Engineering Manager (OEM)

We’re a global team of over 400 people, working together to push the boundaries of open-source technology and multi-cloud solutions. Our vision is to help developers, builders, and creators bring their ideas to life with speed and simplicity, by providing a cloud data platform that makes open-source databases, search, streaming, and application infrastructure easily accessible to everyone. 

The Role:

We are seeking a dynamic and results-driven Engineering Manager to lead the team who create the partner-facing Aiven platform. This role has a strong emphasis on customer engagement and satisfaction, and balances requirements from multiple stakeholders to deliver the best roadmap for our partners. Reporting to the Director of Partner Product & Engineering Management, you will be the pivotal link between our engineering teams and our partners, ensuring seamless delivery and fostering strong, collaborative relationships.

As the leader of the Partner Platform Development team, you will drive the technical execution of existing and complex new partner integrations, serving as the primary engine for our expansion. This role combines technical leadership with operational excellence; you will manage a pipeline of new region launches, service extensions, and critical platform upgrades while collaborating directly on the overall product roadmap.

What You’ll Do:

Customer management & communication

• Requirements gathering & communication: Collaborate with OEMs to gather detailed requirements, ensuring clear communication and alignment between partner expectations and engineering deliverables.
• Partner feedback & advocacy: Proactively solicit and analyze customer feedback, acting as an advocate for OEM needs within the engineering organization.
• Regular status updates & reporting: Provide regular status updates to OEMs, including project progress, milestones, and potential risks, ensuring transparency and proactive issue resolution.

Engineering Resource Management & Optimization

• Resource allocation & capacity planning: Effectively allocate engineering resources across projects and initiatives, ensuring optimal utilization and alignment with OEM delivery priorities.
• Team structure & skill development: Assess and optimize the team structure, identifying skill gaps and implementing training and development programs to enhance team capabilities.
• Performance management & motivation: Conduct regular performance reviews, provide constructive feedback, and foster a positive and motivating work environment to maximize team productivity.

Delivery Execution & Process Improvement

• Project planning & execution: Lead the planning and execution of OEM-focused engineering projects, ensuring adherence to timelines, budgets, and quality standards.
• Delivery orchestration: Orchestrate and coordinate deliveries across OEM partners and product domains (e.g., Streaming, Database Engines, Platform), ensuring seamless integration, and alignment with OEM requirements.
• Delivery process optimization: Continuously analyze and improve delivery processes, identifying bottlenecks and implementing solutions to streamline workflows and enhance efficiency.
• Risk management & mitigation: Proactively identify and assess potential risks, developing mitigation strategies to minimize disruptions and ensure on-time deliveries.

Team Leadership & Development

• Technical decision making: Foster a culture of technical decision-making within the team, empowering engineers to contribute their expertise and insights. Provide clear guidance and make final decisions when necessary, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives.
• Psychological safety: Cultivate a psychologically safe environment where team members feel comfortable taking risks, sharing ideas, and providing open and honest feedback.
• Talent acquisition: Actively seek and recruit high-potential engineering talent to strengthen the team's capabilities and drive innovation.
• Interviewing & onboarding: Lead managerial interviews for engineering candidates, and train the team on effective technical interviewing techniques. Develop and implement comprehensive onboarding programs to ensure new hires are quickly integrated and productive.

What We’re Looking For: 

Leadership skills:

• People Leadership: A proven track record of leading diverse and distributed teams, to successfully deliver software products.
• Product Thinking: A strong product sense that enables you to drive the direction of the products towards meeting customer needs 
• Communication: Excellent communication skills in English, with the ability to effectively engage directly with customers.
• Adaptability: The ability to bring order and clarity to a dynamic, ambiguous environment, a trait essential in a fast-growing tech company.
• Team Building: Experience in recruiting engineering talent and a deep understanding of what it takes to build and retain high-performing teams.
• Agile Expertise: Experience with agile software development methodologies.

Technical skills:

• Cloud infrastructure Concepts: Good knowledge of VM-based cloud infrastructure fundamentals.
• Technologies: Experience with Python and PostgreSQL, in modular / distributed systems.
• Release & Quality: Deep understanding of release management and testing best practices to own the delivery pipeline.
• Problem-Solving: A genuine interest in solving complex technical challenges with customer-focused solutions.

Amazing! What’s next:

If you think Aiven is the place for you and that our Values align with yours, send us your resume and we’ll get in touch!

Global Benefits:

Our global benefits are designed to help you thrive and grow, personally and professionally:

• Participate in Aiven’s equity plan.
• Balance work and life with our hybrid work policy.
• Choose the equipment you need to set yourself up for success.
• Use your Professional Development Plan budget for learning opportunities.
• Receive holistic wellbeing support through our global Employee Assistance Program.
• Inquire about our Global Time Off Commitment (Parental and Sick Leave, as well as Personal Time)
• Enjoy country-specific benefits for our global cast.

How to Recognize and Avoid Employment Scams:

There has been a rise in fake job postings used by scammers to get personal information. At Aiven, all of our emails relating to recruitment come from an @aiven.io, @greenhouse.io or @eu.greenhouse.io domain and all of our interviews are conducted by video call or in person.  Our interviews will never occur via text or chat. If you’re unsure of the legitimacy of a job opportunity/offer pertaining to Aiven, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].

Equal Opportunities:

Aiven provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, marital and family status or without regard to any other similar personal attributes. Aiven complies with applicable local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company operates. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, training and any other terms and conditions related to employment.

At Aiven we are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities or special needs in our working environment and job application procedures. We make all reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities or who otherwise need support to thrive in the workplace. We are committed to continuously improving workplace accessibility. There is an option to request a discussion in the application process but if you have any questions before applying please write to us at [email protected].