Changing the world of pet food for good

We’re Tails.com, a dog food subscription company with a big difference. We create truly tailored food for each and every dog we serve. We start by asking people a few simple questions about their dog. Then we use that information to create their dog’s unique Tails.com recipe – so their dog gets exactly the nutrition they need, in the taste they love, delivered to their door every month. It’s clever stuff.

We’ve got bold plans. Having created an entirely new category in pet food, we’re now scaling fast in the UK and Europe – backed by Purina, one of the world’s largest pet food companies. You’ll join a bunch of smart people working towards the same goals – and a bunch of smart-ish dogs, all working on their own thing.

Together, we’ll change the world of pet food for good.

Shape Engineering Culture and Scalable Systems at Tails.com
We’re looking for a Software Engineering Manager to lead multiple engineering squads and technical leaders as we continue scaling our platform, people, and impact. In this leadership role, you’ll coach and guide Lead Engineers, foster high-performing teams, and ensure alignment with our broader strategic goals. Your leadership will be key to building a modern, secure, and scalable platform that supports our growth across the UK and Europe.

You’ll bring strong technical insight to the table, challenging architecture decisions, raising engineering standards, and helping squads navigate complex trade-offs. While not hands-on coding, your experience with software systems, distributed architecture, and best practices will help shape both our platform and our culture. Working closely with peers across Product, Delivery, and the wider business, you’ll help evolve how we build, deliver, and grow, both as technologists and as a team.

Build our brand
We’re building an international brand, fast. We set ambitious goals. We challenge and support each other in equal measure. At the pace we’re moving, we prefer to test ideas and learn quickly rather than spend months building a business case. That means we celebrate when things go right, and we learn when things go wrong.

Sound like a team you want to join? Here’s how you’ll make a difference:

The role

As an Engineering Manager, you’ll lead multiple engineering squads and technical leaders, helping scale our platform and people as we grow. You’ll be a manager of managers, providing coaching and direction to engineering leads while ensuring teams are motivated, high-performing, and aligned to our wider strategic goals.

You’ll be expected to bring strong technical insight to every conversation, whether that’s challenging architectural decisions, asking the hard questions in design reviews, or ensuring our engineering principles scale with our platform. While you won’t be coding day-to-day, your deep understanding of software systems, modern architecture, and technical best practices will be essential in guiding and raising the bar across squads.

You’ll collaborate closely with senior leadership across Engineering, Product, Delivery, and the wider business. From shaping technical strategy to evolving our ways of working and supporting career growth, your influence will stretch across teams, systems, and squads.

You will be responsible for:
Engineering leadership

• Lead and coach multiple Lead Engineers, and their teams
• Support career development through regular 1:1s, coaching conversations, and growth plans
• Oversee team structure and performance to ensure the right people are in the right roles
• Facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing across squads
• Provide strong technical oversight and challenge engineering leads to make sound architectural and design decisions
• Ensure alignment of technical direction across teams, with a focus on scalability, security, and performance

Strategic delivery & resource management

• Partner with Delivery Managers and Product to ensure coordinated delivery across initiatives
• Manage software engineering resources across ongoing and upcoming projects
• Represent Engineering in company-wide prioritisation and planning conversations
• Track and communicate progress to stakeholders, including regular updates to SteerCo
• Drive continuous improvement in how teams deliver high-quality, scalable software

Hiring, onboarding & retention

• Evolve and run hiring processes that support our DEI goals and scale-up growth
• Identify retention risks and create strategies to mitigate them
• Refine onboarding processes to ensure smooth transitions for new joiners
• Shape and adapt team structures to best support business needs

Stakeholder collaboration

• Work cross-functionally with Product, Delivery, Marketing, Data, and Customer teams
• Represent Engineering in cross-departmental forums and leadership meetings
• Ensure engineering efforts are clearly aligned with company strategy and goals

Innovation & continuous improvement

• Stay up to date with the latest trends in software development, architecture, and tooling
• Encourage and support teams in experimenting with new ideas and technologies
• Create a culture of learning and innovation across engineering

What experience you will bring:

• Proven experience as an Engineering manager, or in a similar role, with a track record of success in fast-paced, growing companies
• Hands-on involvement in scaling both teams and technology, with a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities that come with growth
• Deep expertise in modern software architecture and distributed systems, with a track record of designing scalable, cloud-native solutions
• Solid knowledge of security principles and best practices, especially within the context of large, scalable platforms
• Extensive experience leading Agile teams, embedding best practices, and fostering continuous improvement across squads
• Comfortable challenging assumptions, reviewing technical designs, and guiding teams toward robust, high-quality engineering outcomes
• Skilled in supporting, mentoring, and developing both engineers and lead engineers, enabling them to thrive
• Able to zoom out to shape long-term direction and priorities, while also engaging with teams on detailed execution when needed
• Strong communicator who builds trust and alignment across engineering, product, and business teams
• Passionate about creating healthy, equitable, and sustainable team environments where people do their best work
• Energised by ambiguity and change, with a track record of scaling systems, teams, and culture in dynamic settings

What's in it for you?

• Competitive salary, reviewed annually
• Annual bonus, based on company performance
• Flexible core hours, giving you true work-life balance
• Hybrid role to ensure this role works for you
• 25 days of holiday (excluding bank holidays) which increases over time to a max of 27 days
• 9/10 day working week to enhance your wellbeing without a reduction in pay and leave allowance
• Optional 5 days unpaid leave and 1 paid volunteer day each year
• When you need a change of scenery, you can work from abroad 2 weeks every 6 months
• Health insurance for you, paid by Tails.com
• Extended maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption pay. 6 months at 70% pay
• Flexible paid care leave to support immediate dependents, people close to you and pets
• In-house L&D team, with access to year-round courses to help drive your development
• 50% discount on all Tails.com

What’s next?
If this sounds like it matches your experience and what you’d love to do, we can’t wait to hear from you! If you’re unsure whether you fit our criteria exactly, please get in touch anyway. And because we believe that diverse teams perform better, we’d especially love to hear from you if you’re from an underrepresented demographic.

Here’s a taster of how our recruitment process works:

1. Initial video interview (1 hour) - A conversation with our Head of Engineering to explore your experience and what excites you about joining Tails.com
2. Engineering deep dive (1 hour) - A video call with senior Engineering stakeholders to discuss your technical leadership, architectural insight, and approach to scaling teams and systems
3. Product collaboration interview (1 hour) - A video conversation with senior Product leaders to explore how you’ve partnered on cross-functional initiatives and balanced delivery with technical quality
4. Final stage – In-person presentation at our Richmond HQ (1 hour) - You’ll meet our Engineering Leaders for a face-to-face session, where you’ll present your thinking based on a candidate brief we’ll share in advance.

Our Commitment
We’re proud to be an active equal opportunity employer. We want to give everyone a fair chance to join us in changing the world of pet food for good. We do this by conducting a structured recruitment process for all candidates, as well as actively promoting our roles to communities that are underrepresented at Tails.com.

During your interview process, you’ll meet some of our team with varying levels of responsibility and experience. We want to give every candidate a fair interview process and if you need any reasonable adjustments made, please let us know.

Department

Software Engineering

Locations

Richmond

Remote status

Hybrid