Engineering Manager - UK

About the Position

Hi 👋 I’m Colin, Director of Engineering, Europe. How do you feel about software engineers writing product specs, making product decisions, and not breaking down projects into individual tickets? If that sounds exciting (even if a bit scary), read on because I’m looking for an Engineering Manager to help us build a different type of engineering team and culture at Ashby.

To start, why do we need to be different? Time and again, I have witnessed engineers knowing what needs to be done yet being unable to get things done because of “the process” or because “more data is needed.” Some of the most effective projects have been skunkworks projects, where engineers have taken total ownership of a problem and driven it to completion. I want to normalize that at Ashby.

When we think about how these processes came about, we realize they carry a pessimistic mindset. They box people into smaller roles to minimize the chance of not meeting a certain standard. At Ashby, we’re building an environment that is optimistic about what engineers can own and achieve and embraces the innovative engineers (and frankly, often stays out of their way).

To accomplish this, our engineering leaders need to think deeply about individual performance, process, and culture - not running sprint planning or driving product and technical decisions. You’ll focus on building your team, their skills to thrive with the ownership they’re given, and an environment that empowers them to do their best work consistently, with little distraction. For junior EMs we try to stay within 6 direct reports. This enables them to spend time with our teams observing, correcting, praising, and, yes, coding. We like our managers to be hands-on while also making sure they’re not on the critical path.

We’ve already gathered an experienced, talented, and collaborative team of 25+ engineers. You’ll help me manage the growing team of engineers in Europe.

In addition to working with engineers you’ll also get to work on projects yourselves. Some examples of work our engineering leaders have done:

• Provide feedback on product and technical specs to help engineers identify where to cut scope or improve quality. You don’t make the final decisions, but you’ll influence and coach ICs to reach the right ones.
• Grow engineers to the point where they can take large, loosely defined projects, and deliver them with little intervention. They still ask for help when needed - the difference is that they’re driving.
• Jump into our systems and code to debug a customer issue, ship a small bug fix, or improve our developer experience. Engineering leaders at Ashby are great engineers and enjoy keeping their skills up-to-date (while staying off the critical path).
• Improve how we generate and simulate data in demo accounts. It’s a project off the critical path, but it helps you keep up-to-date on our codebase while immensely impacting the business, from Engineering to QA to Sales.

Responsibilities

• Manage a growing team of engineers in Europe
• Focus on building team skills and an empowering environment
• Provide feedback on product and technical specs
• Grow engineers to take ownership of large projects
• Debug customer issues and improve developer experience
• Improve data generation and simulation in demo accounts

Requirements

• Engineering Management: Proven experience in managing engineering teams
• Technical Leadership: Ability to hold in-depth technical conversations with engineers across all levels
• Team Development: Experience in growing engineers to take ownership of projects

Nice to Have

• Software Engineering: Strong background in software engineering
• Project Management: Experience in managing projects
• Continuous Improvement: Ability to identify and implement improvements

We Offer

• Opportunity to build a unique engineering team and culture
• Work with a talented and collaborative team
• Chance to work on exciting projects alongside your team

About the Company

At Ashby, we are committed to building high-quality software fast with a small, talented team. Our engineering culture is motivated by our co-founders' belief that a small talented team, given the right environment, can build high-quality software fast (and work regular hours!). We do it through:

• Minimal Process & Lots of Ownership: Engineers run their projects with minimal oversight.
• Natural Collaboration & Deliberate Communication: Collaboration happens naturally, and we focus on thoughtful communication.
• Increase Leverage, not Team Size: We invest in great developer tooling, building blocks, and AI-powered tooling.
• Put Effort into Diversity: We are committed to creating opportunities for the next generation of engineers from underrepresented groups.
• Work-Life Balance: The intensity of work at Ashby should feel like a marathon, not a sprint.