Engineering Manager - Ecommerce

Phorest
Full-timeEngineering managementIreland · Remote within Ireland
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At a glance

Employment type
Full-time
Workplace
Remote

Technologies & skills

Primary technologies

Secondary technologies

What you'll be doing

Phorest seeks an Engineering Manager for its Ecommerce team, responsible for leading, coaching, and motivating engineers building consumer-facing products like online booking, gift vouchers, and online stores. The role is hands-on, with people management, process improvement, and collaboration with product and design.

  • Lead the Ecommerce team within the Consumer domain, ensuring team health, productivity, and impact
  • Collaborate with Engineering Managers, Product Leads, and stakeholders to shape consumer strategy
  • Balance new capabilities and technical maintenance in development cycles
  • Identify bottlenecks, improve processes, and ensure software delivery best practices
  • Track progress and ensure timely, quality releases
  • Champion observability strategy and ensure monitoring tooling is in place
  • Drive a culture of quality, maintain code standards, and implement automated testing strategies
  • Contribute hands-on to code, review, and design of distributed systems

Key requirements

Must-have

  • 3+ years in a similar leadership role with hands-on people management
  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field
  • Strong proficiency and 5+ years of professional experience with object-oriented software design, primarily Java

Experience: 3+ years in engineering leadership with hands-on people management; 5+ years professional experience with object-oriented software design, primarily Java

Role signals

Technical focus
engineering management for consumer ecommerce products, hands-on technical contribution, process improvement, people man
Leadership
People management
Architecture / system design
Indicated in the listing
Hands-on vs management
Mixed

Full job description

About Phorest

Phorest is a growing tech company on a mission to help beauty businesses thrive. Our software empowers premium salons, spas, and aesthetic clinics around the globe with a suite of tools designed to enhance client experiences, streamline operations, and drive business growth. With a presence in the heart of the beauty industry, we are committed to fostering innovation, excellence, and community. At Phorest, we don’t just build software – we build success stories.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a new Engineering Manager to join our Ecommerce team within the Consumer Group. You will join a team who are responsible for building and maintaining Online Booking Platform as well as other consumer products such as online gift vouchers, branded applications and the online store where clients can sell their retail products conveniently. These products are built using technologies including React Native, Ruby & Java.

For this role, you will have the opportunity to be hands-on but instinctively focus on ensuring your team is set up for success first by removing any blockers. You will be a key member of this team, collaborating with the other engineers and facilitating the day-to-day running of the team. You will be responsible for growing, coaching and motivating a team of engineers to reach their own, and in turn Phorest’s goals. You will work closely with the Product Manager and Designer on the team to shape the strategy and also collaborate with other teams where there is a crossover of domains.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who wants a new challenge, where you’ll bring your experience to a supportive, growth mindset environment that will enable us to achieve our goals. You will join a multidisciplinary group of technology, product and design folks in building the future of the hair and beauty industry.

What You'll Do

  • Be responsible for leading the Ecommerce team within the Consumer domain of our product, including their overall health, productivity and impact.
  • Work with Engineering Managers, Product Leads and other key stakeholders to understand and shape the overarching consumer strategy.
  • Work with your team to ensure an appropriate balance of new capabilities and technical maintenance is being carried out within each development cycle so that the technical health of the platform is conserved as the platform evolves
  • Help identify bottlenecks within the team, improve working processes, and ensure software delivery best practices are being used to our advantage
  • Track the progress outwards to the wider teams, ensuring new capabilities are released on time and to the required quality standards
  • Champion the observability strategy within your team ensuring relevant service level objectives(SLOs) are set to measure and improve the e-commerce system’s reliability. Your team will have the correct monitoring tooling in place and proactively identify and address issues.
  • Drive a culture of quality within the team by establishing rigorous processes and methodologies. This will include maintaining high code quality standards, defining and implementing automated testing strategies and ensuring comprehensive test coverage for both new features and existing functionality.
  • There is going to be hands-on work here, as a leader of this team you are going to need to understand how things work, there will be times when you will need to contribute to the team's work, review code and support them in designing and building complex distributed systems. You’ll help guide your team to design technical solutions that are appropriate in terms of scale, resilience and reliability.
  • Have direct people management responsibilities for a scrum team. This will require you to:Have regular 1 to 1s with each person to ensure they are happy and engaged in their work, as well as to coach them through any problems they are wrestling with
  • Provide regular feedback and periodic performance reviews
  • Understand each person’s long-term aspirations, helping them to set goals and carve out opportunities for growth in their career that are aligned with those goals
    Attend regular Product and Engineering management meetings, where you will have the opportunity to influence decisions that affect the entire engineering group

Report to the Head of Engineering of the Consumer group providing regular updates on progress and strategy while sharing any challenges the team may be facing where support is required.

Help build our engineering brand by both talking about and sharing blog posts on the amazing work we do

Who You Are

  • 3+ years demonstrated impact in a similar leadership role, with hands-on experience managing people
  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a similar related field
  • Strong proficiency and at least 5 years of professional experience with object-oriented software design, primarily Java
  • The ability to collaboratively lead the evolution of your team’s strategy, setting unambiguous roadmaps and goals for the team and then delivering on them in a healthy, predictable and sustainable way
  • You should be comfortable coaching team members. You will communicate expectations clearly and deliver individual feedback frequently
  • You have a proven history of building close working relationships with your product counterparts and external stakeholders, with the ability to inspire and motivate, improve quality and productivity, while maintaining technical innovation and excellence
  • Strategic thinker, with an ability to express and convey thoughts in meaningful ways in a fast-paced and evolving environment, with a high degree of autonomy
  • Previous hands-on development experience with complex distributed systems
  • Experience working with and managing Agile teams, as well as driving improvement across the whole development process
  • Experience developing and supporting engineers in their personal growth and career progression. You foster an environment where communication, teamwork, and collaboration are rewarded
  • You’ll focus on quality, while increasing efficiency, delivering value and reducing waste

Benefits

🧘 Your wellbeing is important to us - we provide private healthcare, 2 Wellness Days, an employee assistance program and a free online GP service.

💰 As part of our Financial Wellbeing, we provide competitive Compensation, an Employee Share Purchase Scheme, Pension, Life Assurance, and Income Protection.

🚵🏿 We help you travel by providing a bike to work scheme as well as tax saver transport tickets.

🦸‍♀️ We support the women who work in Phorest by offering 2 weeks leave for Fertility Treatment, Pregnancy Loss and Menopause.

🍼 We care for your family and provide Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Benefits.

🌳 We grow our own timber! We provide a great learning environment and extensive development opportunities. We run development programs and provide access to many online resources including LinkedIn learning.

🏠 Moving house? Phorest employees get 3 moving days.

Want to learn more about Phorest? Check out nothingventured.rocks for our blog and Insights on building an evergreen company from the team here at Phorest.

Phorest is an equal opportunity employer. For this position, flexi-time and working from home is possible. We are also open to remote work. Get in touch to ask for more information or to chat about your future with Phorest!

Research shows that while men apply to jobs when they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women and other marginalised folks tend to only apply when they check every box. So if you think you have what it takes, but don't necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch. We'd love to have a chat and see if you could be a great fit.

Interview prep pack

Grounded in this listing. Use it to prepare examples before you apply.

Your interview focus

Based on this listing, the Engineering Manager - Ecommerce at Phorest will lead a multidisciplinary team responsible for consumer-facing ecommerce products, balancing hands-on technical contributions with people management and process improvement responsibilities.

  • Technical Leadership·High
  • People Management·High
  • Process Improvement·Medium
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration·Medium

Only have 30 minutes?

Follow a focused preparation plan based on this job.

Start 30-minute prep

Your 30-minute plan

  1. Research Phorest’s Consumer Ecommerce Products

    0–7 min

    Familiarize yourself with the company’s online booking, gift voucher, branded app, and online store offerings to contextualize your leadership approach.

  2. Review Java and Object-Oriented Design Experience

    7–14 min

    Prepare to discuss your technical expertise and recent hands-on work with Java and distributed systems.

  3. Prepare Leadership and Coaching Examples

    14–21 min

    Select 2-3 stories that showcase your people management, coaching, and process improvement skills.

  4. Summarize Your Approach to Quality and Observability

    21–26 min

    Outline your strategies for automated testing, code quality, and monitoring, with relevant examples.

  5. Draft Role-Specific Questions

    26–30 min

    Prepare thoughtful questions about team structure, challenges, and expectations to ask during the interview.

Likely questions

, 7 items

Priority reflects how strongly this topic is emphasised in the job listing, not whether it will be asked.

Talking points

, 5 items
  • Leading and Coaching Engineering Teams

    You will need to provide examples of how you have managed, motivated, and developed engineers, including conducting 1:1s, performance reviews, and supporting career growth.

  • Technical Experience with Java and Object-Oriented Design

    Demonstrating your proficiency in Java and object-oriented software design is essential, as the role requires hands-on technical leadership and code review.

  • Driving Process Improvements and Removing Blockers

    You should be ready to discuss how you have identified bottlenecks, improved team processes, and ensured timely, high-quality software delivery.

  • Championing Quality and Observability

    Prepare to share examples of how you have implemented automated testing, maintained code quality, and established monitoring and observability practices.

  • Cross-Functional Collaboration

    You will need to illustrate your experience working with product managers, designers, and other engineering leaders to shape product strategy and deliver results.

What to research

, 4 items
  • Phorest’s Ecommerce Product Suite

    Review Phorest’s online booking, gift voucher, branded app, and online store offerings to understand the consumer products your team will support.

  • Java and Object-Oriented Design Principles

    Refresh your knowledge of Java and best practices in object-oriented software design, as hands-on technical leadership is required.

  • Engineering Management Best Practices

    Prepare examples of your experience with team leadership, coaching, performance management, and process improvement.

  • Observability and Quality Assurance Strategies

    Be ready to discuss your approach to monitoring, SLOs, automated testing, and maintaining code quality in distributed systems.

Questions to ask

, 6 items
  1. How does the Ecommerce team currently collaborate with Product and Design, and what are the main challenges?

    Why ask this? To understand cross-functional dynamics and where you can add value.

  2. What are the biggest technical or process challenges facing the Ecommerce platform today?

    Why ask this? To identify immediate priorities and areas where your experience can help.

  3. How is success measured for the Engineering Manager and the Ecommerce team?

    Why ask this? To clarify expectations and key performance indicators.

  4. What is the current approach to balancing new feature development with technical debt and maintenance?

    Why ask this? To assess the maturity of engineering processes and your potential influence.

  5. How does Phorest support the professional growth and development of its engineering managers and teams?

    Why ask this? To gauge the company’s commitment to learning and career progression.

  6. What are the expectations for hands-on technical contribution versus people management in this role?

    Why ask this? To clarify the balance of responsibilities and ensure alignment with your strengths.

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Apply NowApply before: 30 Sep 2026