Engineering Manager - Cloud

Cloud Engineering Manager - 12 Month Fixed Term Contract

 

Joining Sainsbury's Tech means becoming part of an inclusive and driven team that is passionate about creating innovative solutions. As an Engineering Manager, you will play a pivotal role in leading and coaching talented engineering teams, driving the delivery of impactful solutions that drive efficiency and enhance performance across the business. With a focus on continuous improvement, you will have the opportunity to shape a world-class engineering function and contribute to the development of cutting-edge processes and technologies. At Sainsbury's, we value collaboration, diversity, and inclusivity, and offer a supportive and inspiring environment where you can make a purposeful contribution. Join us to be a part of an organisation that fosters technical excellence and embraces the power of diversity to shape the technology landscape of a leading UK retailer.

About the role

Cloud within Sainsbury’s Tech is seeing a significant increase in demand, driven by the Argos separation programme alongside its ongoing responsibilities. This 12-month fixed-term role adds experienced leadership capacity to Cloud.

You will lead Bosun Argos PaaS, a platform central to the separation. You will also share Cloud’s front door with the Head of Engineering and fellow Engineering Managers, taking incoming requests and escalations as needed and resolving what doesn’t need the Head of Engineering. Alongside this, you will support the Head of Engineering on Cloud’s part of the separation programme, deputising as needed.

You will report to the Head of Engineering and work closely with the PaaS Engineering Manager, who sets direction for Cloud’s PaaS estate.

Location: Hybrid, with SSC offices in Manchester, Coventry or London, and home.

What you’ll do

Bosun Argos  PaaS

• Lead and line manage the Red Bosun team, including coaching, performance and hiring where needed.

• Own the platform’s delivery, reliability and operability through migration, in line with Cloud’s PaaS direction.

• Run on-call and incident management to 24/7 production standards.

• Own the platform’s cloud costs and capacity planning, keeping spend efficient through migration.

 

Cloud leadership

• Share Cloud’s front door with the Head of Engineering and fellow Engineering Managers. Triage incoming requests, agree priorities with stakeholders and route work to the right teams.

• Be a calm escalation point for operational, people and engineering matters. Resolve issues at the right level and escalate what genuinely needs it.

• Support the Head of Engineering on Cloud’s part of the separation programme, deputising as needed.

• Contribute to Cloud’s CapEx and OpEx forecasting and cost reviews, working with Finance and FinOps.

• Work with Engineering, Product and Delivery Managers, architects and third-party partners to keep Cloud’s priorities clear and delivery on track.

Who you are

You are an experienced Engineering Manager who builds credibility quickly with engineers, senior stakeholders and suppliers. You can lead a team directly while operating across a wider function. You are comfortable with competing priorities, and you know when to decide and when to escalate.

Essential

• Significant experience as an Engineering Manager, including line management, coaching and hiring.

• Experience leading across more than one team or area of responsibility.

• Strong working knowledge of PaaS or Kubernetes-based platforms on AWS and/or Azure.

• Experience running 24/7 production services, including on-call and incident management.

• Proven ability to manage senior stakeholders. 

• Proven ability to manage third-party suppliers.

Desirable

• Experience of large-scale separation, carve-out or migration programmes within modern platform ecosystems.

• Experience in retail or another high-volume, peak-driven environment.

• Experience of budget forecasting and cost management

 

 

 

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. Think about the scale it takes to feed the nation. The level of data, transactions and variety involved. Then you’ll realise this is a modern software engineering environment, because it has to be. We’ve made significant investment in the standards and principles that shape how we work. We iterate, learn, experiment and champion ways of working such as Agile, Scrum and XP. So you can look forward to exciting opportunities across everything from AI to reusable tech.

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new - whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:
 
 Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on how we perform.  
 
 Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, interest free car loan of up to £10k, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an Employee Assistance Programme, you will also be eligible for private healthcare too.

Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave. 
 
 Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).