Software Engineering Manager - UI & MFP Interaction Team

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Software Engineering Manager - UI & MFP Interaction Team Company: Ocado Group Location: Sofia, Bulgaria Job Type: Full-time Category: Engineering Management / Operations Technology Date Posted: 2025-09-25T05:46:26 Experience Level: Mid-Senior Level (5-10 years) Remote Status: Hybrid

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead and develop a high-performing engineering team focused on UI and Mobile Fulfilment Systems (MFP) interaction, encompassing full-stack, backend, and Android domains.
• Drive technical leadership by owning architectural decisions, setting technical direction, and ensuring long-term system thinking and scalability.
• Foster a culture of accountability, learning, and psychological safety, enabling team members' growth and development.
• Connect engineering execution with business objectives, prioritizing efforts based on customer and stakeholder needs for maximum ROI.
• Deliver reliable, intuitive tooling, interfaces, and mobile solutions that support the company's cutting-edge automation and robotics initiatives.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the role is for a "Software Engineering Manager," the description heavily emphasizes operational aspects of automation systems, customer integration, and business-aligned execution. This suggests that beyond typical people management, a strong understanding of operational efficiency, system reliability, and the impact of technology on business processes will be critical. Therefore, the "Category" is tailored to reflect this operational technology focus within engineering management.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• People Management & Development:
  • Lead, coach, mentor, and develop engineers across full-stack, backend, and Android disciplines.
  • Conduct regular one-on-one meetings, performance reviews, and career development discussions.
  • Identify skill gaps and provide opportunities for learning and growth within the team.
  • Foster a positive and inclusive team environment that encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• Technical Leadership & Architecture:
  • Own critical technical decisions, long-term system design, and cross-service architecture for the UI & MFP Interaction team.
  • Define and communicate clear technical direction, ensuring alignment with overall product and business strategies.
  • Deeply understand the technologies in use and the complexity of the systems to make informed architectural choices.
  • Champion best practices in software development, including code quality, testing, and operational excellence.
• Business Alignment & Strategy:
  • Drive engineering execution that is tightly aligned with business goals, focusing on Return on Investment (ROI) and opportunity cost.
  • Understand customer and stakeholder needs to effectively prioritize development efforts and manage technical roadmaps.
  • Propose strategic and tactical engineering solutions, clearly articulating trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Outcome Orientation & Delivery:
  • Ensure the successful delivery of reliable, intuitive tooling, interfaces, and mobile solutions for internal and external users.
  • Oversee the smooth and scalable implementation of customer onboarding, configuration management, and platform observability tools.
  • Proactively identify and remove impediments to team delivery, navigating complexity and ambiguity to achieve objectives.
• Operational Excellence:
  • Ensure the team's deliverables contribute to the operational efficiency and effectiveness of Ocado's automation solutions.
  • Focus on building robust, maintainable, and scalable systems that support the continuous operation of thousands of robots.
  • Contribute to the overall platform observability and integration strategies for the Mobile Fulfilment Systems department.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of traditional engineering management and operational oversight. The emphasis on "business-aligned engineering execution with strong ROI and opportunity-cost thinking," "understand what truly matters to customers and stakeholders," and "deliver reliable, intuitive tooling, interfaces, and mobile solutions" points towards a role that not only manages software development but also ensures its direct contribution to business operations and efficiency.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Operations Context: A degree or strong understanding of systems engineering, industrial automation, or logistics operations can be highly beneficial given the team's focus.

Experience:

• Proven experience in software engineering, with a significant portion in a leadership or management role.
• Demonstrable track record of successfully leading and developing engineering teams.
• Experience in managing full-stack development, including backend and mobile (Android) technologies.
• Experience with agile development methodologies and delivering complex software projects.
• Operations Context: Experience in environments with complex, distributed systems, real-time data processing, or automation technologies is highly valued.

Required Skills:

• People Leadership: Strong ability to mentor, grow, inspire, and manage engineers, fostering a high-performance culture.
• Full-Stack Technical Depth: Solid understanding of full-stack development principles, with a strong emphasis on backend technologies.
• Backend Acumen: Proficiency in backend development languages and paradigms, specifically mentioning TypeScript, GraphQL, and message-based systems.
• Architectural Decision-Making: Excellent skills in making sound technical and architectural decisions, with a track record of long-term system thinking.
• Business Awareness: Ability to connect technical choices with operational and financial impacts, demonstrating strong ROI and opportunity-cost thinking.
• Leadership Under Pressure: Proven ability to lead effectively in high-pressure situations and make fast, effective decisions in complex, undefined environments.
• Communication Skills: Ability to clearly articulate trade-offs and technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Team Collaboration: Proven ability to foster collaboration and psychological safety within an engineering team.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with customer integration systems and B2B client onboarding processes.
• Familiarity with observability tooling for monitoring and diagnosing distributed systems.
• Experience with infrastructure management and cloud-native environments.
• Understanding of workflow orchestration and integration APIs within an operational context.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Essential" skills list is comprehensive for a tech lead/manager. The "Preferred Skills" section provides opportunities to highlight experience that aligns more directly with operational aspects, such as customer integration systems (crucial for business operations) and observability tooling (key for system reliability and operational uptime).

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Team Performance Metrics: Examples of how you have tracked and improved key team performance indicators (e.g., velocity, lead time, defect rates, team satisfaction).
• Technical Roadmapping & Prioritization: Demonstrated ability to create and manage technical roadmaps, aligning them with business priorities and communicating trade-offs.
• System Architecture Design: Case studies or examples of complex systems designed or significantly improved under your leadership, highlighting long-term thinking and scalability.
• Process Improvement Initiatives: Evidence of leading process improvements within engineering workflows, such as CI/CD pipeline optimization, testing strategies, or development methodologies.
• Stakeholder Management Examples: Demonstrations of how you have effectively communicated technical strategies, roadmaps, and challenges to business stakeholders.

Process Documentation:

• Showcase examples of how you document team processes, architectural decisions, and operational procedures.
• Highlight experience in establishing or refining processes for:
  • Code reviews and quality assurance.
  • Incident management and post-mortem analysis.
  • Onboarding new team members and technologies.
  • Knowledge sharing and documentation within the team.

📝 Enhancement Note: While a traditional software engineering manager might not always be asked for a "portfolio," the emphasis on "business awareness," "ROI," and "customer integration" suggests that demonstrating impact on operational outcomes will be crucial. Therefore, candidates should be prepared to showcase how they have managed processes that directly influence business efficiency and customer success, using quantifiable metrics where possible.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Based on industry standards for Engineering Managers in Sofia, Bulgaria, with 5-10 years of experience in technology roles, a competitive salary range would typically fall between 2,500 BGN to 5,000 BGN net per month, or 45,000 BGN to 90,000 BGN gross per year. This range can vary significantly based on the candidate's specific technical expertise, leadership experience, and the ultimate negotiation.

Benefits:

• Hybrid Office Attendance Policy: Offers flexibility with 40% of time spent in the office.
• Work from Anywhere Program: 30 days per year to work remotely from different locations.
• Annual Leave: Generous 30 days of annual leave for rest and rejuvenation.
• Share Plan Program: Opportunity to participate in the company's success through equity.
• Monthly Allowance: Additional 300 BGN monthly allowance to support personal needs.
• Enhanced Maternity & Paternity Leave: Supportive policies for new parents.
• Comprehensive Medical Plan: Includes health and dental coverage for employees and potentially dependents.
• Life and Disability Insurance: Financial protection for employees and their families.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Confidential support for personal and professional well-being.
• Professional Development: Access to regular divisional socials, sports clubs, and the Ocado Technology Academy for continuous learning and networking.

Working Hours:

• The role anticipates approximately 40 hours per week, aligning with standard professional work schedules.
• The hybrid policy and "Work from Anywhere" program offer flexibility in how and where these hours are fulfilled, within operational needs.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is an estimate based on typical market data for similar roles in Sofia, Bulgaria. The benefits package provided is extensive and covers a wide range of employee well-being and professional development aspects, which are attractive to operations and engineering professionals seeking a stable and growth-oriented environment.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology / E-commerce / Automation / Robotics Company Size: Large (Ocado Group is a global organization with thousands of employees, and Ocado Technology operates as a significant division). This size implies structured processes, opportunities for specialization, and a broad impact. Founded: Ocado was founded in 2000, with Ocado Technology being a key driver of its innovative approach to online grocery and logistics. This history suggests a company that values innovation, technological advancement, and continuous improvement in its operational models.

Team Structure:

• Operations Focus: The "Mobile Fulfilment Systems" department is central to Ocado's operational efficiency, managing physical and digital systems for order fulfillment.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: The UI & MFP Interaction Team likely collaborates closely with backend services teams, robotics engineering, warehouse operations, and product management to ensure seamless integration and functionality.
• Reporting: The Engineering Manager will report into a higher-level engineering leadership role within the Mobile Fulfilment Systems department, with direct reports being the engineers on the UI & MFP Interaction team.

Methodology:

• Agile & Lean: Ocado Technology is known for its adoption of agile methodologies, likely incorporating Lean principles for efficiency and waste reduction in development and operations.
• Data-Driven Decisions: Expect a culture that emphasizes data analysis for understanding system performance, user behavior, and operational impact to guide decision-making.
• Automation First: Given the company's core business, there's a strong focus on automating processes, from warehouse operations to software development and deployment pipelines.

Company Website: https://careers.ocadogroup.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: Ocado's focus on automation and e-commerce logistics means that operational efficiency, system reliability, and the seamless integration of technology with physical processes are paramount. The culture likely values innovation, pragmatic problem-solving, and a strong sense of ownership over critical systems that directly impact business outcomes.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is at a mid-to-senior management level within the engineering domain, specifically managing a team responsible for critical user interfaces and interaction systems within a complex operational framework. It bridges technical leadership with people management and business alignment. Reporting Structure: The role reports to a senior engineering leader (e.g., Head of Engineering, Director of Engineering) within the Mobile Fulfilment Systems department. The manager will have direct reports comprising software engineers (full-stack, backend, Android). Operations Impact: The team's work directly influences the efficiency and effectiveness of warehouse operations, customer onboarding, and the usability of tools for warehouse staff and support engineers. Successful management of this team can lead to significant improvements in order fulfillment speed, accuracy, cost-efficiency, and user satisfaction within the operational environment.

Growth Opportunities:

• Technical Specialization: Deepen expertise in distributed systems, automation, cloud-native architectures, and user interface design for operational tools.
• Leadership Expansion: Progress to managing larger teams, multiple teams, or taking on broader architectural responsibilities within the Mobile Fulfilment Systems domain.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Transition into roles that have a wider scope across product management, operations strategy, or technology partnerships.
• Strategic Influence: Contribute to the overarching technology strategy for Ocado's fulfillment solutions, influencing product roadmaps and architectural direction.
• Learning & Development: Utilize the Ocado Technology Academy and other company resources for continuous learning in leadership, technology, and operational best practices.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers a strong trajectory for individuals looking to combine deep technical leadership with a significant operational impact. The growth potential is substantial, particularly for those who can demonstrate success in managing complex systems and driving business outcomes within a rapidly evolving technological landscape.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Hybrid office attendance policy suggests a modern workspace designed to support collaborative work, team meetings, and focused individual work. Office Location(s): Sofia, Bulgaria. This location is a hub for Ocado Technology, likely offering a vibrant tech community and resources. Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Hub: The office environment is expected to facilitate team collaboration, brainstorming sessions, and cross-functional interactions.
• Technology-Rich: Access to modern development tools, infrastructure, and potentially specialized hardware for testing and simulation related to robotics and automation.
• Operational Focus: The workspace will likely support discussions and problem-solving related to real-world operational challenges faced by warehouse staff and the automated systems. Work Schedule: Standard professional hours, with flexibility afforded by the hybrid model and the "Work from Anywhere" program, allowing individuals to balance work and personal life while ensuring team and business needs are met.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid and "Work from Anywhere" policies indicate a forward-thinking approach to work arrangements, prioritizing flexibility and employee well-being while ensuring operational continuity and team cohesion. This is particularly relevant for roles managing distributed systems where asynchronous communication and flexible working can be beneficial.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter or hiring manager will review your application and potentially conduct a brief phone screen to assess basic qualifications and cultural fit.
• Technical & People Management Interview: Expect a session focused on your people leadership philosophy, experience in mentoring and developing engineers, and your approach to managing team dynamics. This might include behavioral questions.
• Technical Deep Dive & Architecture Discussion: This stage will likely involve discussing your technical background, architectural decision-making process, and experience with technologies like TypeScript, GraphQL, and message-based systems. You may be asked to walk through past technical challenges and solutions.
• Case Study/Problem-Solving Exercise: You might be given a hypothetical scenario related to team management, technical challenges, or operational integration, requiring you to propose solutions, discuss trade-offs, and explain your thought process.
• Stakeholder/Cross-Functional Interview: An interview with peers or stakeholders from other departments (e.g., product, operations) to assess your collaboration skills, business acumen, and ability to communicate complex ideas.
• Final Interview: A conversation with a senior leader to discuss overall fit, strategic thinking, and long-term vision for the team and its contribution to Ocado's goals.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Quantify Impact: Whenever possible, use metrics to demonstrate the impact of your leadership and the team's work. For example, "Improved system uptime by X%," "Reduced onboarding time by Y%," or "Increased team productivity by Z%."
• Showcase Leadership Philosophy: Clearly articulate your approach to people management, including how you foster growth, handle underperformance, and build a positive team culture.
• Highlight Architectural Rationale: For any system design examples, focus on why you made certain architectural choices, the trade-offs considered, and the long-term implications.
• Demonstrate Business Acumen: Connect your technical decisions and team's output to business outcomes, such as customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, or cost savings.
• Prepare for Scenarios: Think about common challenges faced by engineering managers (conflict resolution, resource allocation, technical debt) and how you would address them.

Challenge Preparation:

• Focus on Clarity: When presented with a problem, take time to clarify requirements and assumptions before diving into solutions.
• Structure Your Response: Use frameworks like STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) for behavioral questions or a structured problem-solving approach for technical challenges.
• Consider Trade-offs: Be prepared to discuss the pros and cons of different solutions, especially regarding scalability, maintainability, cost, and speed of delivery.
• Emphasize Collaboration: In team-based challenges, highlight how you would involve and leverage the team's collective expertise.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the operational nature of the team's work, expect interview questions to probe not just technical and people management skills, but also how you ensure that software development directly supports and enhances business operations and efficiency. Demonstrating an understanding of ROI and customer impact will be key.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Backend Technologies: TypeScript, GraphQL, Node.js (implied by TypeScript and modern backend stacks), message-based systems (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ, AWS SQS/SNS).
• Frontend/UI Technologies: Likely modern JavaScript frameworks (e.g., React, Angular, Vue.js) or native mobile development (Android).
• Cloud Platforms: Experience with cloud environments such as AWS, Azure, or GCP is highly probable, given the scale and nature of Ocado's operations.
• Containerization & Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes are common in microservices architectures.
• CI/CD Tools: Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or similar for automated build, test, and deployment pipelines.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Monitoring & Observability: Tools like Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for system health and performance tracking.
• Business Intelligence Tools: Potentially Tableau, Power BI, or internal tools for analyzing operational data and business metrics.
• Logging & Tracing: Tools for distributed tracing to understand request flows across microservices.

CRM & Automation:

• While not directly a CRM role, understanding how the UI/MFP systems interact with broader business systems (e.g., Warehouse Management Systems - WMS) is crucial.
• Integration Platforms/APIs: Experience designing and managing APIs for seamless data exchange between different systems.
• Workflow Automation: Tools or custom solutions for automating operational workflows.

📝 Enhancement Note: The technology stack emphasizes modern, scalable, and robust systems essential for operational environments. Proficiency in backend technologies, cloud infrastructure, and observability tools will be critical for managing systems that support real-time, high-volume operations.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Efficiency & Optimization: A strong drive to improve processes, reduce waste, and maximize the output of both human and automated systems.
• Reliability & Stability: Commitment to building and maintaining systems that are highly available and performant, critical for continuous operations.
• Data-Driven Decision Making: Relying on data and metrics to inform choices, measure impact, and guide continuous improvement efforts.
• Customer Focus (Internal & External): Understanding and prioritizing the needs of both end-users (warehouse staff, support engineers) and the broader business objectives.
• Innovation & Agility: A willingness to explore new technologies and approaches, and adapt quickly to changing business and operational requirements.
• Ownership & Accountability: A culture where individuals and teams take responsibility for their work and its outcomes, driving solutions proactively.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: Expect close collaboration with teams responsible for physical automation, warehouse management systems, product management, and other engineering disciplines.
• Open Communication: Encouraging direct, honest, and constructive feedback among team members and with stakeholders.
• Shared Problem-Solving: A collective approach to tackling complex technical and operational challenges, valuing diverse perspectives.
• Process Improvement Mindset: Continuous engagement in identifying bottlenecks and opportunities to enhance team processes and system performance.

📝 Enhancement Note: The team culture is likely to be results-oriented, with a strong emphasis on delivering tangible improvements to Ocado's operational capabilities. Team members are expected to be proactive, collaborative, and committed to the company's mission of revolutionizing online grocery fulfillment through technology and automation.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• System Complexity: Managing and evolving a complex, distributed system with numerous interconnected components, including robotics and backend services.
• Scalability Demands: Ensuring the UI and interaction systems can scale effectively to support a growing number of robots, users, and operational demands.
• Balancing Innovation with Stability: Introducing new features and technologies while maintaining the high reliability required for live operational environments.
• Cross-Team Dependencies: Navigating dependencies and alignment with multiple other engineering teams and operational stakeholders.
• Rapid Technological Evolution: Keeping pace with advancements in automation, AI, and software development to maintain a competitive edge.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Advanced Automation & Robotics: Gaining deep insights into the engineering and operational aspects of autonomous mobile robots and automated fulfillment systems.
• Distributed Systems Architecture: Enhancing expertise in designing, building, and managing large-scale, distributed, and real-time systems.
• Leadership and Management Skills: Continuous development through training, mentorship, and practical experience in leading technical teams.
• Industry Best Practices: Exposure to cutting-edge practices in software development, DevOps, CI/CD, and operational excellence within the e-commerce and logistics sectors.
• Strategic Contribution: Opportunities to influence the technology roadmap and operational strategy of a leading innovator in the automation space.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are inherent to working in a cutting-edge, operational technology environment. They offer significant opportunities for professional growth and the development of highly sought-after skills in managing complex, mission-critical systems.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• Team Growth & Performance: "Describe your philosophy for developing engineers. How do you identify and nurture talent within your team, and how do you handle underperformance?"
• Technical Decision-Making: "Walk me through a complex architectural decision you made in a previous role. What were the trade-offs, and what was the long-term impact?"
• Business Alignment: "How do you ensure your team's technical work directly contributes to business goals and delivers tangible ROI? Provide an example."
• Handling Ambiguity: "Describe a time you had to lead a team through uncertainty or a poorly defined problem. What steps did you take, and what was the outcome?"
• Stakeholder Management: "How do you manage communication and expectations with non-technical stakeholders regarding technical roadmaps and challenges?"

Company & Culture Questions:

• Ocado's Mission: "What excites you about Ocado's mission in automation and e-commerce, and how does your leadership style align with that?"
• Team Culture: "Based on your understanding, what kind of team culture do you aim to build, and how would it support the goals of the Mobile Fulfilment Systems department?"
• Operational Focus: "How do you balance the demands of rapid software development with the need for operational stability and reliability in a live environment?"

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Narrative Structure: For each project or achievement in your portfolio, tell a story: the problem, your role, the solution, the challenges, and the quantifiable results.
• Focus on Impact: Highlight how your leadership and the team's technical contributions translated into business value or operational improvements. Use metrics wherever possible.
• Demonstrate Technical Depth: Be ready to discuss the technical details and architectural rationale behind your projects, showcasing your understanding of the underlying technologies.
• Showcase Leadership Style: Use examples to illustrate your approach to people management, problem-solving, and stakeholder communication.
• Tailor to Ocado: Research Ocado's specific technologies and operational challenges to tailor your examples and demonstrate relevance.

📝 Enhancement Note: Be prepared to discuss how your engineering management skills translate into operational efficiency and business success. Questions will likely assess your ability to think strategically, manage complex systems, and lead teams that are critical to the company's core operations.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Software Engineering Manager position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on the Ocado Group careers portal.
• Resume Optimization: Tailor your resume to highlight leadership experience, full-stack and backend technical skills (especially TypeScript, GraphQL, message-based systems), and any experience relevant to automation, logistics, or large-scale operational systems. Quantify achievements whenever possible.
• Portfolio Preparation: Compile examples of past projects that showcase your ability to lead teams, make sound architectural decisions, drive business-aligned initiatives, and improve operational efficiency. Focus on projects with measurable impact.
• Interview Practice: Prepare for behavioral and technical questions focusing on people management, architectural decision-making, business acumen, and problem-solving. Practice articulating your experience using the STAR method and be ready to discuss your leadership philosophy.
• Company Research: Thoroughly research Ocado Group, its Mobile Fulfilment Systems department, and its approach to automation and e-commerce. Understand their values and operational challenges to better align your responses and demonstrate genuine interest.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.