Engineering Manager

Engineering Manager

Team: Engineering

 Prolific

Prolific is not just another player in the AI space – we are the architects of the human data infrastructure that's reshaping the landscape of AI development. In a world where foundational AI technologies are increasingly commoditized, it's the quality and diversity of human-generated data that truly differentiates products and models.

The role

At Prolific we have a united product development group with Engineering, Product, Data, Design and Research all working closely. Within the product development group, we have cross-functional development teams that are centred on product areas with an associated mission. The teams have the autonomy to self-organise towards the best possible outcomes. We optimise for fast flow of work and search for continual improvement every day. We understand the importance of good engineering practices, so we place collaboration, communities, and personal improvement at the heart of our culture. 

As an Engineering Manager you will be responsible for the engineers in your development teams, and accountable for establishing good engineering practices, timely delivery and high-quality output. For more hands-on engineering managers, you will also lead the technical design and implementation. Working in partnership with your product counterpart, you will ensure the team is set up for success to deliver quality software at pace, while supporting the progression and wellbeing of team members.

What you'll be doing

• Serve as the manager for one or more software product development teams, taking full accountability for leading and empowering your team to deliver software to agreed timelines and high standards of quality.
• Collaborate with product managers, stakeholders and your team to define project scope and phasing, and take full ownership of project planning and resource allocation.
• For hands-on managers, lead the technical solution design and implementation, ensuring alignment with the company's overarching technology and product strategy.
• Own and drive end-to-end software delivery by adopting effective agile project management practices, identifying and removing impediments, managing dependencies, and maintaining clear stakeholder communication.
• Have a good understanding of the architecture, codebase and services your teams work with, and ensure that the team develops secure, performant, observable, and well tested code that meets the requirements and reduces complexity without introducing undue technical debt.
• Collaborate with your team to provide expert technical guidance, resolve complex technical issues, and make informed decisions that optimize development pace, minimize technical debt, and maintain high-quality code and design standards.
• Possess working knowledge of the key technologies used and, for hands-on managers, play a critical role in the technical design authority group (aka brain trust), reviewing and improving technical solutions across product development teams.
• Champion a DevOps culture of ownership (“you built it, you run it”), continuous improvement, innovation, and engineering and operational excellence, promoting best practices and learning opportunities across the engineering group.
• Oversee the support of products or functionality developed by your teams and deployed to production.
• Manage, coach, and mentor engineers to develop a high-performing team, including hiring, onboarding, performance management, and creating opportunities for professional growth.

What You'll Bring

• Extensive experience in engineering management and technical leadership.
• Demonstrable problem-solving skills and strategic thinking capabilities.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, capable of leading diverse teams and collaborating effectively with various stakeholders.
• Proven experience leading software delivery using agile methodologies and project management practices.
• 5+ years of professional software development experience, including experience building highly available and transactional distributed cloud-based applications such as ecommerce, marketplaces or SaaS.
• A passion for developing others and experience in managing, motivating, coaching and mentoring others.
• Fluent in communicating technical solutions and their feasibility to non-technical stakeholders. 
• You have previously been in a hands-on technical leadership role, and for non-hands-on managers, are still comfortable occasionally dipping into the code where it helps the team.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field or equivalent technical experience.

Why Prolific is a great place to work

We've built a unique platform that connects researchers and companies with a global pool of participants, enabling the collection of high-quality, ethically sourced human behavioral data and feedback. This data is the cornerstone of developing more accurate, nuanced, and aligned AI systems.

We believe that the next leap in AI capabilities won't come solely from scaling existing models, but from integrating diverse human perspectives and behaviors into AI development. By providing this crucial human data infrastructure, Prolific is positioning itself at the forefront of the next wave of AI innovation – one that reflects the breath and the best of humanity.

Working for us will place you at the forefront of AI innovation, providing access to our unique human data platform and opportunities for groundbreaking research. Join us to enjoy a competitive salary, benefits, and remote working within our impactful, mission-driven culture.

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