Engineering Manager

About BBC Maestro

BBC Maestro is an independent company within the BBC Studios group, offering inspiring online courses from world-class experts in their fields; from filmmaking and writing to cooking, music and beyond.

We’re a small, collaborative team doing big things ’s a place where creative ideas move fast, where everyone rolls up their sleeves, and where we take real pride in delivering high-quality learning experiences for our global audience.

As a high-performing SME with a global customer base, we’re looking for a senior, hands-on engineering leader to take full ownership of our core technology platforms and lead a small, high-performing team to deliver simple, scalable software that delights our customers.

You’ll spend about 70% of your time building and maintaining our core Rails platform and mobile app infrastructure
, with the remainder focused on delivery, coaching, and cross-functional collaboration
. You’ll be the most senior engineer on the team
; setting technical direction, leading by example, and helping shape how we grow.

This is a great opportunity for someone who wants to build product-centric systems with purpose
, and who leads with heart
, loves innovation
, and is excited to grow others while growing themselves
.

You will report into our Managing Director Lily Smith, a technical product leader.

The salary for this role is £90,000 - £110,000 - this will be determined by factors that include relevant experience and location.

As our most senior engineer, you’ll be responsible for the team’s technical output, delivery pace, and wellbeing, and help us keep our customer promise at the centre of everything we ship.

You will:

• Lead and support a small engineering team, balancing delivery, technical quality, and team health
• Spend significant time hands-on with Ruby on Rails
  , and occasionally contribute to our React Native mobile app
• Mentor engineers through active coaching, clear feedback, and meaningful growth plans
• Help engineers make sound technical decisions
  , acting as a sounding board and guide
• Ensure the team delivers iteratively and reliably, with a customer-first mindset
• Collaborate deeply with Product and Design to shape realistic roadmaps and well-scoped solutions
• Proactively spot blockers and own delivery outcomes
  , technical health, and production stability
• Contribute to hiring and onboarding as we grow the team
• Champion documentation, code quality, and sustainable development practices
• Foster a positive, inclusive, and learning-focused team culture
• Encourage a mindset of continuous improvement; in systems, tools, and ourselves

We’re looking for a strong engineer first
, with leadership experience and a deep sense of responsibility for the customer, the code, and the team.

You’ll likely bring:

• 7+ years building and operating production systems (Rails a big plus), and 2+ years leading or line managing engineers
• Strong backend experience, ideally with Ruby on Rails and Hotwire
  , and enough breadth to support others across the stack
• Confidence working with PostgreSQL
  , caching layers like Redis or Memcached
  , and background jobs (e.g. Sidekiq)
• Strong grasp of software best practices
  , including CI/CD, testing, and system observability
• Experience supporting live production environments and contributing to incident response
• Proven ability to manage team delivery, navigate trade-offs, and deliver against customer needs
• Great communication skills; you work well with designers, product managers, and execs alike
• Passion for growing people
  , and helping others own their craft and impact

Above all, you care about how we build
, not just what we ship, and you're excited to shape the technical foundations of a customer-centric company.

We don’t just want you to deliver great software, we want you to do it in a way that reflects who we are and how we work
. You’ll thrive in this role if you:

• Love Innovation – You experiment, simplify, and use good judgment to drive progress. You're not afraid to challenge outdated assumptions or modernise legacy thinking.
• Lead With Heart – You coach engineers to problem-solve, lead with empathy, and show…