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Engineering Manager

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Who we are

Zappi is a fast growing consumer insights platform helping Fortune 500 companies deeply understand their customers. Our platform allows customers to pre-test new ideas and creative content before launch. From new products, media campaigns, names, logos, packaging or flavours, Zappi allows companies to kill bad ideas and improve on good ones. Customers can analyse their insights across their organisation and see their performance relative to the rest of their market. We bring together top expertise in data science and visualisation, UX and engineering to create a platform that allows non-expert users to make high-stakes decisions easily and confidently. Our working culture is incredibly important to us and our team – our retention is industry-leading.

The Role

We’re looking for an experienced Engineering Manager to lead a team of product engineers building our consumer insights platform. You’ll partner closely with Product, design, and QA, guiding the team through ambiguity, helping them make great decisions, and delivering impactful solutions.

Your role will be a blend of people leadership, technical guidance, and delivery execution. You’ll help shape engineering direction, coach and develop team members, and foster a high-trust, high-performance culture.

What You’ll Do

Lead & Develop: Manage a team of product engineers, ensuring they are happy, motivated, and growing in their careers.
Drive Delivery: Align engineering efforts with business goals, ensuring smooth execution across design, planning, and development.
Technical Leadership: Bring your prior technical experience to challenging new use-cases, acting as a mentor to the engineers on your team
Own Technical & Product Decisions: Work with your team to make informed technical trade-offs, balancing short-term impact with long-term scalability.
Accountable for performance, quality, and security – You take ownership of your team’s systems, ensuring they meet high standards for reliability, maintainability, and security, while driving continuous improvement.
Coach & Grow Talent: Provide mentorship, feedback, and career development opportunities, ensuring engineers have clear growth paths.
Navigate Complexity: Help the team manage ambiguity, move forward, and deliver high-impact solutions.
Cultivate a High-Trust Culture: Create an environment where team members feel safe to take risks, experiment, and innovate.

What to Expect

A collaborative environment where product, design, and engineering work together to solve interesting business problems.
A culture of ownership—you’ll have autonomy to shape how your team operates and the accountability to drive impact.
Opportunities to influence engineering direction, contribute to strategic planning, and be a part of a growing, evolving business.
A focus on continuous learning—whether through mentorship, coaching, or technical deep dives.
A leadership team that values transparency, trust, and simplicity in how we work.

What We Are Looking For

Coaching-first leader – You empower and challenge engineers and managers, fostering a culture of ownership, growth, and psychological safety.
Strategic & proactive – You align engineering efforts with business goals, step into gaps, and drive solutions.
Product minded - You are customer and value focused. You are comfortable proactively prioritising and changing course when given new information
Technically engaged – You facilitate technical discussions and decision-making, ensuring teams make informed trade-offs while balancing ownership of reliability, security, and scalability.
Decision-maker in ambiguity – You confidently make and guide tough decisions, helping teams navigate complexity and move forward.
Delivery-focused – You ensure execution is smooth, efficient, and high-quality, enabling your team to deliver impact.
Strong communicator & influencer – You engage at all levels, building alignment and trust across teams.
Resilient & adaptable – You thrive in change, staying focused and effective in evolving environments.
Hybrid Role – We trust you to work in the way that suits you best, but we also see huge value in face-to-face collaboration. While there are no mandated office days, we expect you to spend meaningful time in the office, to build relationships, immerse yourself in the team, and set yourself up for success.

Benefits

Salary range R1,100,000 - R1,300,000 per annum. Salaries are benchmarked annually.
Unlimited holidays – we want well rested and motivated teams so encourage people to take plenty of time off. We don’t cap your allowance but do set a minimum of at least 20 days per year plus national holidays.
Private medical healthcare cover
Group risk, life & disability contributions
Flexible working arrangements, including remote (unless otherwise specified)
Thoughtfully designed offices to support both individual work and collaboration without interrupting others.
Support setting up your home office, if appropriate (chair + desk, etc)
Wellbeing benefits such as free yoga and access to trained therapists / counsellors through our partner Spill
Tailored personal development through training allowances, coaching, mentorship and career frameworks.

Why join us?

We’ve been recognized as one of the hottest martech companies in 2022 by Business Insider and named Best Place to Work by Quirk’s Media for our engaging and inclusive workplace culture. We’re committed to both people and the planet.

Our belief in inclusion means we’re building an organisation of diverse individuals and helping brands eliminate cultural presumptions in their research. Read our Diversity Manifesto here.

We are a values and behaviours driven business and believe that Trust, Truth, Ownership, Ambition and Humility describe Zappi employees on our best day. This is how we strive to show up for our customers, for each other and for our communities.

Earning B Corp certification assures us we’re on the right track and have structures in place to become the business we want to be.

Our commitment to minimise our impact on the environment means being honest with ourselves and transparent with you—about everything from carbon emissions to tree-planting initiatives. We achieved our goal of becoming Net Zero in 2021!

Zappi Company Culture Highlights

Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Company for Women 2022
Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Company Work-Life Balance 2022
Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Company Compensation 2022
Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Company for Women 2022
Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Company for Diversity 2022
Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Company Culture 2022
Winner of Comparably's Award for Best CEO 2022
Winner of Comparably's Award for Best Happiness 2022
Winner of Newsweek’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces in the UK 2022

Check out what our current employees have to say about us on Comparably

Equal Opportunity

Zappi is an equal opportunity employer; our diversity is a major strength. We maintain a constant dialogue with our teams and wider communities about how we can become a more inclusive place to work.

Zappi Glassdoor Company Review

4.2

Zappi DE&I Review

3.9

CEO of Zappi

Steve Phillips

Approve of CEO

Average salary estimate

$1200000 / YEARLY (est.)

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$1100000K

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What You Should Know About Engineering Manager, Zappi

Zappi is on the lookout for a dynamic Engineering Manager to join their innovative team and lead the charge in building a cutting-edge consumer insights platform. This role is ideal for someone with a passion for technology and a knack for people management. As an Engineering Manager at Zappi, you will guide a talented group of product engineers while collaborating closely with product, design, and QA teams to deliver meaningful solutions that drive the business forward. This position is less about micromanagement and more about fostering a culture of growth and empowerment within your team. You'll utilize your technical expertise to mentor engineers, ensuring they feel confident as they tackle complex challenges. Your leadership will help create a high-trust, high-performance environment where everyone can thrive. You'll take ownership of both technical and product decisions, aligning the engineering team's efforts with broader business objectives while maintaining a strong focus on quality, performance, and security. Zappi values continuous learning, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to develop your skills and those of your team. Plus, with a flexible work model, you can choose how you work best while still enjoying meaningful face-to-face collaboration. If you are a strategic thinker who communicates well and leads by example, Zappi could be the perfect fit for you. Join us in making data-driven decisions simpler and more impactful for our clients while enjoying a fulfilling career in an engaging and supportive environment.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Engineering Manager Role at Zappi

What are the main responsibilities of the Engineering Manager at Zappi?

As an Engineering Manager at Zappi, you will oversee a team of product engineers, lead and develop talent, align engineering initiatives with business objectives, and drive successful project delivery. Your focus will be on fostering a high-performance culture, helping teams navigate complexities, and ensuring high-quality outcomes in all initiatives.