Manager, Engineering

Description

The Manager, Engineering runs the frontend and backend engineering team from Cholet. It is the main technical and people leadership role for the team behind the customer-facing products: the client portal, back-office tools, dashboards and retail intelligence interfaces that support French FMCG client work.

You report to the Senior Manager, Engineering. The job combines hands-on technical work with managing people, and you work in French and English, with French as the company's main language.

The company supplies retail data and FMCG intelligence to French and European retailers, pairing web data collection with a long presence in the local market. It is part of a consumer intelligence group that joined forces with GfK in 2023, operates in over 100 markets, and reaches more than 90% of people worldwide. Advent International owns the group.

Responsibilities

• Own the frontend team's delivery from backlog and sprint planning through to production release and client-facing quality.
• Turn priorities set by the Senior Manager and stakeholders into engineering plans, milestones and team commitments.
• Keep the backlog clear, prioritized and estimated, with each ticket tied to a deliverable outcome.
• Spot delivery risks early, inform the Senior Manager promptly and act to reduce them before they grow.
• Make sure the customer portal, BO/FO tools, dashboards and supporting interfaces ship on time and at the right quality.
• Run frontend incident handling with fast response, clear updates and structured post-mortems.
• Manage direct reports through regular 1:1s, structured feedback and individual development plans tied to the group's WFA career tracks.
• Build senior engineers' independence in technical decisions and sprint organization.
• Coach engineers on best practice, code quality and professional growth.
• Set clear expectations, review results regularly and deal with underperformance quickly.
• Keep key people through real development conversations and a collaborative team culture.
• Bring accountability, client focus and integrity into the team's daily work.
• Lead the reduction of technical debt in the legacy C frontend, starting with the work that most improves reliability, maintainability and delivery speed.
• Guide the move from legacy C interfaces to modern JavaScript frontend technologies, in line with the platform roadmap.
• Push engineering standards: code review, automated testing, observability, version control discipline and CI/CD, following group standards.
• Bring frontend products in line with group security controls, including Dependabot coverage and WAF compliance.
• Encourage the team to use AI-driven tools and methods to speed up development and raise code quality.
• Align delivery plans and staffing with the wider company strategy, working alongside the Senior Manager.
• Work with IT Support, Product and data teams so frontend work meets client commitments and internal needs.
• Coordinate with the group's Digital Engineering and infrastructure teams on shared platform dependencies, migrations and tooling.
• Report frontend delivery health openly in company and group forums when required.
• Success means reliable, on-time releases against committed plans, with better sprint predictability.
• Success also means less legacy C code, clear progress on JavaScript milestones, fewer critical incidents and faster resolution.
• Success further means strong retention, visible growth in skills and autonomy, a stronger security posture and regular reporting with no surprise escalations.

Requirements

• Required: Proven experience managing a software engineering team, including 1:1s, performance management and team development.
• Required: Strong JavaScript skills, enough to review technical decisions, coach engineers and weigh frontend architecture trade-offs.
• Required: Working knowledge of C, since the legacy codebase is C-based and you will need to engage with it during modernization.
• Required: Proven record of delivering technical projects end to end, from planning and backlog through release and production support.
• Required: Ability to balance hands-on technical work with management and stakeholder communication.
• Required: Good English, written and spoken, for daily work with group colleagues in a bilingual French and English setting.
• Required: Genuine commitment to growing your engineers' skills and autonomy, including senior engineers.
• Preferred: Experience managing or working on frontend engineering in French retail, FMCG or data-driven products.
• Preferred: Experience with legacy-to-modern frontend migration, especially C to JavaScript frameworks, including the people and technical challenges involved.
• Preferred: Experience with Agile delivery (Scrum or Kanban), backlog tools and sprint reviews.
• Preferred: Exposure to web application security, covering dependency management, WAF configuration and vulnerability tracking.
• Preferred: Familiarity with the group's Workforce Architecture (WFA) or a similar competency framework for people management and careers.
• Preferred: Experience in a post-acquisition or corporate integration setting, adapting inherited practices to group standards.

Conditions

Based in Cholet, France.

Work is conducted in French and English, with French as the main language.

Hiring may use AI tools for screening and scheduling, but people make the final decisions.

Benefits

• Flexible working environment
• Volunteer time off
• LinkedIn Learning access
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)