Engineering Manager, Planning & Purchasing (m,f,x)

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is one of HelloFresh's most critical domains, and the Planning & Purchasing tribe sits at its core. Our mission is to build world-class procurement and planning technology that powers a lean, scalable, and sustainable supply chain, from supplier to plate. We develop the systems behind accurate demand forecasting, efficient purchase planning, real-time inventory tracking, supplier collaboration, and high-quality ingredient data flow. Our work ensures the right ingredients arrive at the right place, at the right time, with the quality our customers expect.

If you’re passionate about transforming supply chain processes through smart, impactful technology, join us and help shape the future of how we plan, buy, and move food.

The role

As an Engineering Manager in the Food Systems Alliance, you’ll lead one or more cross-functional teams to deliver scalable, high-impact software solutions. You’ll balance technical execution, architectural guidance, and people leadership, empowering engineers to thrive while aligning with broader product and business goals. You’ll work closely with Product, Data, and Operations stakeholders to define priorities, remove blockers, and ensure the team delivers reliably and sustainably.

You’ll act as a technical partner and coach, shaping a culture of ownership, pragmatic engineering, and continuous improvement. Your focus will span day-to-day execution, strategic planning, and growing the capabilities of both the systems and the people behind them.

What you’ll do

• Build, grow, and manage a cross-functional team of 6–8 engineers focused on solving complex supply chain problems in procurement with a strong emphasis on backend services (Kotlin), infrastructure (Kafka, AWS, Kubernetes), and data-driven integrations.
• Partner closely with product, data, and business stakeholders to define roadmaps, translate high-level goals into pragmatic technical solutions, and ensure alignment across global teams.
• Foster a healthy, inclusive engineering culture where individuals feel safe to challenge ideas, take ownership, and continuously grow while delivering high-quality, reliable systems.
• Drive operational and engineering excellence across the team, owning the architecture, delivery process, and performance of services in production.
• Support your team’s growth through regular feedback, mentorship, and career development, while actively participating in hiring and org planning.
• Engage in high-level architectural discussions and guide the technical strategy to ensure our systems remain scalable, maintainable, and cost-effective.

What you’ll bring

• Proven experience in software engineering and people management in enterprise software or SaaS environments.
• A strong technical foundation with hands-on expertise in JVM languages (preferably Kotlin), PostgreSQL, and stream processing technologies such as Kafka.
• Practical experience with cloud infrastructure, containerization (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes), and modern DevOps practices, including CI/CD and observability.
• A track record of supporting engineers through mentorship, feedback, and career growth, with a genuine passion for helping others succeed.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain complex technical topics to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience defining long-term engineering roadmaps, driving cross-team collaboration, and delivering outcomes in an agile, fast-paced environment.