Engineering People Manager

Job description:

Key Responsibilities1. People Management & Workplace Behaviour – 35%

• Manage a team of 8–12 Site Reliability Engineers across different experience levels.
• Conduct regular weekly 1:1 meetings with all direct reports, regardless of their assigned shift.
• Lead performance management, goal setting, performance reviews, and individual development planning.
• Address attendance, collaboration, communication, handover discipline, and workplace conduct issues promptly and professionally.
• Monitor employee wellbeing, fatigue, engagement, and shift-health indicators and take proactive action to reduce burnout and attrition risks.
• Foster a positive, accountable, and high-performing team culture.

2. Capability Development & Training – 25%

• Maintain accurate capability and skills records for every team member.
• Assess individual capability gaps and create development and training plans aligned with service-line requirements.
• Partner with technical leaders to identify required technical competencies and learning priorities.
• Schedule training and development activities directly into team rotas to ensure dedicated learning time.
• Coach junior and mid-level engineers toward increased technical ownership and career progression.
• Track training completion and capability improvement.

3. Resourcing & Shift Management – 25%

• Own team rota planning and shift allocation within the 24x7 operating model.
• Approve leave requests, arrange relief coverage, and manage overtime requirements.
• Maintain consistent people-management activities across day, evening, and night shift rotations.
• Rotate through different shift bands, including night shifts, alongside the other EPM.
• Lead onboarding for new hires and Academy graduates, covering tools, systems, processes, operational expectations, and shift-work readiness.
• Ensure appropriate staffing levels and continuity of operational coverage.
• Support effective shift handovers and operational discipline.

4. Talent Management & Career Progression – 15%

• Participate in recruitment and technical/behavioral interviews for the SRE team.
• Identify high-potential employees and develop internal succession plans.
• Assign and oversee mentors for Academy graduates and junior engineers.
• Build structured promotion and progression cases based on demonstrated capability and performance.
• Partner with Service Reliability Leads and Tech Leads to ensure promotion recommendations reflect both people-management and technical assessments.
• Support internal mobility and long-term career development within the organization.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• 5+ years of experience in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), DevOps, or a closely related technical operations environment.
• 2+ years of experience as a People Manager, Engineering Manager, Team Lead, or equivalent leadership role.
• Strong technical foundation sufficient to credibly coach junior and mid-level engineers, including:
• Linux
• Kubernetes
• At least one public cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Observability and monitoring tools
• Incident management and response processes
• Demonstrated experience coaching and developing engineers, with evidence of team members progressing in capability or career level under your leadership.
• Experience managing teams in a 24x7 or shift-based operational environment is highly preferred.
• Willingness and availability to rotate across shift bands, including night shifts.
• Strong communication, coaching, conflict-resolution, and people-management skills.
• Ability to address difficult performance or behavioral conversations professionally and constructively.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications / Plus Points

• Formal training or certification in coaching, emotional intelligence (EQ), or people leadership.
• Experience onboarding and developing fresh graduates or Academy-level engineers.
• Familiarity with competency frameworks, skills matrices, capability assessments, or career frameworks.
• Previous experience as a Duty Manager, Shift Lead, Operations Lead, or similar role within a 24x7 environment.
• Experience working closely with Technical Leads, Service Reliability Leads, or Engineering Leadership.
• Experience managing teams with a high proportion of junior engineers.

Key Success Measures

Success in this role will be demonstrated through:

• Strong employee engagement and retention within the assigned pod.
• Consistent completion of 1:1s, performance reviews, and development plans.
• Measurable improvement in junior engineers technical capabilities.
• Effective training and capability development aligned with service requirements.
• Stable and well-managed shift coverage.
• Effective onboarding and ramp-up of new hires and Academy graduates.
• Successful internal promotions and development of future technical leaders.
• Proactive management of attendance, conduct, fatigue, and performance issues.