Engineering Manager | Defence & Hands On

Engineering Manager – Mission Critical Systems | Rust | Defence Tech

We’re partnered with a rapidly scaling defence technology start-up building mission-critical systems at the cutting edge of modern software engineering. Having raised significant funding and already achieving strong product-market fit, they’re now looking for an Engineering Manager who can lead from the front while remaining deeply hands-on technically.

This is an opportunity to join a world-class engineering team solving highly complex real-world problems in an environment that is fast-paced, ambitious, and engineering-led.

The Role

You’ll lead and mentor a growing team of engineers while still contributing directly to architecture, design, and development. The business is heavily invested in Rust, so this role would suit someone excited to work with modern systems programming languages and high-performance distributed systems.

The team is open to engineers coming from strong backgrounds in:

• C++

• Java

• Python

• Golang

Experience with Rust is beneficial but not essential if you’re excited to learn and work in it full-time.

What They’re Looking For

• Proven experience leading high-performing engineering teams

• Strong hands-on software engineering background

• Passion for mentoring and developing junior engineers

• Experience building scalable, reliable, low-latency or mission-critical systems

• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-moving start-up environment

• Strong technical communication and architectural decision-making skills

Why Join?

• Fast-growing, heavily funded defence tech start-up

• Genuine product-market fit and strong commercial traction

• Highly technical, world-class engineering culture

• Opportunity to shape engineering direction and team growth

• Remain hands-on while stepping into leadership

• Excellent compensation and benefits package

• Hybrid working model — office collaboration is strongly encouraged, though flexibility is considered on a case-by-case basis

If you’re an engineering leader who still loves building, wants to work on meaningful systems, and is excited by the challenge of scaling both technology and teams, this is a rare opportunity to make a significant impact.