Are you passionate about leading change and shaping a thriving team culture?

 

■ Job Title

Engineering Manager

 

■ Position Overview

Our client is on an exciting path to internationalize their engineering divisions while simultaneously revamping the technical architecture to improve scalability, maintainability, and performance. This transformation involves rethinking organizational structure and workflows, and we are seeking Engineering Managers (EM) who can ensure timely, high-quality team deliveries while actively participating in our organizational evolution.

In this role, EMs will collaborate closely with Tech Leads to align organizational and architectural roadmaps, recognizing the deep interconnection between the two. You will engage daily with a diverse range of stakeholders, including:
Product Managers, Designers, and QA for project execution
PMO for project management coordination
Talent Acquisition for hiring and HRBP for employee lifecycle management
Other managers to develop long-term strategies

 

■ Your Role and Responsibilities 

(Upon Employment) 

You will lead an application engineering team, primarily focused on backend development. Your main responsibility is to ensure the team's smooth operation and continuous growth. This role requires a balance between hands-on tactical leadership and forward-looking strategic planning, as you adapt to a dynamic and fast-paced environment. You’ll need to assess shifting priorities and identify the right focus areas. Here are some key responsibilities you’ll manage, with varying degrees of emphasis depending on the situation:

Ensuring Timely and High-Quality Deliveries

• Tactical:
  • Assign team members to projects based on their skills and project requirements.
  • Provide support to team members by resolving conflicts, gathering missing information, or handling emergencies to keep progress on track.
• Strategic:
  • Foster professional growth through effective 1:1 meetings and performance feedback.
  • Oversee the full employee lifecycle, from onboarding to offboarding, ensuring smooth transitions and development.

Building Systems to Drive Continuous Improvement

• Tactical:
  • Identify and resolve pain points that hinder development, delivery, or developer experience, whether related to processes, tooling, or systems.
  • Collaborate and, if necessary, negotiate with stakeholders to ensure product and architectural decisions are both scalable and sustainable.
• Strategic:
  • Design and implement development processes that suit the team and ensure steady, efficient progress.
  • Contribute to both the product and technical roadmap, ensuring the team’s work brings value to the business and enhances the technical stack.

Preparing the Team for Organizational and Technical Evolution

• Tactical:
  • Identify opportunities for growth or areas where the team’s structure may need adjustments, and address these challenges proactively.
  • Pinpoint communication bottlenecks or inefficiencies and support your team when system redesigns or workflow improvements are necessary.
• Strategic:
  • Shape and contribute to the hiring strategy, from planning through execution.
  • Build flexibility into team structures and processes, ensuring readiness for upcoming changes in the organization or technology stack.

This leadership role combines operational efficiency, strategic foresight, and a commitment to team development, helping navigate both daily challenges and long-term growth opportunities.

(Scope of any potential changes)

Duties as defined by the company  

 

■ Experience and Qualifications

Implementation Leadership

• Experience: Over 2 years of leading web application engineering teams.
• Background: Prior experience as a software engineer, either in backend or frontend development.
• Contributions: Proven track record of significant contributions to scalable architectures and system designs.
• Task Management: Strong skills in defining and breaking down tasks based on functional requirements.

Stakeholder Interaction

• Stakeholder Management: Effective in coordinating with stakeholders and handling conflicts.
• Language Proficiency: Proficient in business-level English, both spoken and written.
• Cultural Interest: Demonstrates a keen interest in Japanese language and culture.

Driving Team Success

• People Development: Committed to fostering individual growth within the team.
• Progress Monitoring: Capable of efficiently tracking ongoing tasks, identifying blockers, and facilitating resolutions.
• Continuous Improvement: Passionate about enhancing the developer experience and promoting a culture of improvement.

Vision and Implementation

• Roadmap Development: Experienced in building or contributing to technical roadmaps.
• Interviewing Skills: Proficient in conducting interviews to assess talent.

 

■ Additional Preferred Qualifications

Implementation Expertise

• Security Awareness: Strong understanding of security considerations in software development.
• Domain-Driven Development: Experience with domain-driven design principles.
• Industry Compliance: Familiarity with credit card industry standards, particularly in implementing PCI-DSS compliant solutions.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Change Management: Proficient in managing organizational changes effectively.
• Meeting Facilitation: Skilled in navigating meeting dynamics, encouraging participation, and guiding discussions as needed.
• Language Proficiency: Conversational proficiency in Japanese, both spoken and written.

Elevating Team Performance

• Process Development: Proven ability to craft and implement successful development processes.
• Employee Lifecycle Management: Experienced in creating and maintaining onboarding and offboarding processes to enhance the employee experience.
• Observability Expertise: Knowledgeable in using observability tools to assess and promote engineering excellence.
• Work Ethic: Exemplifies strong work ethics, including a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Vision and Execution

• Hiring Strategy: Experienced in defining and implementing effective hiring strategies.
• Product Strategy Contribution: Significant experience in contributing to product strategy through data-driven decision-making.

■ Tech Stack

Applications:
• Backend systems: Kotlin + Spring Boot for new systems, Java + Spring Boot or Java EE for existing systems
• Frontend: Vue.js 3, Nuxt.js, TypeScript

 

Infrastructure:
• AWS: to deploy services, databases, etc.
• GCP: for BigQuery

Other tools:
• Slack / GitHub / JIRA / Confluence / Google Workspace

 

■ Other Points and Working Conditions

• This is a full-time position

• If you are not currently a resident of Japan, you must relocate to Japan, but you can live anywhere in Japan and work fully remotely if you wish

• Super flex working hours 

• Holidays: Weekends, Japanese national holidays, New Year's holidays and special company holidays

• Leave allowance: annual paid leave and other forms of paid leave

• Non-salary benefits: Japanese social insurances, Japanese 401K, language learning support, visa sponsorship, relocation support

 

■ Work Location

(Upon Employment)

Relocation to Japan is a must requirement for this position, and visa and relocation support will be provided. Of course there are offices, but you can live anywhere in Japan you like and work fully remotely if that's your vibe!

 

(Scope of change)

Location as specified by the company

 

■ Salary 

Negotiable, please ask us for details!

** Please note that any potential offer is subject to candidate experience and qualifications, as evaluated in the company's comprehensive and fair interview process. **

 

■ Employment term 

This is a full-time position 

 

 

Details will be provided during the meeting.

- Please note that due to the large number of applicants, only successful candidates will be contacted.