Engineering Manager

Who we are

We're a data and AI consultancy of about 50 people in London. Our client list spans FTSE 100s and high growth companies alongside long running work on societal challenges - financial services, manufacturing, retail, and the public sector. The common thread is we don't just advise clients - we build. Real systems, real pipelines, real models, in production, doing real things for real people.

Our culture runs on a meritocracy of ideas: the best thinking wins regardless of who's been here longest or who's most senior in the room. We treat intelligent failure as something to learn from, not something to bury. And we back that with a generous £6,000 a year personal learning and development budget for each team member - which you get to decide how to spend.

We just won Consultancy of the Year at the British Data Awards 2026 and we were a finalist in this year's Culture 100 Awards. 93% of our own team also rated their experience here positively this year. One survey can't tell you everything about us, but it's a very good clue that people like it here!

The role

You'll lead a team of 4 Data Engineers, 1 AI Engineer, and 1 QA, and sit on the wider management team. A good portion of your week goes into coaching, growing people, unblocking them, and holding quality high. The rest goes into delivery - a mix of client engagements and our own product work.

We're a lean consultancy, scaling on purpose. A lot of what you'd inherit ready made at a bigger firm (things like engineering standards, delivery process, tooling the very shape of the team) is still yours to build here.

We also move fast, and you'll get real autonomy and a say in how engineering works at QuantSpark. You're also building the road as you drive on it, so you'll need to be comfortable with ambiguity and confident making the call on imperfect information.

This is a player coach role, deliberately. You'll stay hands on enough to make the architectural calls, review the code that matters, and step into the hard problems yourself when the team needs you there. Using AI well is also core to the job - knowing where it adds real value, where it doesn't, and how to embed it sensibly into what your team ships.

What you'll own:

• Architect and oversee delivery across multiple software and data projects
• Mentor engineers from junior through senior, building a high performance team culture
• Champion the practical, responsible use of AI across engineering workflows, tooling, and what we deliver to clients
• Partner with product managers and technical leads on deliverables, timeframes and with what resourcing
• Push our engineering standards forward - process, DevOps practice, and the technical bar we hold ourselves to
• Make the calls between competing priorities - delivery, people, and quality
• Sit in front of client stakeholders directly, owning the relationship and making sure what we build gets adopted, not just delivered

You should hit apply if:

• You know how to manage a team, not just administer one - you understand "culture add," and you know how to coach people to do their best work
• You've got hands on range across software and data: Python (Flask/Django), React.js, and analytics/data engineering - building pipelines, models, and data products yourself
• You're fluent in software and data architecture, containerisation, and cloud platforms (AWS/Azure)
• You understand what AI is good for, and you help your team pick the right tool for the right problem rather than reaching for it by default
• You've mentored engineers and managed cross functional teams before
• You can hold several competing priorities at once and still keep a team focused, motivated, and genuinely performing
• You care about DevOps and modern tooling because you've felt the difference good process makes

And you want to work for a company that

• Balances visionary leadership with hands on technical impact
• Prioritises work that matters over work that just fills a sprint and is strong on innovative culture
• Treats AI as a tool to be used thoughtfully (not a tick box)
• Builds things that create lasting impact - for clients, and for the world those clients operate in
• Is AI first and encourages experimentation and adoption of AI across the business
• Has leadership that trusts you, inspires you, and invests in its people
• Has smart, cross disciplinary teams who enjoy solving hard technical and business problems together

What you get

• Bonus scheme combining company profit share and personal performance (up to 10% of salary)
• EMI share options - open to everyone, regardless of seniority
• £6,000 annual training and conference budget
• Up to 12% matched pension
• Comprehensive private healthcare through Vitality
• 25 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays (with option to buy or sell up to 5 more days)
• Work from anywhere in the world for up to 1 month a year
• Enhanced maternity, paternity, and shared parental leave
• Free annual Headspace subscription
• Cycle to work scheme
• Modern Blackfriars office (Southwark, central London), with regular socials, monthly QuantSpark Fridays, and employee led clubs
• Retail, travel, technology, and fitness discounts via Vitality
• Access to modern analytics tools and platforms
• Regular tech talks, knowledge sharing sessions, and dedicated innovation time

Equal Opportunities

We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. Different perspectives, identities, and experiences make us stronger - both as people and as a business. All qualified applicants will be considered regardless of sex, sexual orientation, marital status, race, nationality, religion, disability, or age.