Engineering Manager, User-Facing Search Product (React / Java / Kotlin)

About the company:

Our client is a well-funded, product-led travel tech company operating at significant scale. Think millions of monthly users, a high-traffic consumer web product, and engineering teams that own their domain end to end. They have been growing fast and now invest in strengthening the leadership layer across our core product squads.

The opportunity:

They are looking for an Engineering Manager to take ownership of one of their most user-critical product areas: the search and discovery experience. This is the part of the product where travellers land, browse, and decide, so the stakes are high and the impact is immediate. You'll run a cross-functional squad of frontend and backend engineers, a QA engineer, and a project manager. You'll sit at the intersection of product, design, and engineering and you'll work closely with adjacent teams handling ranking algorithms, booking flows, and marketing integrations. This isn't a purely people-management role. Expect to spend roughly half your time writing and reviewing code alongside your team.

The stack

• Frontend: TypeScript · NodeJS · ReactJS · Zustand · TailwindCSS · Express · Kubernetes
• Backend: Java 17/21 · Kotlin · Spring Boot
• Infra: Microservices on AWS EKS · Docker · Terraform · Jenkins · Git
• Data: PostgreSQL · Redis · Elasticsearch · Redshift
• Observability: ELK · Grafana · Looker · OpsGenie

What the role involves

• Taking end-to-end ownership of a squad building and maintaining a high-traffic consumer product (up to 1M unique users per day)
• Splitting your time roughly 50/50 between hands-on engineering and people/delivery leadership
• Partnering with Product and Design to shape the team roadmap and set meaningful OKRs
• Raising the bar on engineering quality: architecture decisions, code reviews, technical standards
• Growing your engineers through structured feedback, mentorship, and a culture where learning is the norm
• Contributing to hiring: you'll help build the team, not just manage it
• Collaborating with staff engineers and other EMs on cross-cutting technical strategy

What they are looking for

• A strong engineering foundation (e.g. you've shipped production backend services and/or frontend applications and can hold your own in technical discussions)
• Hands-on experience with Java or React/TypeScript in a production environment
• Prior experience leading an engineering team
• A user-first mindset: you care about how the product feels, not just how it's built

What you get

• Technical ownership in a product used by millions
• A hybrid setup with flexibility to work remotely for extended periods throughout the year
• Competitive PTO, personal development budget, travel perks, and a strong engineering culture
• A team worth leading: smart, international, and genuinely motivated