Engineering Manager

Engineering Manager

Location: Shanghai, China

Springer Nature is one of the leading publishers of research in the world. We publish the largest number of journals and books and are a pioneer in open research. Through our leading brands, trusted for more than 180 years, we provide technology-enabled products, platforms and services that help researchers to uncover new ideas and share their discoveries, health professionals to stay at the forefront of medical science, and educators to advance learning. We are proud to be part of progress, working together with the communities we serve to share knowledge and bring greater understanding to the world.

SN Digital (SND) is a department of SN Technology which is the technology division of Springer Nature. Our work touches upon all areas of the business; this role will support engineers in one of our business domains.

There are about 340 of us in London, Berlin, Lisbon, Pune, New York, Madrid, Dordrecht and Heidelberg. We work in collaborative, multi-disciplinary delivery teams, developing digital products and services that answer user problems and support business goals.

The work is interesting and meaningful.

Our culture is collaborative and friendly.

We encourage and support growth, both personal and professional.

About the role

Your primary focus will be providing engineering leadership; support to the domain leadership team; and line management, mentoring, and coaching to engineering managers and engineers of varying competencies and levels of experience (Associate to Staff) within a business domain or project team. These responsibilities will include coaching, driving performance, goal setting, supporting career development, and gathering feedback. You'll also be a key driver in the evolution of our engineering culture, and an essential contributor to domain or programme leadership.

As a manager of engineering managers and engineers with a variety of technical specialties, you will receive support and guidance from the Competency Heads for management, development, standards, and ways of working. You will also be connected to your peers in management to share experiences, trouble-shoot management issues, and collectively develop and elevate our management skills and style.

You will spend part of your time contributing as an engineering leader working with multiple teams and with the domain leadership team, balancing your individual delivery targets and line management responsibilities.

As an Engineering Manager within Springer Nature Technology, you will be an influential contributor to decisions that inform our technology stacks, software development life cycle, security & compliance standards, and general technical strategy.

You will be expected to communicate and advance these technical strategic goals with your reports, in close collaboration with the Tech Leads and Engineering Managers on the project teams.

Working with the Director of Technology, you will help to create and execute a long-term vision for engineering within the domain, such as the engineering strategy and culture. You will work closely with leaders in other domains to ensure alignment across the department.

You will be expected to understand, communicate, and help drive shared ways of working and quality standards with your domain or your project teams. You'll also work to bridge gaps between the engineering disciplines and ensure all roles and skills are respected and work together effectively.

Responsibilities

Meet your delivery and participation responsibilities as an engineering leader in a domain.

Structure and support career development for your reports in alignment with the Competency Heads; such as identifying growth areas, helping devise development plans and sourcing learning and development resources.

Foster community and shared ways of working within the product teams and your reports.

Provide leadership by cascading departmental strategy & goals and ensuring good practices are communicated.

Be an active member of relevant technology, architecture, and engineering forums across the company.

Ensure the domain remains aligned with company standards in other domains and cross-cutting departments.

Take accountability for ensuring that all non-functional requirements are met in software delivered from your domain, such as security and data protection.

Participate in Engineering Manager Team duties.

Conduct interviews, help manage the recruitment pipeline, screen candidates, and support and improve our recruitment processes; all in alignment with the Competency Heads.

Use feedback from 1-to-1s to help develop & retain talent, help project leadership solve delivery issues, and maintain team performance.

Conduct performance appraisals, provide input on salary reviews, promotions, and performance management.

Seek opportunities for improvement in our software delivery methods and ways of working.

Work with teams and stakeholders to communicate and enforce development standards and ways of working.

Seek continuous improvement in our product building capabilities by encouraging closer collaboration between the Competencies, other product teams, and stakeholders.

Experience, skills and qualifications

With extensive hands-on experience as a leader in software engineering and the software development lifecycle, including agile ways of working and iterative product development, within a cross-functional team and across programmes of multiple teams.

This role will expect 50% capacity for code implementation.

With experience in managing managers or are keen to grow your management skills in this area, and experience in growing people through delegation, coaching, and mentoring.

Strong communication skills and can communicate technical concepts to a non-technical audience, and vice versa.

Work collaboratively and optimize for team over individual success.

Champion for our users and work to develop a customer-centric culture within your domain or project team.

Self-starting, with strong organizational and decision-making skills.

With experience working with stakeholders and non-developers to come up with creative solutions to their problems.

Good command of English; collaboration is important in our day-to-day work, so being able to communicate your ideas and understand others is key.