Engineering Manager ( Platform Services)

Job Description

Are you interested in joining of Europe's fastest growing companies? Do you want to impact the wellbeing of millions of users?
If yes, join us to make an impact in a fast-paced and dynamic environment where you’ll play a key role in driving financial accountability, supporting strategic decisions, and enabling sustainable growth.

Epassi’s purpose is to boost everyday well-being. We are a leading provider of employee benefit solutions across Europe. We were established in Finland in 2007, and in 2008, we were the first company to launch a mobile-payable employee benefit payment solution in Europe. Since then, we have consistently grown, diversifying our products and introducing our services into new markets.
Epassi has been awarded by the Financial Times as one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe on multiple occasions.

We are currently hiring an Engineering Manager for our Global Platform Services team to be based in Finland, Germany, or Poland – Hybrid, with occasional travel required.

Your mission at Epassi

As an Engineering Manager for our Global Platform Services team (Identity or Shared Libraries), you will lead a team of 6–10 backend engineers building the foundational services and APIs that power Epassi’s product ecosystem across multiple European markets. Your team works primarily in Java and Spring Boot, designing and maintaining the core platform capabilities that other product squads depend on daily. Your main objective is to drive technical excellence, foster a motivated and collaborative team environment, and deliver high-quality initiatives on time. You will act as the key link between your team, cross-functional partners, and leadership — helping to shape the platform roadmap, ensure service reliability, and contribute to Epassi’s ongoing success.

Your responsibilities will be:

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 6–10 backend engineers through all phases of the employee lifecycle in cooperation with HR and the Head of Engineering.
• Drive a positive team culture aligned with Epassi’s values, motivating the development team and promoting collaboration.
• Coordinate effective communication and collaboration within your team and across departments, including Product Owners and other Engineering teams who consume your platform services.
• Drive technical execution and delivery of platform roadmap initiatives, ensuring quality, timeliness, and alignment with business objectives.
• Establish and maintain engineering standards, best practices, and coding standards for the Java/Spring Boot codebase that scale with team and platform growth.
• Own the reliability and quality of your team’s services, including API contracts, SLAs, and documentation for consuming teams.
• Remove blockers and create an environment where engineers can do their best work.
• Recruit, interview, and hire top backend engineering talent while building a diverse and inclusive team culture.
• Collaborate closely with the Technical Solution Architect, QA Manager, and DevOps Engineer to plan and implement future-proof architectural decisions.
• Communicate progress, risks, and technical decisions to the Head of Engineering and stakeholders.
• Balance technical debt with feature development, dedicating 15–20% of capacity to technical debt reduction and making strategic trade-offs aligned with business priorities.
• Promote automation, CI/CD improvements, and the use of modern tools and techniques within and across teams.

You’ll be successful in this role if you:

• Ship major platform initiatives that drive measurable business outcomes and contribute directly to company goals.
• Successfully hire backend engineers within your first year who meet or exceed the hiring bar, building a diverse pipeline.
• Receive consistent positive feedback from Product partners and engineering consumers of your platform services, building a reputation as a trusted technical advisor.
• Conduct regular high-quality 1:1s and mentor team members, supporting at least one promotion annually.
• Dedicate 15–20% of capacity to technical debt reduction and establish clear coding standards and architectural patterns for the platform.
• Hit committed quarterly initiative goals, maintain predictable sprint velocity with under 15% rollover, and proactively communicate risks in advance.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement and learning in your team.
• Communicate company goals clearly and align team efforts accordingly.

What you’ll be doing (daily):

• Leading disciplinary and developmental activities, including semi-annual performance reviews, goal setting, and regular 1:1 meetings.
• Facilitating agile ceremonies such as sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives.
• Reviewing code, API designs, architecture proposals, and technical designs with your team.
• Monitoring project progress and aligning the platform technical roadmap with Product Owners and consuming engineering teams.
• Managing budgets and resource allocation, including staffing, hardware, and training.
• Reporting on team status, project outcomes, and identifying potential risks.
• Tracking team metrics — including service reliability, API performance, and delivery velocity — and identifying opportunities for process improvements.
• Supporting and guiding the team through organizational changes.
• Collaborating with cross-functional roles — including QA Managers, Backend Architects, and other Engineering Managers — to ensure quality, stability, and strategic alignment.
• Interviewing candidates and building relationships with potential hires.

What you should bring:

• Completed technical degree or equivalent qualification.
• 5+ years of software engineering experience with a hands-on backend development background, ideally in Java or JVM-based languages.
• 2–3+ years of experience leading backend or platform engineering teams.
• Strong technical foundation in Java, Spring Boot, microservices architecture, and API design.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, and modern DevOps practices.
• Solid understanding of platform engineering concerns: service reliability, observability, and API governance.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proven experience leading and motivating development teams.
• Demonstrated ability to hire, develop, and retain engineering talent.
• Strong background working within agile development frameworks.
• Experience managing distributed or remote teams is a plus.

Your language profile:

• Fluency in English is required for communication with international teams and stakeholders.

Your track record:

• Leadership: You lead by example, empower your team, and create an environment where everyone can contribute and grow.
• Communication: You excel at clear, transparent communication across all organizational levels.
• Analytical Thinking: You approach challenges systematically, making data-informed decisions and solving problems efficiently.
• Agility: You embrace agile principles, ensuring flexible, iterative delivery and continuous improvement.
• Mentoring: You invest in your team’s professional development and foster a learning culture.
• Platform Ownership: You take pride in building reliable, well-documented services that other teams can depend on, and you hold your team to high standards on API quality and operational excellence.
• Collaboration: You work effectively with diverse stakeholders — including Product Owners, Backend Architects, Engineers, and other Engineering Managers — to align goals, manage dependencies, and ensure your platform services meet the needs of consuming teams.

Why You Should Join Us

• Be part of an ambitious growth journey and join a global community of driven, bold, entrepreneurial, yet humble Epassians in a company that is constantly evolving.
• Work with a clear purpose — boosting everyday wellbeing — and create a meaningful, positive impact on both individuals and society.
• Thrive in an open and inclusive culture with low hierarchy, where relationships are built on respect, camaraderie, and shared successes and challenges.
• Come as you are — we’ll bring out the best in you and support your personal and professional growth.
• Join a fast-growing tech company with a strong financial foundation, offering opportunities to grow and make an impact together with us.
• Benefit from an inspiring and supportive work environment where employee wellbeing is a true priority.
• Contribute to solidifying our position as the number one player in Europe’s employee benefit market and help shape the next wave of success.

The hiring manager for this position is Kai Kousa, Head of Engineering – Platform Services at Epassi. For more information, contact the Talent Acquisition Partner who is responsible for hiring for this position, Katarzyna Pawłowska katarzyna.pawlowska@epassi.com