Engineering Manager (Delivery & Execution)

We are seeking an Engineering manager who can own predictable delivery across engineering by enforcing sprint discipline, decision clarity, and execution standards. Reduce coordination cost, eliminate rework, and ensure that engineering output is reviewable, shippable, and on time.

Core Responsibilities

Sprint Ownership & Delivery Control
• Own sprint planning, execution, and closure
• Enforce sprint scope boundaries (no silent mid-sprint additions)
• Ensure all tickets entering a sprint meet Definition of Ready
• Track and act on: ticket aging, spillover, churn, blocked work
• Move tickets aggressively across states (TODO ? IN PROGRESS ? REVIEW ? DONE)
• Kill zombie tickets

Timebox Enforcement
• Treat timeboxes as coordination contracts, not estimates
• Require proactive communication before a timebox slips
• Block review if timebox standards are violated
• Escalate early, not after the fact

Execution Quality Gates
• Enforce: Definition of Ready (before sprint), Definition of Done (before release)
• Reject work that: contains implicit decisions, lacks acceptance criteria, introduces duplication without approval
• Ensure code review happens before QA
• Ensure QA does not compensate for missing engineering clarity

Decision Discipline (in partnership with TPM / Product)
• Require explicit tracking of: Open Decisions, Frozen Decisions
• Block execution on unresolved architectural decisions
• Ensure decisions are made by the right group, at the right time
• Prevent “decision by implementation”

5. Engineering Standards Enforcement
• Enforce agreed standards consistently: no duplication without approval, no implicit architecture decisions, no skipping ticket states
• Treat violations as delivery risk, not personal issues
• Track repeat violations and escalate

Required Skills & Traits

Must Have
• Strong judgment around delivery tradeoffs
• Comfort enforcing rules and saying “no”
• Ability to stop work and force alignment
• Low tolerance for ambiguity in execution
• Bias for early escalation over late heroics
• Calm under pressure, emotionally neutral
• Experience running sprints that actually ship
• Strong English language skills
• Familiarity with Jira-style workflows

Nice to Have
• Background as senior engineer
• Experience in SaaS / platform teams
• Worked alongside TPMs or Product Managers