Engineering Manager

In short

Our Direct to Consumer (DTC) business is growing and expanding globally, and we’re looking for a (Senior) Engineering Manager to help scale On’s commercial platform in the merchandising space.

In this role, you’ll be based in our Berlin office, directly reporting to the Head of Engineering in the DTC tech cluster, working closely with the product team and key stakeholders based both in Zurich and London. All with the end goal to re-engineer for scale our merchandising platform using the latest technology. Your entrepreneurial and result-driven mindset, combined with strong hands-on technical oversight and execution skills, will make you a key member of the core team on which On’s future is built.

Your Mission

• Drive Product Execution: You'll oversee the technical strategy and execution of multiple foundational projects such as Merchandising, ensuring they align with our product vision and significantly impact our organisational commercial enablement. This involves navigating ambiguity and taking ownership in areas with many unknowns and open questions, guiding your team through complex problem spaces.
• Team Leadership & Development: You'll build, lead, mentor and empower a cross-functional team of engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement. You'll work to streamline team workflows and boost overall productivity, ensuring features are delivered efficiently and on time.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: You'll partner closely with product, design, and sibling product engineering teams daily to ensure seamless feature delivery and to strategically conduct experiments that align with the broader product roadmap.
• Technical Guidance & Standards: You'll collaborate with the leadership team in Commercial Technology and beyond to establish and advocate for best practices in system design, scalability, and code quality, consistently raising the bar across the organisation.

Your story

• You have solid experience in software development, demonstrating a broad technical expertise spanning across backend and frontend (web and mobile) together with deep system architecture skills.
• You bring proven experience as an Engineering Manager, including building and scaling engineering platform teams from the ground up, driving significant technical initiatives, and demonstrating strong business acumen.
• You possess strong problem-solving skills to tackle complex technical and product challenges, are a genuine team player, and communicate exceptionally well in English.
• You are confident working with a modern tech stack, including proficiency in at least one Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) language or TypeScript, Node.js, PostgreSQL, AWS, and Kafka Stream.
• You have hands-on experience in defining sourcing strategies to attract top-tier engineering talent and are committed to continuously raising the bar within your team through effective mentorship and professional development.
• Experience working with external partners and technology vendors is a plus.

Attributes of a successful candidate:

• Pragmatic Problem Solver: You excel at tackling complex challenges with practical, efficient solutions, always prioritising simplicity and avoiding unnecessary system complexity.
• Collaborative Influencer: A true leader rather than a manager, you're adept at guiding team decisions and fostering consensus through professional and constructive influence.
• Committed to Growth and Feedback: You're comfortable providing candid feedback to both peers and leadership, and equally eager to integrate feedback from others to continuously elevate your own expertise.

What to expect

We want to set everyone up for success, so here’s the lowdown on how we hire. Our process is a two-way street – bringing you into our culture, while helping us learn how you think.

Our full process can last about eight weeks from application to offer, because we care about getting it right. These steps explain how we usually do things.

Before you get started, feel free to consider if you want to work with us. Strange question? Well, we give people a lot of space to navigate their day-to-day and that style isn't for everyone. We want you to be passionate about what you do and be sure this is the right fit. Because when skills and passion combine – it creates that 'Wow' moment.

• Step One

  It starts with you...

  You'll start by submitting your application to a specific role. We try to keep this step as simple as possible. We do get a lot of applications, but we review them all. We ask that you allow around 14 days for us to come back to you with a response. If you are a good fit to the role, someone will follow up with you within that window. If you didn't receive a reply, or were unsuccessful this time around, we encourage you to look for other possible matches at On.

• Step Two

  Interview with a recruiter

  What ignites your spirit? This is where we’ll start getting to know all about you and what makes you tick – and it’s your first chance to get a feel for our culture. Chatting with a member of our talent team, you’ll learn more about On and how we work. We’ll learn about what motivates you and what you could bring to the team.

• Step Three

  Interview with a hiring manager

  Ready to dig into the details? This second interview will be held with your future manager and will focus on the specifics of the job. Together you’ll delve into your unique skills and experiences and how they could be relevant at On. It's also a time to assess how you might feel working side-by-side. Bring any questions you have about the job, the team or anything else you might like to know – this is an open forum.

• Step Four

  The Case Study

  What's your style? This task will help us understand how you think, face a challenge and give insight into your novel ideas. Designed to give everyone their best shot, your case study is based on something you might typically experience on the job. This is your chance to show us what you’ve got. So express yourself. Be you.

• Step Five

  The Experience Day

  Your first taste of the Oniverse. This is a time to meet some of the people you'll be working closest with. In person or virtually, you'll get a feel for the day-to-day at On and the people who make it happen. You'll chat with a few potential teammates - the conversations will be as equally driven by the role and your experience as by our values. We believe how you do things is just as important as what you do.

• Step Six

  The Result

  Are we a good fit? We’ll get together internally to share our feedback and decide if we’re a match. We know that job searching is a big time investment, so it’s not a decision we take lightly. It’s also time for you to reflect on the experience – are we the right place for you? No matter the outcome, we’ll give you meaningful feedback.

Step One:

It starts with you...

You'll start by submitting your application to a specific role.

We try to keep this step as simple as possible. We do get a lot of applications, but we review them all. We ask that you allow around 14 days for us to come back to you with a response. If you are a good fit to the role, someone will follow up with you within that window. If you didn't receive a reply, or were unsuccessful this time around, we encourage you to look for other possible matches at On.