Engineering Manager
23 hours ago
City of London
About Us Every business needs to know who they’re really working with whether it’s suppliers, investors, partners, or third parties. At Xapien, we’re reinventing how organisations do that, combining speed, scale and accuracy with cutting-edge AI. Since 2018, we’ve grown from a deep-tech startup to a global player in AI-driven due diligence and risk intelligence. 2024 was a landmark year as we closed a $10M Series A, earned recognition in the Chartis RiskTech100® and Everest Group’s Leading 50™, and expanded our products, markets and customer base. 2025 was even bigger: With new regulations, rising compliance pressure and growing reputation risks, organisations everywhere are demanding smarter, faster ways to work and they’re turning to us. Customers worldwide from global law firms and private banks to universities and nonprofits rely on Xapien to turn days of manual research into trusted insights, delivered in minutes. Our momentum so far Customers in a diverse range of industries, with particular growth in wealth management, financial services and supply chain onboarding. Demand accelerating beyond our UK headquarters, across multiple continents with new customers in the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania. Why this is an exciting time to join This isn’t just another tech role; it’s an opportunity to shape the future of the due diligence industry with a market-leading product trusted by global organisations. Whether you’re in marketing, communications, sales, or finance, you’ll play a critical role in driving growth, building credibility, and defining how we connect our product to a rapidly evolving market. We’re scaling fast with more customers, more releases, and bigger regulatory and market challenges. Expectations are rising, due diligence now means real-time insight, delivered efficiently and with impact. You won’t just be executing campaigns, closing deals, or managing numbers, you’ll be influencing strategy, optimising processes, and helping position a brand that’s setting the new standard for trust and transparency. For people who love learning, innovating, and making an impact that matters now is the moment to be a part of Xapien. The Role We're looking for an Engineering Manager to lead one of our engineering teams, managing a group of engineers building features that directly impact our customers. This is a people-first leadership role focused on delivery, team performance, and engineering excellence. As our second EM hire, you'll help us continue to embed effective engineering management practices across the organisation. You'll be responsible for your team's delivery cadence, quality, and growth while working closely with Product, QA, Research, and Design to ship great software. This role is not hands-on coding focused. Instead, you'll spend your time on people development, process improvement, and ensuring your team delivers high-quality work consistently and sustainably. Key Responsibilities People Leadership & Development: • Manage and develop a team of engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and high performance, • Conduct regular 1:1s, provide coaching and feedback, and support career growth, • Build psychological safety and team cohesion, • Support hiring as the team and company scales, • Create an environment where engineers can do their best work Delivery & Process: • Own your team's delivery, ensuring consistent, predictable output, • Work closely with Product Managers, QA, and Research to scope, prioritise, and deliver work, • Drive continuous improvement in delivery cadence and quality, • Reduce incidents and improve system reliability, • Embed and refine engineering processes that scale with the organisation, • Remove blockers and create clarity for the team Technical Engagement: • Participate in technical scoping and design discussions, • Understand the technical challenges your team faces well enough to know when to escalate or seek help from senior technical staff, • Maintain enough technical awareness to make informed trade-offs between speed and quality, • Contribute to architectural discussions without needing to write the code yourself Cross-functional Collaboration: • Partner with Product to align on roadmap and priorities, • Collaborate with QA to ensure quality standards, • Coordinate with Design on user experience, • Communicate effectively with other Engineering Managers and leadership What We're Looking For Essential: • 2+ years of engineering management experience, ideally in a scale-up or high-growth environment, • Proven track record of improving team delivery cadence and reducing quality issues, • Strong people management skills with experience developing engineers at different career stages, • Experience working in cross-functional product teams with Product, Design, and QA, • Ability to contribute to technical scoping and design without being hands-on in code, • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, • Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, evolving environment, • Track record of building sustainable, healthy teams that deliver consistently Desirable: • Experience in SaaS or B2B product companies, • Previous experience as a strong software engineer, • Familiarity with modern engineering practices and tooling, • Experience hiring and scaling engineering teams What Success Looks Like In your first 6 months, you will have: • Built strong relationships with your team and cross-functional partners, • Improved your team's delivery predictability and cadence, • Contributed to reducing incidents and improving quality metrics, • Embedded effective processes for planning, retrospectives, and continuous improvement, • Supported team members' growth through regular coaching and feedback, • Made meaningful progress on at least one significant team improvement initiative Here’s our promise to you: • We are going to work with you - to build a rewarding and fulfilling career with the opportunities, challenges and resources you need to do you your best work., • We succeed together- you will own a meaningful part of the business through our employee shares & equity programme., • Private health insurance to keep you in tip-top condition., • Life Insurance – let's hope nobody ever needs this!, • Unlimited holidays – yes, it really is uncapped – take the time you need, when you need it., • Everyone is learning, developing and challenging themselves so we have a £1k professional development fund per year if you want to learn new skills, even new things outside of work., • Most importantly of all, we will work with you, to help you realise your fullest potential, always.