Engineering Manager | TypeScript, Node.js, React | Privacy & Identity Platform | Berlin | 120.000 EUR + Bonus + Equity

• €110k-120k base + 15% annual bonus + equity (VSOPs)
• Hybrid working from Berlin, flexible hours
• Unlimited vacation, learning budget, home office allowance, Urban Sports Club membership

The company

A well-funded technology company on a mission to change how data ownership works on the internet. They're building the trust and identity infrastructure that modern digital services increasingly need - privacy-first, decentralised, and genuinely differentiated in a space that's only getting more important.
Small, senior team. Serious technical culture. Berlin-based with a globally distributed engineering organisation.


The role

This is a hands-on Engineering Manager position leading a core product team. You will own delivery, architecture direction, and the technical bar for a team of engineers building systems at the intersection of identity, privacy, and data ownership.
The expectation is clear: this is not a coordination role. You need to be genuinely close to the engineering - able to lead a system design session, not just attend one. The candidates who succeed here combine real technical depth with the leadership instinct to develop their team and hold a high bar. If you've built a career where you've stayed hands-on as you've grown into management, and you can give concrete examples of both, this role is for you.
The hiring process is rigorous. Expect to go deep on system design, leadership situations, and your technical areas of strength. Come prepared.


What you'll do

• Lead a cross-functional engineering team delivering on a high-scale, privacy-first platform - primarily TypeScript, Node.js and React
• Own architecture decisions, ADRs, and the technical quality bar for your domain
• Act as a filter between product intent and engineering execution - scoping ambiguity before it reaches your team and catching architectural issues at the design stage
• Run system design conversations for your team's most complex problems
• Partner with Product to shape technical vision and roadmap
• Hire, grow and retain strong engineers - including IC-to-manager transitions
• Champion engineering excellence: clean architecture, CI/CD, TDD, observability and performance
• Drive AI-assisted development practices across the team

• 3+ years in a formal Engineering Manager role with direct people management responsibility
• Strong hands-on technical foundation in TypeScript, Node.js and cloud-native backend systems (AWS preferred) - you can still get into the code when it matters
• Real system design depth - you've led system design sessions, not just participated in them
• The ability to give substantive answers to hard leadership questions: managing underperformance, resolving genuine team conflict, growing engineers who weren't performing
• Experience in regulated, security-conscious or privacy-adjacent domains (identity, fintech, KYC, compliance) is a significant advantage
• Startup or scale-up experience - comfortable with ambiguity, fast pace, and building from first principles
• Based in Berlin or open to relocating