Engineering Manager (EdTech)

We're recruiting on behalf of a large-scale global EdTech platform trusted by 17 million learners and 6,000+ companies. They're building the next generation of AI-powered learning - and they're an AI-native organization, not an AI-curious one. Agentic coding tools like Claude Code and Cursor aren't an experiment there, they're how the team builds and ships every single day.

We're looking for a hands-on Engineering Manager to lead the team behind their core Learn Product - the systems that power how millions of people actually learn.

This isn't a role for someone who wants to step back from the technical work and manage from a distance. You'll lead a small team of senior and staff engineers, and you'll be the person they come to when something genuinely hard needs solving.

What you'll own:

• Lead a team of senior/staff engineers building large, ambiguous, high-impact projects from idea to shipped impact — real autonomy, fast feedback loops, not ticket-grinding
• Be the primary technical escalation point for your team — when someone hits a hard problem, you're in the weeds with them, not routing it elsewhere
• Set the technical direction and architecture for scalability, reliability, and maintainability, increasingly for LLM-powered services
• Drive your team's use of agentic AI tooling — you set the bar for how AI-assisted development is done well, and keep raising it
• Partner closely with Product and Design to shape the roadmap, using data and user feedback to decide what to build next
• Grow senior engineers toward staff and principal-level impact — this team doesn't include junior engineers, so your coaching is aimed at people who are already strong
• Own delivery end-to-end: idea → build → release → measure → iterate, balancing speed with long-term platform health

You're a strong fit if you have:

• 7+ years building software across the stack, with strong command of system design and modern engineering practice
• 3+ years managing engineers at senior/staff level — you can speak concretely about how you've helped someone grow from senior to staff, or staff to principal
• Deep, sustained hands-on use of agentic AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, or similar) — this is core to how you already work day-to-day, not something you're just starting to explore
• Recent experience managing at a small, fast-moving company — you know what it's like to build without the safety net of a large org
• A backend, DevOps, or data engineering background — you can go deep technically, not just coordinate
• Still genuinely hands-on — you haven't drifted fully into people management and lost your technical edge
• Comfort partnering directly with Product, Design, and cross-functional stakeholders

What's in it for you:

• A role with real technical ownership, not just people management
• Flexible working hours
• International company retreats
• Learning & development budget, including conference attendance

About the role:

• Location: Portugal (fully remote) or Belgium (hybrid if within ~1 hour of Leuven, remote otherwise)
• Full-time, direct employment with our client