Engineering Manager

Strong Engineering Manager / Lead Profiles

2

Mandatory (Experience 1) – Must have minimum 8+ years of overall Software Engineering / Development experience with a strong IC foundation.

3

Mandatory (Experience 2) – Must have 2+ years of formal Engineering Manager experience with direct people-management responsibility (informal Senior Engineer / Tech Lead experience managing a team does not count)

4

Mandatory (Experience 3) – Must have directly managed 4–6+ engineers, including 1:1s, performance management, growth plans, promotions, mentoring, and team development.

5

Mandatory (Experience 4) – Must own technical direction and delivery for an engineering team/pod, including architecture, system design, code/PR reviews, execution planning, and engineering quality.

6

Mandatory (Experience 5) – Must have strong backend/software engineering experience with hands-on technical depth in building APIs, services, integrations, and scalable systems; specific language/framework can vary.

7

Mandatory (Experience 6) – Must have experience owning production operations, including on-call, incident management, debugging, and postmortems for their area.

8

Mandatory (Experience 7) – Must have experience driving cross-functional alignment with Product and Design and translating ambiguous business/product requirements into scalable technical solutions.

9

Mandatory (Company) – Must be from a Product Company / Startup, particularly B2B SaaS, Fintech, Payments, or similar technology product environments. (Refer Target Company List)

10

Mandatory (Role Fit) – Role is 80% people/team management and 20% technical/IC involvement;

11

Preferred (Education) - Tier 1 engineering college

About the role

You'll join a growing engineering team as a Lead Engineer / Architect, leading a small team in India and working closely with engineering teams in the US and Mexico. You'll be responsible for driving technical execution, solving complex engineering problems, and leading a team to build, deliver, and maintain reliable software.

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone with strong backend engineering expertise who can also contribute across the stack when needed.

Location: Hyderabad

Work Mode: Hybrid

What you'll do

• Lead a small engineering team in India, driving day-to-day technical execution and delivery
• Work closely with teams in the US and Mexico to plan, develop, and deliver software
• Design and build robust, scalable backend systems using .NET
• Own technical decisions around architecture, implementation, and engineering best practices
• Contribute across the full stack when needed.
• Break down complex technical problems and drive them through to implementation and delivery
• Mentor engineers and help maintain a high standard of engineering quality
• Collaborate with distributed teams and communicate technical decisions clearly

What we're looking for

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with experience in a lead-level role
• 2+ years of experience leading a team
• Strong, hands-on expertise in .NET and backend engineering
• Strong understanding of software architecture and scalable backend systems
• Full-stack experience is preferred, with React being a plus
• Experience leading a small engineering team and driving technical delivery
• Excellent communication skills, particularly when working with distributed teams
• Strong problem-solving skills and a hands-on approach to engineering
• AI expertise is a plus
• Experience with payment systems or payment-related products is a plus

Who you are

• You take ownership and drive work through to completion
• You're hands-on and enjoy solving challenging engineering problems
• You're curious, resourceful, and always looking to learn
• You communicate clearly and work well with teams across different locations
• You lead by example and help the team deliver high-quality work

Celeco Labs is hiring a hands-on Head of Engineering on behalf of a confidential client in the housing-finance sector.

This is a role for an engineer who wants to own delivery, not only manage it. You will set the technical direction, build and maintain production systems, and work closely with the business team. You should be comfortable taking a requirement from the first discussion through technical planning, implementation, release, and production support.

What you will do

• Own the engineering roadmap and help decide what should be built first.

• Design, build, and maintain reliable customer-facing products and internal systems.

• Write production code and review code written by others.

• Turn business requirements into clear technical plans and releases.

• Choose practical architecture, tools, and vendors that fit the company's needs.

• Set working standards for testing, deployment, monitoring, backups, and access control.

• Protect customer and company data through practical security controls.

• Investigate production issues and make sure the same problems do not repeat.

• Help hire and guide a small engineering team as the company grows.

What we are looking for

• 3–5 years of professional software-engineering experience.

• Experience building and running production systems.

• Strong backend skills, including APIs, databases, and cloud services.

• Enough frontend knowledge to work across a product when needed.

• Good judgment about system design, security, reliability, and cost.

• The ability to explain technical choices in simple language.

• Comfort working independently and taking full ownership of delivery.

Experience in lending, housing finance, fintech, or another regulated industry is useful, but not required. Experience leading engineers or working directly with founders and business leaders is also useful.

How to apply

Please share your CV or LinkedIn profile and two short examples of production systems you have owned. This is a confidential search. More information about the company will be shared with shortlisted candidates during the interview process.

Key Responsibilities:

Team Leadership and Management:

• Lead, mentor, and manage a team of backend developers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and technical excellence.
• Promote a shared vision for the team, ensuring alignment with business goals and organizational objectives.
• Conduct performance reviews, provide constructive feedback, and create opportunities for team members’ professional growth.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration between development teams, designers, and product managers to deliver seamless and high-quality software.

Technical Strategy and Execution:

• Define and drive architectural decisions for both backend and frontend systems,ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Advocate and implement best practices in software development, including coding standards, test-driven development (TDD), and peer code reviews.
• Encourage the adoption of Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI-driven tools to optimize development and testing workflows.
• Provide technical direction on backend development using modern frameworks and languages, as well as frontend development using React, Angular, or Svelte.

Process and Quality Management:

• Ensure robust integration between backend APIs and frontend systems for seamless user experiences.
• Establish and enforce coding, testing, and deployment standards for both backend and frontend teams.
• Implement and optimize automated testing frameworks for backend and UI layers to ensure comprehensive coverage.
• Monitor system performance and application stability, proactively identifying and mitigating risks.
• Establish CI/CD pipelines and DevOps best practices for efficient and reliable delivery cycles.

Stakeholder Collaboration:

• Act as a bridge between engineering teams, business stakeholders, and leadership, ensuring effective communication and alignment.
• Translate complex business requirements into actionable technical solutions and guide teams through their implementation.
• Provide regular updates on progress, challenges, and innovations to stakeholders.

Innovation and Exploration:

• Stay updated on advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs) and integrate them into development and quality assurance workflows where applicable.
• Encourage the exploration of cutting-edge technologies, tools, and frameworks for both backend and frontend development.
• Champion the use of AI and machine learning tools for performance optimization, automated testing, and enhanced developer productivity.

Skills & Qualifications:

Must-Have Skills:

• Proven experience as an Engineering Manager or similar leadership role.
• Strong technical background in backend technologies (e.g., Java, Spring Framework).
• Deep understanding of RESTful API design, microservices architecture.
• Hands-on experience with containerization and orchestration tools like Docker.
• Solid knowledge of Agile methodologies, TDD, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Expertise in integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI-powered tools into development workflows.

Nice-to-Have Skills:

• Experience with cloud platforms like AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Knowledge of automated testing frameworks for both backend (e.g., JUnit, Postman) and frontend (e.g., Playwright).
• Understanding of DevOps practices and infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform.
• Exposure to AI/ML frameworks and libraries for enhancing application features and team efficiency.