Engineering Manager (f/m/d)

OUR PURPOSE AT PLANCRAFT

Building the backbone of European trades together – with AI-first software.
We’re not just building software – we’re on a mission to create space for contractors & tradespeople by equipping them with AI solutions that work the way they do: fast, practical, and AI-first. With Tier 1 Investors from Europe and the US, like Headline and Creandum as well as 30,000+ tradespeople as customer base, we’re scaling across Europe to turn scattered tradespeople into thriving communities. We believe in zero admin, not zero personality – and we build every feature with the people in mind who wear the boots, not the suits. We’re #stoked to shape the future, #together as a team, and #humble in our mission to support the builders of tomorrow.

YOUR MISSION AT PLANCRAFT

We're building plancraft towards an agentic-first product experience. That means AI-enabled capabilities our customers actually use: features that take real administrative work off a tradesperson's plate and hold up under production load, day after day.

Building that kind of product requires strong engineering foundations. But strong systems alone are not enough. We also need teams that can make good decisions, stay close to customer problems, learn fast, and work with clarity and trust.

That’s where you come in.

As an Engineering Manager, you’ll help engineers and teams do their best work. You’ll develop people, create clarity, guide technical discussions, and shape the environment in which strong engineering can happen. You’ll stay close enough to the craft to ask the right questions and support good trade-offs — without being expected to act as the deepest IC in the room.

This is a people leadership role with real influence across Engineering. You’ll work closely with engineers, Staff Engineers, Product Managers, UX, and Engineering Leadership to help teams ship customer value reliably while improving how we build.

We have a clear vision for where we want Engineering to go, while recognising that we’re still on the journey to get there. Some foundations are already in place; others are still evolving. We’re looking for someone who can bring clarity, judgement and care into that journey — for the people, the teams and the work.

Our customers are tradespeople. Every hour they spend on paperwork is an hour off the job site. We keep that in mind when making technical and organisational decisions: the way our teams work should ultimately help us take more work off their plate.

Your Responsibilities

• The growth of engineers. You’ll support engineers through regular 1:1s, feedback, coaching, career conversations and development planning.

• Healthy, high-trust teams. You’ll create an environment where people speak up early, share context openly, take ownership, and collaborate well.

• Technical decision-making through leadership. You’ll guide technical conversations, ask the right questions, make trade-offs visible and help teams connect technical decisions to customer value.

• The flow of work. You’ll help teams move from ambiguity to focus: clear priorities, explicit expectations, pragmatic decisions and reliable execution.

• Engineering hiring and onboarding. You’ll help us attract, assess, hire and onboard strong engineers and future leaders.

• How Engineering, Product and Design work together. You’ll strengthen cross-functional collaboration and help teams avoid handover thinking or local optimisation.

• The evolution of Engineering at plancraft. Together with other EMs, Staff Engineers and Engineering Leadership, you’ll improve the rituals, practices and systems that make Engineering more effective.

How you'll work & influence

We have clear engineering principles, but we don’t expect Engineering Managers to apply them mechanically. We expect you to help teams understand the intent behind them, connect them to real situations and improve how we work.

You’ll work closely with Staff Engineers: they steward technical direction; you steward people, team effectiveness and the flow of work. Both roles shape engineering effectiveness from different angles — and the best outcomes happen when those perspectives work together, not in parallel.

You’ll have meaningful influence from the start:

• Lead through context, not control. You’ll make sure engineers understand the why, the constraints and the decision space — without taking ownership away from them.

• Make expectations explicit. Around ownership, collaboration, quality, communication, feedback and growth.

• Help teams navigate change. When priorities, structures or expectations shift, you’ll help people understand the context, surface concerns and move forward without losing trust.

• Stay close enough to the work. Some weeks that means reviewing technical plans or joining a difficult trade-off discussion. Other weeks it means coaching, hiring, resolving conflict or improving team rituals.

Your Profile

• Experience developing engineers. You’ve coached, mentored, led or managed engineers and you take people development seriously. Formal Engineering Manager experience is a strong plus, but we’re also open to strong technical leaders with clear people-development responsibility.

• Technical credibility. You can guide discussions around architecture, system design, reliability, quality and delivery. You don’t need to personally own every technical decision, but engineers should trust your judgement and your ability to create the right conversation.

• Strong communication and feedback skills. You can give direct, respectful feedback, facilitate difficult conversations and align people around decisions.

• Experience creating clarity in ambiguity. You can translate organisational goals into team focus, make expectations explicit and help people stay oriented when things change.

• Strong cross-functional collaboration. You know how to work with Product, Design, Staff Engineers and other stakeholders to make trade-offs visible and keep teams focused on outcomes.

• A product-minded engineering perspective. You care about the customer problem, not just the process or the technology. Technical excellence is in service of customer value.

• Familiarity with modern TypeScript-based product engineering. Our stack is React, Node.js / Express and GCP. You don’t need to be the strongest hands-on contributor in every part of it, but you should understand modern software engineering well enough to guide discussions.

• Strong GenAI fluency and role-model behaviour. You already use AI-enabled engineering tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot or similar as a regular part of your own workflow — not as an occasional experiment. You understand where these tools create leverage, where human judgement is still essential, and you actively help engineers build strong, responsible AI-first working habits.

• C1 Level English. German is a plus, not a must.

Who this role is for

This role is for someone who wants to lead engineering teams without moving away from the craft entirely. You care deeply about people development, but you also want to stay close enough to technical and product discussions to help teams make better decisions.

You’ll enjoy this role if you like creating clarity in ambiguity, raising the bar through context rather than control, and helping teams build strong habits — including AI-enabled ways of working.

In the process, we’ll care more about evidence than polish: what you actually did, which trade-offs you made, what changed because of your work, and what you learned.

WHY PLANCRAFT?

• Team Spirit: We’re driven by passion, commitment, and a shared mission. Team spirit matters to us — and we make it visible: with three major team events per year, two casual monthly formats at our Hamburg HQ, and a strong recognition culture where we regularly celebrate both the big and small wins together.

• Ownership: You’re encouraged to take ownership from day one. In a flat hierarchy and high-trust environment, you’re empowered to make meaningful decisions and drive real impact.

• Learning & Growth: We invest in your personal and professional development through a strong feedback culture, a personal learning budget, and targeted enablement formats. Our goal is to help you unlock your full potential.

• AI Enablement: Our internal tools and workflows are AI-enabled by design. We support every team and individual in applying AI at the next level in their daily work, including getting your own ChatGPT+ license, of course.

• Tech & Tooling: You’ll receive a MacBook, premium over-ear headphones, and everything else you need — from hardware to tools — to be effective in your daily doing.

• Flexibility: Whether remote, hybrid, or on-site — you work where you’re at your best. Our Hamburg office at Rödingsmarkt (with a rooftop terrace) is always open, and you decide each week how often you come in. Some roles even allow for fully remote setups. And if you need a change of scenery, working abroad is always an option.

• Recharge: To ensure the needed rest, we offer 30 vacation days per year (based on a 5-day week) and Dec 24th off. We also subsidize your Urban Sports Club membership and organize internal sport meetups.

• Mobility: You can lease a "JobRad" (Bike) and get a subsidized "Deutschlandticket" or "BahnCard" for public transport to be supported in your commute.

• International Environment: We’re becoming more international every month, with team members already in Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Austria — which is why English is our internal company language.

We’re #stoked to shape the future, #together as a team, and #humble in our mission to support the builders of tomorrow. For a first impression of us, take a look at our Instagram and LinkedIn page.

Diversity makes us better.
We welcome people of all backgrounds, identities, abilities, and experiences, and we believe that different perspectives lead to better ideas, stronger products, and a healthier workplace. If you’re excited about our mission but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every requirement, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be exactly who we’re looking for.

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On the application process
We want your candidate experience with us to be smooth, transparent, and enjoyable. We aim to get back to you regarding your application within 5 business days. Our interview process typically takes about 4 weeks from start to finish, though this may vary by role. You can learn more about our process here. If you need adjustments or flexibility at any stage, please don’t hesitate to let us know — we’ll do our best to make it work for you.

Note on creating a test account:
If you would like to create a test account as part of the challenge, please enter "Applicant" in the relevant field during registration and select "Other" under Trade. This ensures that our sales team does not mistakenly register you as a craft business and reach out to you unnecessarily.