Senior Engineering Manager – Backstage
Spotify
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Hybrid
Location: London • 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Visit company websiteJob Level
Senior
Tech Stack
CloudOpen Source
About the role
- Set technical and product direction for systems used daily by engineers across Spotify and thousands of external organizations
- Partner closely with product, design, data, and research to ship high-quality, opinionated platform solutions
- Drive architectural decisions across cloud-native systems, internal developer platforms, and AI-assisted tooling
- Build and evolve infrastructure that supports plugins, extensibility, and emerging patterns such as MCP servers
- Bring a strong commercial mindset to technical decisions, weighing open source vs. proprietary tradeoffs with clarity and intent
- Lead and grow engineering teams building Backstage's core platform and SaaS capabilities, with a strong focus on developer experience
- Act as a trusted partner to senior leadership, offering clear viewpoints, constructive pushback, and well-reasoned recommendations
- Create an environment where engineers can do the best work of their careers through coaching, technical leadership, and inclusive practices
Requirements
- You've built and operated complex, developer-facing products used by engineers at scale
- You bring deep technical credibility from hands-on engineering work across cloud, infrastructure, and platform systems
- You're energized by building products for engineers and deeply understand their workflows, difficulties, and jobs to be done
- You have strong judgment around system design, tradeoffs, and long-term technical strategy
- You're curious and have experience engaging with modern AI-assisted development tools and how they change how engineers build and ship software
- You think in business terms and understand how technical choices impact adoption, cost, and commercial outcomes
- You're comfortable taking a point of view, explaining your reasoning, and constructively complicated decisions when needed
- You enjoy working with distributed teams and collaborating across functions, time zones, and cultures
Benefits
- Flexibility to work where you work best
- Occasional travel expected to support collaboration and team connection
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard skills
cloud-native systemsinfrastructureAI-assisted toolingsystem designdeveloper-facing productsSaaS capabilitiespluginsextensibilitytechnical strategyopen source vs. proprietary tradeoffs
Soft skills
technical leadershipcoachinginclusive practicesjudgmentcollaborationcommunicationconstructive pushbackcuriositypartneringproblem-solving