Engineering Manager

Skin + Me is a technology-driven start-up with seriously big skin goals.

We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to join our growing Technology Team. This is a hybrid role with three days a week in our Paddington HQ (Monday, Tuesday, and Friday), and two days remote.

About the role

As an Engineering Manager, you’ll lead and enable one or more of our engineering teams to deliver high-quality, impactful software that powers Skin + Me’s personalised skincare platform.

You’ll balance people leadership, technical direction, and delivery excellence, supporting engineers to grow while ensuring our systems are robust, scalable, and aligned with business goals.

This is a key role at the intersection of product and technology. You’ll work closely with Product Managers, Designers, and other stakeholders from discovery through delivery, ensuring the team builds the right thing, in the right way, at the right time.

What you'll do

Day to day, you’ll be working across the following areas.

End-to-End Ownership

• Take accountability for the delivery, operation, and reliability of your team’s products and services.
• Ensure infrastructure, testing, observability, and security are embedded in everything we build.
• Foster a “you build it, you run it” mindset and drive continuous improvement in stability, scalability, and cost-efficiency.

People Leadership & Team Development

• Manage and mentor up to 10 software engineers across one or more teams.
• Conduct regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and development planning.
• Foster a culture of psychological safety, collaboration, and learning.
• Identify growth opportunities and support engineers in achieving their goals.
• Encourage autonomy, accountability, and high standards in everything the team delivers.

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Define and uphold the technical direction and architectural integrity of your team’s work.
• Make pragmatic decisions that balance quality, speed, and long-term maintainability.
• Support hands-on technical work when appropriate, especially during early-stage product discovery.
• Champion best practices in design, testing, and code quality.

Delivery & Process

• Partner with Product Managers to align technical delivery with business priorities.
• Drive predictable, efficient delivery of features and improvements.
• Continuously improve engineering workflows, communication, and release processes.
• Use data and metrics to inform decisions and track team performance.

Product Collaboration

• Work closely with Product and Design teams from early discovery through delivery.
• Contribute to roadmap discussions, ensuring technical feasibility and long-term scalability.
• Represent engineering in cross-functional planning and prioritisation.

Innovation & Productivity

• Encourage experimentation, smart use of AI, and emerging tools to improve productivity.
• Stay up to date with new technologies and assess their value to our stack.
• Balance innovation with pragmatism, focusing on high-impact, high-leverage improvements.

Who you are

We know great people don’t always tick every box, so if you feel you’re right for this role, we’d still love to hear from you.

• Proven experience managing or leading software engineers.
• Strong technical foundation, (e.g. full-stack, backend, or platform background).
• Experience overseeing end-to-end delivery, including infrastructure and operations.
• Solid understanding of cloud environments (e.g. AWS) and CI/CD tooling.
• Skilled in modern development practices, automated testing, observability, and security.
• Excellent communicator and coach who builds trust and drives alignment.
• Able to make sound architectural decisions under ambiguity.
• A pragmatic leader who empowers others and delivers results.

Bonus Points

• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tools (e.g. Git Hub Copilot, Claude Code).
• Experience with our core tech stack:
  Python, Flask, MySQL, Typescript, React.
• Background in eCommerce or other product-led environments.
• Experience optimising for cost and scalability.
• Familiarity with application and network security.

Why should you choose Skin + Me?

• A daily challenge – in a thrilling, entrepreneurial start-up environment, no two days will ever be the same.
• Make a difference – work…