scrappy” startup workflows to structured, predictable delivery patterns without introducing unnecessary bureaucracy.
- Operational Excellence: Partner with Product Managers to improve sprint predictability, throughput, and the “Definition of Done.”
- Cross-functional Alignment: Act as the bridge between your squads and the wider business, ensuring stakeholders have visibility into progress and risks.
- Technical Stewardship
- Architecture Review: While you won't be writing PRs, you will facilitate technical discovery and review architectural proposals to ensure they align with our long‑term goals for scalability and security.
- Quality Standards: Foster a culture of “Security by Design,” ensuring our background checking platform maintains the highest standards of data privacy and auditability.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
- An Experienced Leader: You have a proven track record of managing 5+ software engineers in a SaaS environment (ideally B2B).
- A “Systems Thinker”: You don’t just fix a bug; you fix the process that allowed the bug to happen. You have experience evolving engineering cultures as they scale.
- Technical Foundation: You have a strong background in modern full-stack development (ideally within the TypeScript/Node/Vue ecosystem) which allows you to challenge technical decisions and mentor senior talent.
- High Integrity: You understand the responsibility of building a platform that handles sensitive PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and value reliability over “moving fast and breaking things.”
- Empathetic but Direct: You care deeply about your team’s well‑being but are comfortable having difficult conversations when necessary.
What we offer
Zinc offers a chance to work on a product that brings a fresh perspective on data ownership in hiring
- 24 days holiday + Bank Holidays + your birthday off
- £1200 annual benefits allowance (ThanksBen, from month 2)
- Early finish Fridays (16:00)
- Yearly company retreat abroad ✈️
- 30 days to Work from anywhere
- Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, and Adoption Leave (2 months full pay, then statutory)
- Statutory pension with NEST (3% employer, 5% employee)
- Zinc shares, issued through the EMI Scheme
- Unlimited access to MoreHappi coaching + Spill
- Company socials, quarterly team socials Free Monday lunches
- Nursery workplace benefit scheme (Yellownest)
- Option to lease an electric car through Electric Car Scheme
- Celebrated Zinc anniversaries