Engineering Manager - job 1 of 2

About Marshmallow

We started Marshmallow when we found out how unfair insurance prices are for people who move to the UK. All because the industry hasn’t given this huge cohort of people a second’s thought, and isn’t set up to price them properly. 

We saw an opportunity to do things differently, so we made it our mission to back the ones who step outside the norm. Since we started, we’ve helped 100,000s of people get a fairer deal on their car insurance. Using technology, we serve people that are often overlooked by financial services companies, solving important problems for people who need it most. 

We know there are millions of marginalised customers out there. And we know that they face unique problems that most companies aren’t even aware of. We believe that our future is helping these people by learning about their experiences, and building our company around their needs. And there are strong signs that there’s a need for a company like us. Earlier this year we hit profitability, which is a huge milestone, but the most exciting thing is that we’re only just getting started.

How we work

We’re really proud of the culture we’ve created. We push for progress every day, because we know that we’ll only hit big milestones by taking lots of smaller steps. We’re always open to helping our team mates, sharing our ideas, experience and knowledge to solve problems together. We take risks, think creatively and experiment relentlessly to meet our customer’s needs, and never pass blame when things go wrong. We encourage people at all levels to take ownership of their work, and to be bold in challenging how we do things. Everyone has a voice and the opportunity to make an impact. 

And autonomy and ownership are only possible with clear direction. That’s why we collaborate to do in-depth planning twice a year, and make sure we leave with clear goals and objectives that flow from top to bottom. To make sure we’re as aligned as possible across functions, most of our work rolls up into four tribes; Acquisition, Retention, Claims and Pricing, Underwriting & Fraud. Each tribe has multiple teams embedded in it, working cross-functionally to do great work.

We’re so excited for all of the challenges up ahead, and we need more people to help us tackle them! If life at Marshmallow sounds like it could be for you, explore our culture handbook or read our blog to find out more.

Engineering at Marshmallow

Our engineers are at the heart of the solutions. They work on product builds from start to finish, solving lots of challenges to help us build fast and scale up! Our engineers cover a range of skills across frontend, backend, full stack, iOS and android, and work alongside designers, data scientists, researchers and product managers within our product teams.

Our product teams include: Renewals, Growth and Claims to name a few! Each team sets its own roadmap, owns the build and maintenance of products E2E and actively pushes the codebase forward for scale.

If you're curious about our Engineering culture and ways of working, check out the Engineering Handbook.

About the Growth Team you’ll be joining 

The Growth team’s mission is to bring Marshmallow motor insurance to as wide an audience as possible. We do this by ensuring we have cover that meets the needs - both mainstream and niche - of a huge range of UK drivers, and by ensuring the value of Marshmallow’s offering is clearly communicated to them. In doing so, we contribute to growing Marshmallow’s customer-base, and growing our top line and profitability. 

You'll be at the heart of Marshmallow's growth efforts, collaborating closely with Product, Data, and our users to deeply understand customer needs, solve challenges across our products, and deliver an inclusive, seamless, and impactful experience that drives business growth!

What you’ll be doing

In Marshmallow we build products through cross-functional teams of Engineers, Product Managers, Data Analysts and Data Scientists focusing on a business domain. You will be responsible for leading and growing our Growth team, managing a group of Frontend and Backend engineers. Our Engineering Managers:

• Lead and Mentor a High-Performing Team: Guide and develop a talented group of software engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement. Effectively spot and address underperformance, .

• Own Delivery: Work with your team and the Product Managers to scope new features, prioritise them on your roadmap and drive their delivery. Stay on top of your team’s work, coordinate effectively with stakeholders, make the necessary tradeoffs and adjust your scope and plans as needed to find the right balance between delivery and technical debt. 

• Drive Technical Excellence: Oversee the design, development, testing and operational excellence of our product in your domain. Ensure the team adheres to best practices in coding, testing, design and architecture.

• Promote a Strong Engineering Culture: Identify, propose, prioritise and implement engineering initiatives to ensure the long-term maintainability, stability and scalability of our systems.

• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Work closely with product managers, data scientists, and other stakeholders to define and prioritise initiatives. Ensure alignment with business goals and effective communication across departments.

• Ensure Compliance and Security: Maintain a deep understanding of regulatory requirements and security best practices. Ensure our solutions comply with relevant standards.

• Adapt and Innovate: This is a growing hub in a growing and dynamic company. Be prepared to pivot and take on new responsibilities as the company's needs evolve.

• Foster a Positive Work Environment: Champion a culture of inclusivity, transparency, and accountability. Encourage open communication and constructive feedback within the team.

Who you are

As a young business in a challenging global environment we are constantly reviewing our ways of working to adapt and succeed. To thrive in this role, above all you will need to demonstrate a great degree of autonomy, end-to-end ownership and flexibility. Besides that, you will be demonstrating the following:

• You have an empathetic leadership style and you build strong, effective relationships. You understand when to give support and when to coach an engineer to find their own solution.

• You understand technology deeply, and can help your team create and deliver against a technical roadmap towards our business objectives.

• You understand the importance of feedback, how to give constructive feedback in a timely fashion and how to ask for feedback to become a better manager

• You are open and honest and encourage others to do the same

• You know when to pick up a task yourself and when you can delegate to create learning opportunities for others

• You are proactive and happy to volunteer to lead new initiatives or offer support to others

• You would like to help Marshmallow build a world-class engineering organisation, working with other engineering managers, sharing best practices and lessons learned from your past experience

What we're looking for from you

• 3+ years experience managing high-performing teams, continually improving their ways of working.

• Fluent communicator with a strong ability to communicate business decisions to engineers and champion engineering initiatives to the business.

• Strong development background as a senior software engineer with preferably a solid understanding of system design.

• Experience hiring exceptional talent and an interest in helping attract and retain the best engineers to Marshmallow.

Perks of the job

• Flexible working: Spend 3 days a week with your team in our new collaborative London office, and own your own working hours. The rest is up to you!

• Sabbatical Leave - Get a 4-week fully paid sabbatical after being with us for 4 years 🌴

• Work From Anywhere - 4 weeks of work from anywhere to use, with no need to come to the office 🛫

• Competitive bonus scheme - designed to reward and recognise high performance 🌟

• Flexible benefits budget - £50 per month to spend on a Ben Mastercard meaning you get your own benefits budget to spend on things you want. Whether that’s subscriptions, night classes (puppy yoga, anyone?), the big shop or a forest of houseplants. Pretty much anything goes. 💰

• Learning and development – Personal budgets for books and training courses to help you grow in your role. Plus 2 days a year - on us! - to further your skillset 🤓

• Mental wellbeing support – Access therapy and mental health sessions through Oliva 💚

• Private health care - Enjoy all the benefits Vitality has to offer, including reduced gym memberships and discounts on smartwatches 🏥

• Medical cash plan - To help you with the costs of dental, optical and physio (plus more!)

• Tech scheme - Get the latest tech for less 🖥

Our process

We break it up into 4 stages:

• Initial call with our Tech Talent Acquisition Partner  (30 mins)

• A past experience interview where you will discuss your previous experience with one of our Engineering Managers (1 hour)

• An interview with one of our Tech Leads to discuss your understanding of technology and your ways of working with the team (1 hour)

• A culture interview with one of our senior leadership team to understand that your work style fits our processes and values (1 hour)
  
  We’ll let you know if you’re invited to an interview or not. But, as a small team with a lot of applications to consider, we can’t give individual feedback on each application

Everyone belongs at Marshmallow

At Marshmallow, we want to hire people from all walks of life with the passion and skills needed to help us achieve our company mission. To do that, we're committed to hiring without judgement, prejudice or bias.

We encourage everyone to apply for our open roles. Gender identity, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or background does not affect how we process job applications.

We're working hard to build an inclusive culture that empowers our people to do their best work, have fun and feel that they belong.

Recruitment privacy policy

We take privacy seriously here at Marshmallow. Our Recruitment privacy notice explains how we process and handle your personal data. To find out more please view it here.