Sr. Engineering Manager

About the opportunity What you'll own As Senior Engineering Manager, you'll lead multiple engineering teams (typically 4 squads, ~20 engineers) across a single technical domain. You're accountable for: - Domain-level technical strategy — Work with product leadership and your teams to define a 12–18 month technical vision for your domain - Team health and growth — Build an environment where engineers thrive: hiring, developing ICs, mentoring junior managers, and creating psychological safety - Delivery excellence — Guide your teams through discovery, planning, and execution using small-batch delivery and continuous feedback loops - Business impact — Translate product objectives into technical solutions; quantify and communicate the impact of your domain's work - Cross-functional leadership — Work closely with product, design, and business partners to resolve ambiguity and drive alignment - Technical decision-making — Guide your teams on system design, architecture, and engineering practices while maintaining talabat's standards for scalability, security, and performance 90-day, 6-month, and 12-month outcomes 90 days: You've onboarded your teams, understood their technical roadmap and pain points, and delivered your first feedback to your manager on domain health and near-term priorities. 6 months: Your teams are shipping value consistently; you've identified one emerging technical leader and started mentoring them; you've coached your teams through at least one cross-domain initiative; code quality and shipping velocity are on track or improving. 12 months: Your domain has a clear technical vision communicated across the org; you've grown at least one engineer significantly (either toward IC4/Staff or toward management); your teams ship with confidence; you're contributing to 1–2 strategic initiatives beyond your domain; you're mentoring or developing a potential future manager. What you need to be successful What you'll bring Leadership & people management - 4+ years of hands-on technical leadership experience managing engineering teams - Demonstrated ability to hire, mentor, and grow engineers — we care about your track record of developing people, not just technical skills - Comfort with cross-functional leadership: working with product, design, business partners, and other engineering teams - Emotional intelligence: you navigate ambiguity, handle conflict constructively, and create psychological safety for your teams Technical depth - 8+ years of hands-on software engineering experience in production systems - Deep understanding of at least one of: distributed systems, backend systems, data platforms, mobile platforms, or web-scale infrastructure - Proven ability to work across diverse technology stacks — we care that you've made architecture decisions that matter, not that you've used every specific tool - Hands-on understanding of XP practices: TDD, pair programming, continuous refactoring, and trunk-based development (or strong willingness to learn and lead talabat's approach) Engineering sense - You think about non-functional requirements: scalability, reliability, latency, cost efficiency, and security — not just feature delivery - You've navigated the tradeoffs between speed and technical debt; you know when to optimize and when to simplify - You've led or been part of domain-level decisions (tech stack migrations, architectural changes, platform initiatives) Nice-to-haves - Experience leading multiple teams or a domain in a high-growth environment - Exposure to eXtreme Programming practices (XP culture is learnable but experience is valuable) - Background in marketplace, delivery, or logistics optimization - Experience mentoring or developing other engineering managers - Familiarity with modern cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) Who we are talabat is the leading on-demand food and non-food delivery platform in MENA, operating across 8 countries and processing hundreds of millions of orders annually. We're part of Delivery Hero, the global leader in online food delivery and q-commerce, and we're engineering-first. Our teams operate under eXtreme Programming (XP) principles — TDD, pair programming, continuous refactoring, and trunk-based development. We believe quality enables speed, and our hiring reflects that. Our engineering culture is a key competitive advantage, and we're looking for leaders who embody it. What's in it for you Why this role, why talabat - Scale with purpose: You'll impact millions of daily orders across MENA while building a technical foundation that's proven to scale - Engineering culture that works: We practice XP genuinely — TDD, pair programming, continuous delivery — not as Agile theater. Our engineers ship faster because we focus on quality - Autonomous teams: Your teams own their roadmap and their quality. You're not a bottleneck; you're an enabler - Mentoring and growth: If you want to grow into a Director role, we have a clear path: multi-domain scope → tribe l

Leadership & people management: 4+ years of hands-on technical leadership experience managing engineering teams; Demonstrated ability to hire, mentor, and grow engineers; Comfort with cross-functional leadership with product, design, business partners, and other engineering teams; Emotional intelligence to navigate ambiguity and create psychological safety. Technical depth: 8+ years of hands-on software engineering experience in production systems; Deep understanding of at least one of: distributed systems, backend systems, data platforms, mobile platforms, or web-scale infrastructure; Proven ability to work across diverse technology stacks; Hands-on understanding of XP practices: TDD, pair programming, continuous refactoring, and trunk-based development (or willingness to learn and lead talabat's approach); Engineering sense: focus on non-functional requirements (scalability, reliability, latency, cost efficiency, security) and tradeoffs between speed and technical debt; experience leading domain-level decisions (tech stack migrations, architectural changes, platform initiatives); Nice-to-haves: experience leading multiple teams or a domain in a high-growth environment; exposure to XP culture; background in marketplace, delivery, or logistics optimization; mentoring or developing other engineering managers; familiarity with modern cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure).

As Senior Engineering Manager, you'll lead multiple engineering teams (typically 4 squads, ~20 engineers) across a single technical domain. You're accountable for: Domain-level technical strategy — define a 12–18 month technical vision for your domain; Team health and growth — hire, develop ICs, mentor junior managers, and foster psychological safety; Delivery excellence — guide discovery, planning, and execution using small-batch delivery and feedback loops; Business impact — translate product objectives into technical solutions and quantify impact; Cross-functional leadership — collaborate with product, design, and business partners to resolve ambiguity and drive alignment; Technical decision-making — guide system design, architecture, and engineering practices while maintaining scalability, security, and performance. 90-day, 6-month, and 12-month outcomes: onboarding teams and defining priorities; driving consistent value delivery and mentoring leaders; establishing a clear technical vision and coaching engineers toward growth; Your domain ships with confidence and contributes to strategic initiatives beyond domain boundaries.