Stellenbeschreibung
Engineering Manager (Hands-on)
Remote in Europe - Ideally Germany
SaaS AI
A fast-growing European SaaS company is looking for an Engineering Manager who codes first and manages second. You'll be joining a high-performing team of 5 engineers building an AI-powered compliance platform that's disrupting a massive, broken market across Europe.
You will work in partnership with the CTO, taking over the EM responsibilities - not as an executive, but as the strongest IC on the team who also happens to lead it.
First 90 days:
- Month 1: Ship a meaningful feature (70--80% coding).
- Month 2: Own engineering hiring.
- Month 3: Lead performance conversations and 1:1s.
What makes this role genuinely exciting:
- Direct line to the CTO --- you'll shape engineering culture, hiring, and technical standards from near-scratch.
- Engineers average under 2 hours of meetings per week. Focus is protected, not aspirational.
- No standups, no sprints, no scrum. Small temporary teams form around problems, ship, and dissolve.
- AI is already embedded in the engineering workflow --- Cursor, Claude Code, Figma-to-code pipelines, automated architecture checks. Not for show.
- You'll own system design on the company's biggest projects end-to-end, including a new agentic AI product (CISO AI) with real traction.
- The business works: Series A, near cash-positive, strong customer growth. This isn't a moonshot.
- Annual team retreats --- Costa Brava, Austrian Alps, Portugal, Italy.
You're the right person if:
- 8+ years backend engineering, principal level or equivalent --- you earned management, you didn't escape into it.
- 1--3 years EM experience: 1:1s, performance conversations, hiring, ideally at a similar stage startup.
- Hands-on with AI-assisted dev tools (Cursor, Claude Code) in real production work, with opinions on what actually moves the needle.
- Strong Backend/ OOP background; comfortable across backend and infra.
- You think people-first, not process-first --- you reach for the right engineer, not the right runbook.
- Based in EMEA, working CET/CEST timezone.
Probably not for you if:
- You haven't been in a codebase seriously in the last couple of years.
- You default to process and templates when things break.
- You believe growing from 5 to 10 engineers inevitably means sprints, ceremonies, and coordination overhead.
Offer:
- Competitive salary benchmarked to European market rates + generous equity.
- €1,000/year development budget.
- Full remote setup support + co-working access.
- 26 days holiday + public holidays + comprehensive health insurance.
- Latest MacBook + peripherals.
