Engineering Manager (HotSchedules Labor)

N-iX is seeking an experienced Engineering Manager to lead three SCRUM teams working on HotSchedules Labor, a workforce management product. You will own delivery, people management, and engineering processes while managing approximately 15-20 full-stack Java developers, tech leads, and QA automation engineers across distributed teams.

• Lead three SCRUM teams end-to-end: sprint planning, backlog refinement, retrospectives, and delivery commitments
• Own delivery outcomes and ensure teams consistently hit sprint goals and roadmap milestones
• Manage ~15-20 engineers across three teams: tech leads, senior full-stack developers, and QA automation engineers
• Run regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and career development conversations
• Remove blockers, manage cross-team dependencies, and escalate risks early
• Work with product management to align engineering capacity with business priorities
• Maintain engineering standards: code reviews, CI/CD discipline, test coverage, and release quality
• Expand the use of AI coding agents across all three teams and track adoption metrics
• Coordinate cross-team technical initiatives such as platform upgrades and migrations
• Own hiring for teams: define staffing needs, run interviews, and onboard new members
• Report delivery status, risks, and metrics to senior leadership and client stakeholders
• Build and maintain strong team culture across distributed time zones

Must-Have:

• Proven experience managing multiple engineering teams simultaneously
• 8+ years of professional software development experience with strong Java background
• Advanced English proficiency for daily meetings, stakeholder calls, and written communication
• At least 6 months of hands-on experience with AI coding agents (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor) or managing teams using them
• Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud platform (AWS or Azure)
• EU-timezone availability

Strongly Preferred:

• Track record delivering software in Agile/SCRUM environments with distributed international teams
• Solid understanding of Java/Spring ecosystem, relational databases, and modern front-end frameworks (React)
• Experience managing QA functions including test automation strategy
• Experience with capacity planning and delivery forecasting

Nice to Have:

• Domain experience in workforce management, scheduling, or labor optimization
• Familiarity with event-driven and message-queue architectures
• Experience managing teams through legacy-to-modern migration efforts
• Exposure to Playwright-based test automation frameworks
• Experience with Azure DevOps pipelines and CI/CD orchestration

EU-timezone working hours required. Distributed teams across Ukraine, Latin America, and the US. Strong English communication skills essential for cross-team ceremonies, stakeholder updates, and escalation calls.