Engineering Manager - Java/AWS/Kafka

Engineering Manager - Java/AWS/Kafka

Location: Manchester - Hybrid, approximately 1 day per week/fortnight
Contract: Long-term contract - 6 months
Start: ASAP
Technology: Java, AWS, Kafka, Backend Platforms
Programme: Large-scale Finance/Data Migration

*Urgent 6 Month Contract*

This is a *Manchester, UK* based role with an excellent immediate start within a Global T echnology Client that is working on * Owning and driving the technical delivery of a Back End software engineering team.*

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Engineering Manager/Technical Delivery Lead to join a major multi-year technology transformation programme.

You will lead the technical delivery of a Back End engineering team responsible for building applications and data pipelines that gather data from multiple source systems, validate its completeness and correctness, and make it available downstream as part of a major enterprise migration programme.

This is not a traditional people-management role and you will not be expected to spend your time writing production code.

Instead, we need someone with a strong software engineering background who can understand and challenge technical decisions, review engineering approaches, guide architecture and ensure a team of experienced Back End engineers delivers high-quality software.

The environment is predominantly Java, Kafka and AWS.

Responsibilities

Own and drive the technical delivery of a Back End software engineering team.
Work closely with Backend Engineers, Product Management, Business Analysis, Programme Management, Architects and other technical stakeholders.
Lead delivery of applications and pipelines responsible for moving business-critical data between systems.
Ensure source data is gathered, validated and delivered accurately to downstream platforms.
Understand and challenge technical and architectural decisions made by the engineering team.
Review technical solutions, code approaches and engineering standards without needing to be a day-to-day hands-on developer.
Contribute to and review Architectural Decision Records (ADRs).
Hold engineers accountable for technical quality, delivery commitments and engineering decisions.
Ensure appropriate engineering controls are incorporated into the development life cycle.
Support the delivery of systems operating within a highly regulated environment.
Ensure appropriate evidence, controls, lineage and data completeness/correctness can be demonstrated.
Communicate technical decisions and engineering evidence clearly to senior stakeholders, governance teams and external auditors.
Balance delivery speed with the controls required for business-critical and regulated systems.
Identify delivery risks, dependencies and technical blockers and drive them through to resolution.

Essential Experience

Strong previous background in Back End software engineering, ideally within Java environments.
Experience progressing into an Engineering Manager, Technical Lead, Engineering Lead or technical delivery leadership position.
Strong understanding of Java-based Back End applications.
Experience working with AWS.
Experience with Kafka and/or event-driven architectures.
Strong understanding of modern software engineering practices, architecture and distributed systems.
Ability to review and challenge technical decisions made by experienced software engineers.
Experience leading the delivery of complex software engineering programmes.
Experience working with applications or pipelines that move data between multiple systems.
Strong understanding of data quality, including completeness and correctness.
Experience working across Engineering, Product, Business Analysis, Architecture and Programme teams.
Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
Comfortable operating in complex enterprise environments with multiple technical and business dependencies.

Highly Desirable

Experience in one or more of the following would be particularly valuable:

SOX-controlled environments
Financial systems or financial data
Highly regulated technology environments
Audit controls and evidence
Data lineage and traceability
Communicating technical evidence to internal or external auditors
Large-scale data migration programmes
Enterprise platform migrations
SAP/SAP RISE migration programmes
Building data pipelines feeding ERP or financial platforms

SAP experience is not essential. Candidates with strong Back End engineering and technical delivery backgrounds are of greater interest than candidates whose experience is predominantly SAP functional or implementation focused.

Technical Environment

Candidate Profile

This role would suit someone who started their career as a strong Java/Back End software engineer and has subsequently moved into engineering leadership.

You may no longer code every day, but you should remain technically credible enough to understand the codebase, review engineering approaches, challenge architectural decisions and hold experienced engineers accountable for the quality of their solutions.

The emphasis is on technical delivery rather than line management. You will have experienced engineers around you, so your value will come from providing technical direction, managing delivery, removing blockers and ensuring the team makes sound engineering decisions.

Experience within finance, payments, banking, regulated technology or SOX-controlled environments would be particularly useful.

This is an opportunity to join a major programme at an early stage, with the first significant delivery milestone planned for next year and a broader multi-year migration programme ahead.

Please send your CV or call Toni to discuss further.
We are an equal opportunities employment agency and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation, or age.

We champion differences in technology recruitment and work with clients who actively wish to diversify their talent force - ALL applicants are welcome to apply.

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Engineering Manager - Java/AWS/Kafka

Job Details