Software Engineer Manager | Southampton

Do you know what a great engineering team looks like, and do you love building one? Have you written code yourself, but do you now get more energy from helping engineers grow and deliver? Then we’d love to get to know you.

Your role
We're looking for an experienced Software Engineering Manager to lead our engineering team in Southampton, a group of approximately 8–15 engineers. You'll be responsible for building a strong team, helping people develop, and making sure the team delivers good software.

Our engineering team in Southampton currently works together on the same product. That may change as we grow. Over time, you could be managing engineers across different products and offices. This may involve occasional travel to other locations, typically a couple of times per year.

You won't be writing code yourself, but we do expect you to have worked as a software engineer. You need to understand technology, recognize good engineering practices, and be able to challenge technical decisions when needed. Some teams have Lead Engineers to take the technical lead; others don't (yet).

What you’ll do
+ Deliver. Agree on priorities and realistic plans with Product Management. Help your teams deliver predictably, clear obstacles out of the way and make sure the work solves real customer and business needs.
+ Keep engineering standards high. Make sure your teams have the technical leadership they need, from a Lead Engineer or someone else.
+ Guide and challenge technical decisions. Make sure teams follow good practice in architecture, code quality, testing and maintainability. Use quality and delivery metrics to spot problems and track improvements.
+ Lead and develop your team. Hire engineers, coach them, give feedback, manage performance and help people grow. Create a team where people enjoy working together and feel free to speak up.
+ Own operations and security. Your teams own what they build, including how it runs in production. You make sure monitoring and incident management are in place, security vulnerabilities get fixed and teams meet security and compliance requirements. You support audits and certifications. And you use metrics on incidents, security findings and cloud costs to spot problems and measure progress.
+ Improve how we work. Find ways to make your teams more effective. Encourage engineers to work with colleagues across products and locations. Share knowledge, improve ways of working and reuse existing components and solutions, instead of building everything from scratch.
+ Work with stakeholders. Build good relationships with Product Management, other engineering leaders and colleagues across the business.
+ Keep them up to date on progress and risks. Help resolve conflicting priorities, and think about what’s best for the whole organisation, not just your own teams.

About Whitevision
At Whitevision, we help take repetitive work out of the world. Our smart software helps organisations process incoming documents, like purchase invoices, quickly and digitally. That gives people more time for work that actually matters.

We’re a leading SaaS player in Intelligent Document Processing & Management. We build smart, scalable and reliable tools for invoice processing, procurement, spend and document management, which integrate seamlessly with a wide range of ERP systems. We’ve been doing this for over 20 years, and more than 2,300 organisations rely on our solutions.

Over 140 colleagues work from our offices in Breda, Rotterdam, Zoetermeer, De Goorn, Milton Keynes and Southampton. Through our buy-and-build strategy, we’re growing into one strong, international group. One company, one platform and lots of room to grow.

What you bring
+ Engineering management experience. You’ve managed software engineering teams, and before that you worked as a professional software engineer. This isn’t a hands-on coding role, but a solid technical background is a must.
+ Strong people leadership. You know what a high-performing engineering team looks like and how to build one. You’re comfortable coaching engineers, giving honest feedback and handling difficult situations when needed.
+ Good technical judgement. You know modern engineering practices, including AI-assisted development, architecture, testing, CI/CD and DevOps. You can weigh up technical trade-offs and guide engineers, without making every decision yourself.
+ Production experience. You’ve worked with cloud infrastructure, production systems, reliability, security and operational costs. You know your way around security and compliance requirements, and you’ve supported audits or certifications.
+ Strong planning and delivery skills. You handle multiple priorities and dependencies, keep the overview and balance short-term delivery with long-term technical needs.
+ Business sense. You’re curious about what customers need and why we build what we build. You’ve worked closely with Product Management and other departments, and you’re not afraid to question priorities.
+ Independence and clear communication. You make decisions, even when things aren’t clear-cut. You work well with different people, handle disagreements and get people aligned, also across teams.

Have you worked in a multi-product, distributed or fast-growing engineering organisation? That’s a plus. The same goes for experience in an M&A or buy-and-build environment, especially with integrating teams and products after an acquisition.

Our way of working is built on four core values: committed, ambitious, respectful and decisive. If those sound like you, you’ll feel right at home. 

What we offer
+ A competitive salary depending, on your knowledge and experience (based on 37.5 hours per week).

+ 25 holiday days, plus all English bank holidays. You get one extra day for every year you work with us, up to 29 days. And on your birthday you get an extra day off, on us!

+ Private medical insurance with AVIVA, with the option to add your partner and children.

+ A workplace pension with Standard Life. Whitevision contributes 4% of your basic salary and you contribute at least 5%.

+ An inspiring work environment with flexibility in where you work: at least one day a week in the office, and the rest of the week you can work from home.

+ A ‘Cycle to Work’ scheme, so you can get a new bike in a tax-efficient way.

Room to grow
At Whitevision, you never stand still. As the group grows into new companies, products and countries, your role grows with it: more teams, more products and more locations. How far you go is largely up to you.

Sounds like you?
Great, we’d love to get to know you. Send us your CV and a short note about why this role fits you.

Want to know more about the role first? Call us on +31 76 5607820. We’re happy to tell you more.

We kindly ask recruitment agencies not to contact us about this vacancy.