Hands On Engineering Manager (Go)

Hands On Engineering Manager (Go)£80,000 to £90,000 plus benefits London, hybrid, 1 to 2 days onsite per weekStack: Go, GCP, Linux, React and TypeScript, GitHub and CI/CD, Cloudflare, Sentry, Jira.The short versionLead a team of six engineers and keep writing Go. Roughly a 50/50 split between management and hands-on work, and both halves are real.The company builds AI and computer vision software that inspects railway, highway and industrial infrastructure. Video and LiDAR data goes in, and what comes out tells asset owners which defects to fix before they become failures. The systems are live on major transport networks. It is a long way from another fintech SaaS platform, and if the tech for good angle matters to you, this is one of the few places where it is not marketing copy.The roleYou will lead and develop a team of six engineers across Backend, Frontend, Data Science and Platform, reporting to the Head of Engineering and working alongside the technical leads in each discipline.Alongside that, you keep building. The backend is Go, and they want someone who still wants to be in it.Day to day:Hands-on Go backend engineering, roughly half your timeLine management for six engineers, including regular 1:1s, development plans and career growthGuiding system design and architecture, including how AI and Computer Vision components integrate with backend and frontendRunning agile delivery with support from a Delivery Manager, owning the backlog with ProductUnblocking the team technically across disciplines and refereeing competing prioritiesSupporting CI/CD, observability and platform reliabilityRecruitment, from defining the role through interviewing to onboardingReporting engineering KPIs up to the Head of EngineeringThe companyA London technology business, founded just over a decade ago, applying AI, computer vision and machine learning to infrastructure safety and maintenance across rail and highways.Close-knit, multi-disciplinary and deliberately not corporate. The engineering group spans Computer Vision, Backend, Frontend, Data Science and Platform, and they are scaling globally. The culture is collaborative, opinionated in a healthy way, and short on process for its own sake.What they are looking forStrong Go backend engineering. This one has no flexibility in it.Real experience managing engineers. Around three years leading a software team in a product environment. Title is not important. Engineering Manager, Tech Lead or Principal all work, and you do not need to have been a Head of Engineering.Solid grounding in distributed and backend systemsGCP and LinuxEnough React and TypeScript to review frontend work and hold a sensible conversation about itExperience across cross-disciplinary teams, keeping Product, Backend, Frontend and Data Science pulling the same wayComfortable in a smaller, scaling business where there is no platform team to hand things toUseful but not essential:Computer Vision or machine learning exposure, TensorFlow or PyTorchPython for scripting and data processingPlatform and DevOps understandingWho this suitsSomeone who has done the management job properly, knows they are good at it, and has no interest in giving up the code to keep doing it.If the plan is to move away from the keyboard, this is the wrong role. If you want to run a team of six on genuinely interesting problems while staying technical, it is a very good one.