Engineering Manager

Job Description

ABOUT SOTHEBY’S

Established in 1744, Sotheby’s promotes access and ownership of exceptional art and luxury objects through auctions, private sales and retail. Our deep expertise across 70 selling categories is supported by a leading technology platform and a global network of specialists spanning 40 countries. Selling categories include Contemporary Art, Modern and Impressionist Art, Old Masters, Chinese Works of Art, Jewelry, Watches, Wine and Spirits and Design, as well as collectible cars and real estate through RM Sotheby’s and Concierge. Sotheby’s Financial Services is a leading art lender and provides capital solutions for collectors around the world, having originated more than $12 billion in loans since its inception. Sotheby’s new global headquarters is now open at the iconic Breuer building at 945 Madison Avenue in New York City.

THE ROLE

Established in 1744, Sotheby’s is the world’s premier destination for art and luxury. The engineering that powers it today reflects that same ambition, built on modern technologies and modern practices.

Auctions are the most visible part of what we do, but every sale that runs through Sotheby’s is backed by the entire engineering organisation. The work starts months before a lot crosses the block, from the systems that support how we acquire and value inventory, through to the platforms our clients and specialists interact with daily, the identity and compliance infrastructure that keeps it all trustworthy, and the services that make the live event itself possible.

That breadth is what makes the engineering here different. Whether you’re working on internal tooling, client-facing products, platform infrastructure, or the real-time systems behind a sale moving hundreds of millions of dollars, your work connects to something tangible.

We’re looking for engineering managers who can build and lead the teams that own these systems. People who care as much about the engineers they work with as the software those engineers produce, and who are curious enough to learn a domain that will surprise them.

Our engineering teams are remote-first and globally distributed. It’s how we’re built, and it’s how we intend to stay.

We’re not async-only. There are regular calls, cross-team meetings, and plenty of direct collaboration alongside the written communication you’d expect from a distributed organisation. The balance works because the people here are good at both.

This role is London or remote within the UK.

IDEAL EXPERIENCE & COMPETENCIES

You’ve done this before. 3+ years managing teams of five or more engineers. You’ve hired, developed and retained good people. You know what a healthy team looks like and you know how to get there when it isn’t.

You have real technical depth. You don’t need to write code every day, but you can engage credibly with architectural decisions, review trade-offs, and spot when something is going sideways before it becomes an incident. Your engineers trust your judgment because you’ve earned it.

You deliver through others. You’re measured by what your team ships, not what you build yourself. You care about outcomes, not activity.

You communicate clearly and adapt to your audience. Whether that’s giving context to your team, presenting a plan to leadership, writing up a post-mortem, or navigating a difficult conversation with a direct report. You’re comfortable in all of those.

You create clarity in ambiguity. Priorities shift, dependencies tangle, and plans change. You’re the kind of leader who absorbs that complexity and gives your team something they can actually act on.

Required:

• Proven engineering management experience with distributed or remote-first teams across multiple time zones
• A strong technical background in software engineering, with enough depth to guide architectural and infrastructure decisions
• Experience partnering with product management to define priorities and deliver meaningful outcomes
• Track record of hiring well, onboarding effectively, and building teams that retain good people
• A focus on engineering quality: observability, analytics and reporting, testing practices, and ensuring the team ships work they can stand behind

Useful:

• Familiarity with our core stack: Go, Scala, React/TypeScript, Next.js, GraphQL, gRPC
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS) and container orchestration (Kubernetes)
• Background in real-time, event-driven, or high-value transaction systems
• Experience establishing engineering standards, governance, or communities of practice
• E-commerce, marketplace, or auction domain experience

RESPONSIBLITIES

• Own the health, output and growth of an engineering team distributed across time zones, from hiring through to career development and performance
• Partner with product management to shape your team’s roadmap, balancing feature delivery, technical investment and operational health
• Set and maintain the quality bar for your team’s area of the platform, including engineering practices, observability, reliability and how work gets reviewed
• Run the delivery cadence: planning, prioritisation, retrospectives, and the day-to-day work of keeping things moving and unblocked
• Manage dependencies and communication across teams, reducing coordination overhead and making sure nothing falls between the cracks
• Contribute to engineering-wide initiatives, whether that’s standards, tooling, process improvement, or how we grow engineers across the organisation
• Handle incidents and operational issues alongside your team, own the follow-up, and make sure the right things get fixed
• Give your engineers regular, honest feedback and create real opportunities for them to grow

WHAT WE OFFER

• Competitive salary with discretionary bonus
• Private health insurance
• Health cash plan and dental insurance
• Workplace nursery benefit
• Generous holiday allowance, Christmas shutdown, summer Fridays, and volunteer and wellbeing days
• Great hardware
• Cycle to work scheme and eye care vouchers
• Regular social events, meetups, and use of our London space (the summer and Christmas parties are worth showing up for)

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The Company is an equal opportunity employer and considers all applicants for employment without regard to race (including, without limitation, traits historically associated with race, such as natural hair, hair texture, and protective and treated or untreated hairstyles), color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital or civil partnership/union status, national origin, age, disability, pregnancy, genetic predisposition, genetic information, reproductive health decision, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, alienage or citizenship status, domestic violence victim status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state/province or local law. The Company complies with applicable state and local laws prohibiting discrimination in employment in every jurisdiction in which it operates.