Engineering Manager - Java/React

This role will be an initial 12-Month FTC , before converting to perm, for an organisation who are looking to build internal capability.

Please note, this role requires 1-2 days a week on-site in Manchester.

Role Summary:

We are looking for an experienced Engineering Manager to lead a software engineering team of approximately 67 Java & React engineers.

This is a hands-on leadership role, with approximately 70% of the focus on people management, team leadership and delivery, and 30% remaining technically hands-on. You will be responsible for building and developing a high-performing engineering team, supporting technical decision-making and ensuring the successful delivery of robust, scalable software solutions.

The successful candidate will combine strong Java engineering experience with proven experience building, managing and developing engineering teams.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead, manage and develop a team of approximately 67 software engineers.
• Build and grow effective engineering teams, supporting recruitment, onboarding and team structure.
• Provide coaching, mentoring, regular feedback and career development support to engineers.
• Take ownership of team performance, engagement and ways of working.
• Work closely with engineering, product and delivery stakeholders to plan and prioritise technical delivery.
• Provide technical leadership across Java/Spring Boot and React applications.
• Remain approximately 30% hands-on, contributing to development, code reviews, technical problem-solving and solution design.
• Support architectural and technical decision-making, ensuring solutions are scalable, maintainable and aligned with engineering standards.
• Promote engineering best practice across areas such as clean code, automated testing, CI/CD and software quality.
• Identify technical risks, dependencies and delivery challenges and work with the team to resolve them.
• Drive continuous improvement across engineering processes, team capability and technical standards.

Required Skills & Experience:

• Strong commercial software engineering experience using Java, Spring Boot and React.
• Previous experience as an Engineering Manager, Software Engineering Manager, Technical Lead or similar technical leadership role.
• Proven experience building, growing or shaping engineering teams.
• Experience managing and developing teams of software engineers, ideally teams of around 510 people.
• Strong people management skills, including coaching, mentoring, performance management and career development.
• Comfortable balancing technical involvement with broader management responsibilities.
• Strong understanding of modern software engineering practices, including automated testing, CI/CD, code quality and software design principles.
• Experience contributing to technical architecture and engineering decision-making.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Experience working within Agile software development environments.
• Ability to create a collaborative, accountable and high-performing engineering culture.