Lisboa, Portugal
Remote only
Not Available
This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for an Engineering Manager - Pipelines based in Portugal.
We are looking for an experienced Engineering Manager to lead a globally distributed team responsible for building and scaling a managed data pipeline and change data capture product. In this role, you will oversee the development and operation of systems that replicate data from PostgreSQL databases to analytical platforms and other destinations. You will combine technical expertise with strong people leadership, taking ownership of team development, engineering delivery, and product reliability. Working closely with senior engineers and cross-functional stakeholders, you will establish technical standards, manage priorities, and ensure dependable data replication, recovery, and performance. You will also guide hiring, roadmap execution, incident management, and continuous improvement within a remote-first environment. This is an opportunity to shape a developer-focused data product while building a high-performing engineering team in a fast-moving, open-source technology ecosystem.
As Engineering Manager - Pipelines, you will lead the people, technical delivery, and operational responsibilities of the Pipelines engineering team, ensuring the successful development and reliability of complex data replication systems. Your key responsibilities will include:
Team Leadership and Development: Build and maintain a healthy, high-trust engineering culture within a globally distributed and remote-first team.
Conduct regular one-on-one meetings, manage performance evaluations, support career development, and oversee onboarding for direct reports.
Handle team administration, including leave management, time-off requests, and other people-related responsibilities.
Hiring and Team Growth: Own the team's hiring strategy and recruitment process, acting as the hiring manager and conducting initial interviews for all team positions.
Partner with Talent Acquisition to identify, attract, interview, and recruit high-performing engineering professionals.
Contribute to workforce planning, organizational design, headcount allocation, and the continued development of engineering leadership.
Roadmap and Delivery Management: Own the team's technical roadmap and project management processes, using Linear to establish priorities, milestones, and accountability.
Manage incoming requests and communications through Slack and other internal channels, ensuring cross-functional requests are appropriately prioritized, assigned, or challenged.
Coordinate weekly progress updates and maintain clear communication with stakeholders without introducing unnecessary administrative overhead.
Allocate engineering resources to customer support tickets and ensure the team consistently meets its Service Level Objectives (SLOs).
Identify and communicate technical risks, dependencies, priorities, and trade-offs to senior leadership in a timely manner.
Technical Quality and Reliability: Participate in technical design discussions and help establish high engineering standards across architecture, testing, deployment, and operations.
Ensure data pipeline systems maintain correctness, ordering, reliable replication, and effective recovery mechanisms.
Support the development and operation of PostgreSQL replication infrastructure, including logical replication, replication slots, and Write-Ahead Log (WAL) retention.
Incident Management: Train and operate as an Incident Commander, coordinating teams during production incidents and driving timely resolution.
Lead blameless post-incident reviews, ensuring lessons learned are translated into concrete follow-up actions and long-term reliability improvements.
Foster a culture of operational ownership, continuous learning, and proactive risk management.
The ideal candidate is an experienced engineering leader with a strong technical background in data infrastructure and distributed systems, combined with a genuine passion for developing people and building effective teams. You should bring:
At least 5 years of software engineering experience, with sufficient technical depth to establish credibility with engineers working on complex infrastructure systems.
At least 3 years of experience managing remote engineering teams.
Previous experience leading teams responsible for building and operating data pipelines, change data capture (CDC), database replication, or streaming systems.
Strong technical understanding of data systems, including delivery guarantees, event ordering, idempotency, schema evolution, and backfill processes.
In-depth knowledge of PostgreSQL replication, particularly logical replication, Write-Ahead Logs (WAL), and replication slots, including their impact on production database performance.
Familiarity with analytical data destinations and platforms such as BigQuery, Snowflake, ClickHouse, and lakehouse table formats such as Apache Iceberg.
Proven experience leading teams through production incidents involving customer data, including coordinating resolution efforts and managing blameless post-incident reviews.
Experience delivering developer-facing data products to external customers.
Experience managing globally distributed teams working asynchronously across multiple time zones.
Strong people management capabilities, including performance management, career coaching, feedback delivery, and the ability to handle challenging management conversations.
A genuine commitment to people leadership, with the ability to empower engineers, remove blockers, provide context, and help individuals achieve their full potential.
Ability to build psychological safety, encourage constructive feedback, and foster a collaborative and supportive engineering culture.
Strong organizational and prioritization skills, with the ability to introduce structure, manage ambiguity, and guide teams through complex challenges.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a preference for asynchronous communication, clear documentation, and proactive risk reporting.
A collaborative, adaptable, and low-ego leadership style, particularly when working with experienced engineers who value autonomy and ownership.
Additional assets that would strengthen your application:
Practical experience with Rust, particularly in systems programming or data infrastructure development.
Experience working within open-source technology ecosystems.
Familiarity with developer-focused platforms and globally distributed engineering organizations.
Fully remote work: Opportunity to work from anywhere in the world, with a globally distributed team.
Coworking allowance: Access to a WeWork membership or coworking allowance to support your preferred working environment.
Equity ownership: Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP), allowing every team member to share in the company's long-term success.
Technology allowance: Dedicated budget for equipment such as laptops, monitors, headphones, and other tools needed to create an effective workspace.
Comprehensive health coverage: 100% employer-paid health insurance for employees and 80% coverage for dependents, regardless of location.
Annual company off-sites: Opportunities to join company-wide gatherings in different international locations for collaboration, connection, and team-building.
Flexible working arrangements: Asynchronous work culture that allows employees to manage their schedules independently.
Professional development: Annual education allowance for courses, books, conferences, and other learning opportunities.
International collaboration: Opportunity to work alongside a diverse global team across more than 60 countries and 20 languages.
Open-source environment: Opportunity to contribute to and help shape tools within a growing developer-focused technology ecosystem.
