Senior Engineering Manager - Software Engineering

Senior Engineering Manager - Software Engineering Job Snapshot - Role: Senior Engineering Manager - Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Industry: Internet - Function: IT-Software Development - Experience: 8 years in software engineering, including 4 years in technical leadership - Job Type: Full Time - Work Arrangement: On-site

Position Overview talabat is looking for a Senior Engineering Manager to lead multiple software engineering teams and shape the technical direction of a core technology domain in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. You will typically oversee four engineering squads comprising approximately 20 engineers, taking responsibility for technical strategy, people development, delivery performance and engineering quality. This is a leadership role for someone who understands that strong engineering practices enable faster, more reliable software delivery. You will work closely with Product, Design and business stakeholders to translate product objectives into scalable technical solutions while developing engineers and emerging engineering leaders. At talabat, engineering teams follow eXtreme Programming (XP) principles, including Test-Driven Development, pair programming, continuous refactoring and trunk-based development. As Senior Engineering Manager, you will help sustain these practices while building autonomous teams that deliver measurable business value.

Job Details - Country: United Arab Emirates - City: Dubai - Industry: Internet - Function: IT-Software Development - Salary: Not disclosed - Gender: No Preference - Candidate Nationality: Not specified - Job Type: Full Time - Work Arrangement: On-site

What You 'LL Own

• Technical Strategy and Architecture - Define and communicate a 12-18 month technical vision for your engineering domain in collaboration with Product leadership and engineering teams.


• Establish technical priorities that support product objectives, business requirements and long-term platform development.


• Guide architectural decisions involving system design, technology selection and engineering infrastructure.


• Maintain high standards for scalability, reliability, performance, security and cost efficiency.


• Evaluate technical trade-offs between development speed, maintainability and accumulated technical debt.


• Support decisions involving technology stack migrations, architectural improvements and platform initiatives.


• Help engineering teams choose solutions that balance technical quality with practical delivery requirements.


• Ensure the domain 's technical roadmap is understood and aligned with relevant stakeholders.

Engineering Team Leadership

• Lead multiple engineering squads within a single technical domain, typically involving approximately 20 engineers across four teams.


• Create an environment where engineers can perform effectively, collaborate openly and take ownership of their work.


• Recruit, develop and retain engineering talent according to organizational requirements.


• Mentor individual contributors and support their technical and professional development.


• Coach junior engineering managers and emerging technical leaders.


• Identify engineers with potential to progress toward Staff Engineer or engineering management responsibilities.


• Promote psychological safety, constructive feedback and healthy team communication.


• Address team challenges and interpersonal conflicts with empathy and sound judgment.


• Build a culture of accountability, continuous learning and technical excellence.

Software Delivery and Engineering Practices

• Guide teams through product discovery, technical planning, implementation and delivery.


• Promote small-batch development and continuous feedback to improve delivery efficiency.


• Champion talabat 's eXtreme Programming practices across engineering squads.


• Encourage Test-Driven Development (TDD), pair programming, continuous refactoring and trunk-based development.


• Support continuous delivery practices that maintain software quality while enabling frequent releases.


• Monitor engineering delivery performance and identify opportunities to improve development workflows.


• Help teams resolve technical and organizational obstacles affecting delivery.


• Ensure teams maintain ownership of their technical decisions, code quality and delivery commitments.


• Balance short-term product delivery requirements with long-term engineering sustainability.

Business Impact and Product Alignment

• Translate product goals and business priorities into actionable technical initiatives.


• Work with Product leadership to identify engineering investments that deliver meaningful customer and business value.


• Evaluate the expected impact of technical initiatives and communicate outcomes to relevant stakeholders.


• Help teams understand how their engineering work contributes to broader business objectives.


• Support the prioritization of technical improvements alongside product development commitments.


• Use delivery results and operational feedback to guide future engineering decisions.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Collaborate with Product Managers, Designers, business stakeholders and other engineering teams.


• Establish alignment on technical priorities, product requirements and delivery expectations.


• Help resolve ambiguity when business needs and technical constraints are not fully defined.


• Coordinate engineering activities involving multiple squads or technical domains.


• Lead teams through cross-domain initiatives requiring collaboration and shared technical decisions.


• Communicate technical trade-offs, delivery risks and strategic recommendations clearly.


• Build effective working relationships that support independent teams without creating unnecessary management bottlenecks.

Engineering Quality and Operational Excellence

• Maintain strong engineering standards across software architecture, development and production systems.


• Ensure non-functional requirements are considered throughout the software development lifecycle.


• Guide teams in evaluating system latency, reliability, scalability, security and infrastructure costs.


• Encourage continuous improvement in code quality and technical maintainability.


• Help teams recognize when systems require optimization and when simpler solutions are more appropriate.


• Promote technical practices that reduce avoidable defects and support confident software releases.


• Monitor engineering health and address issues affecting sustainable delivery.

Your First-Year Success Milestones

First 90 Days - Understand and Establish Direction

• Complete onboarding with your engineering teams and relevant stakeholders.


• Develop a detailed understanding of the domain 's technical roadmap and existing engineering challenges.


• Assess team health, engineering practices and delivery priorities.


• Identify immediate opportunities for improvement.


• Provide your manager with an initial assessment of domain health and near-term priorities.

By 6 Months - Strengthen Delivery and Leadership

• Establish consistent delivery of product and business value across your engineering teams.


• Identify at least one emerging technical leader and begin providing structured mentorship.


• Coach teams through at least one initiative involving multiple technical domains.


• Demonstrate stable or improving code quality and software delivery velocity.


• Strengthen collaboration, team ownership and engineering execution.

By 12 Months - Build Sustainable Domain Leadership

• Establish a clear technical vision that is communicated and understood across the organization.


• Support significant professional growth for at least one engineer toward Staff Engineer (IC4) or engineering management.


• Build teams capable of delivering software confidently and consistently.


• Contribute to one or two strategic initiatives beyond your immediate technical domain.


• Mentor or develop an individual with the potential to become a future engineering manager.


• Demonstrate progress in engineering quality, team capability and business impact.

What You 'LL Bring

Professional Experience

• Minimum 8 years of hands‑on software engineering experience working with production systems.


• At least 4 years of practical technical leadership experience managing engineering teams.


• Demonstrated experience hiring, mentoring and developing software engineers.


• Proven ability to make meaningful architectural and technical decisions.


• Experience collaborating with Product, Design, business and engineering stakeholders.


• Ability to lead teams through complex technical challenges and evolving business requirements.

Technical Expertise

• Deep technical knowledge in at least one of the following areas:
  
  
  • Distributed systems
  
  
  • Backend systems
  
  
  • Data platforms
  
  
  • Mobile platforms
  
  
  • Web‑scale infrastructure
  
  


• Ability to work effectively across different technology stacks.


• Strong understanding of software architecture and production engineering practices.


• Experience evaluating technical decisions based on scalability, reliability, performance and maintainability.


• Knowledge of system security, latency optimization and infrastructure cost considerations.


• Experience contributing to technology migrations, architectural changes or platform‑level initiatives.

eXtreme Programming and Software Development Practices

• Hands‑on understanding of Test‑Driven Development, pair programming, continuous refactoring and trunk‑based development, or a strong willingness to learn and lead these practices.


• Appreciation of how software quality supports development speed and delivery reliability.


• Understanding of continuous delivery and iterative software development.


• Ability to guide engineering teams in adopting and maintaining effective development practices.


• Commitment to technical excellence without introducing unnecessary process or complexity.

People Management and Leadership

• Strong track record of supporting engineer development and career progression.


• Ability to provide constructive feedback and meaningful mentorship.


• Experience building collaborative teams with a healthy engineering culture.


• Emotional intelligence and confidence in resolving workplace challenges.


• Ability to create psychological safety and encourage open technical discussions.


• Strong judgment when navigating ambiguity and conflicting priorities.


• Ability to lead through influence while enabling teams to make independent decisions.

Engineering Judgment

• Strong understanding of non‑functional requirements and their impact on production systems.


• Ability to evaluate trade‑offs between delivery speed, technical debt and long‑term sustainability.


• Experience making decisions about when to optimize existing systems and when to simplify.


• Understanding of domain‑level architecture and platform development considerations.


• Ability to connect engineering decisions with measurable business outcomes.

Additional Experience That Would Be Valuable

• Previous experience leading multiple engineering teams or an entire technical domain in a high‑growth environment.


• Practical exposure to an established eXtreme Programming engineering culture.


• Experience working with marketplace platforms, online delivery systems or logistics optimization.


• Experience mentoring or developing other engineering managers.


• Familiarity with modern cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or Microsoft Azure.

Why Join talabat

Engineering at Scale talabat operates an on-demand food and non-food delivery platform across eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa, processing hundreds of millions of orders annually. Your engineering decisions will contribute to systems supporting a large regional customer base and complex delivery operations.

A Quality‑Driven Engineering Culture

talabat applies eXtreme Programming principles as part of its everyday engineering practices. The focus is on building reliable software through disciplined development, continuous feedback and technical quality rather than relying on process for its own sake.

Autonomous Engineering Teams

Engineering squads are expected to take ownership of their roadmaps, technical decisions and software quality. Your responsibility is to enable teams to succeed, remove obstacles and establish the conditions for effective independent execution.

Leadership and Career Development

The role provides opportunities to expand your leadership scope beyond a single technical domain. For engineering leaders interested in progressing toward Director‑level responsibilities, the development path can include multi‑domain leadership, tribe‑level responsibilities and broader organizational strategy.

Meaningful Technical Challenges

Online delivery in MENA presents complex engineering challenges involving scale, reliability, operational efficiency and sustainable growth. You will help teams solve problems that have a direct impact on the performance and evolution of talabat 's technology platform.

About talabat

talabat is an on‑demand food and non‑food delivery platform operating across eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The company is part of Delivery Hero Group, a global business in online food delivery and quick commerce. talabat 's engineering culture emphasizes technical ownership, collaborative problem‑solving and continuous improvement. Its teams use eXtreme Programming practices to develop reliable systems and deliver product improvements efficiently.