Senior Manager, Application Engineering

Introduction:

Are you searching for an opportunity to play a key role in driving the dramatic growth of a highly successful software company?

At Poppulo, we’re working on what’s next in communications and workplace technology. As a pioneer in this industry, we understand that meaningfully reaching every employee is hard. And so is managing office space in a hybrid world. And so is improving the customer and guest experience. We exist to make each of these things easier. We exist to bring harmony to our customers.

And we do that at enterprise scale. Our omnichannel employee communications, customer communications, and workplace experience platform is trusted by over 6,000 organizations today, reaching more than 35M employees and delivering content to 500,000+ digital signs.

We know there’s no such thing as a “perfect" candidate - we’re all a work in progress and are growing new skills and capabilities all the time. We encourage you to apply for a position with Poppulo even if you don’t meet 100% of the requirements. We believe in fostering an environment where there is a diversity of perspectives, in hopes that we can all thrive.

The Opportunity

The Application Engineering organization is responsible for developing and scaling internal communication and employee engagement platforms that underpin our Employee Communication (EC) suite. The Senior Engineering Manager will lead multiple cross-functional software engineering teams, owning the end-to-end technical strategy, architecture, and execution of these applications.

The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise with strategic leadership, driving engineering excellence, scalability, and innovation across the product portfolio.

The role involves working closely with Product Managers and senior technical staff to deliver product priorities, address technical debt, and advance an overarching architectural vision. The Senior Manager, Application Engineering will be instrumental in ensuring the delivery of high-quality software while cultivating a culture of continuous improvement and learning within the teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the technology roadmap for Application Engineering, ensuring the architecture, scalability, and reliability of systems align with EC business and product objectives.
• Lead multiple software engineering teams, through direct management of Engineering Managers, to deliver high-performance, secure, and resilient SaaS applications.
• Partner with senior engineers and architects to evolve system design and architectural vision, modernizing legacy components, and implementing best practices for distributed, cloud-native applications (e.g., microservices, containerization, event-driven design).
• Oversee end-to-end software delivery — from planning and design through development, testing, deployment, and monitoring — ensuring high availability, low latency, and exceptional product quality.
• Champion engineering standards, code quality, and design principles (e.g., SOLID, clean architecture, domain-driven design).
• Promote automation across build, test, and deployment pipelines.
• Drive process optimization, developer productivity, and operational excellence through metrics such as lead time, deployment frequency, MTTR, and code quality indicators.
• Work closely with Product Management, Architecture, and DevOps teams to align engineering priorities with business outcomes.
• Balance feature delivery with technical debt reduction and platform sustainability.
• Coach, mentor, and grow engineering leaders and ICs, fostering a culture of learning, accountability, and innovation. Identify skill gaps and champion career progression and technical mastery within the teams.

Technical Skills / Competencies

• Proven expertise in SaaS product development, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructure (preferably AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Good understanding of modern application stacks (Java, Kotlin, or Node.js; React or similar front-end frameworks).
• Experience leading teams practicing CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and test automation.
• Proficiency in agile delivery methodologies (Scrum/Kanban), and scaling frameworks (e.g., SAFe, LeSS).
• Demonstrated experience in technical debt management, system refactoring, and evolving large-scale codebases.
• Skilled in observability practices — monitoring, logging, and tracing to ensure operational excellence.
• Active engagement in the technology community is a nice to have(e.g., open-source contributions, conference speaking, blogging, mentoring).
• Adept at navigating ambiguity and driving clarity in complex, cross-functional environments.

Leadership

• Translate strategic vision into actionable technical roadmaps and engineering priorities.
• Set measurable objectives and performance metrics (e.g., availability, latency, release velocity) to track progress and drive accountability.
• Cultivate an inclusive, psychologically safe engineering culture that encourages experimentation, feedback, and continuous learning.
• Drive talent retention through strong engagement, transparent communication, and meaningful growth opportunities.
• Demonstrate thought leadership — influencing peers and senior stakeholders through technical insight and data-driven decision-making.

These primary responsibilities are not intended to be an exhaustive list of tasks associated with the job.

Why Us?

• An excellent workplace culture
• Competitive salary
• Company performance-related bonus
• Medical insurance
• Flexible working hours
• Educational assistance
• In-house soft skills training

Who We Are

We are a values-driven organization that encourages our employees to bring their authentic selves to work every day and empowers everyone to make a tangible impact on our products, clients, and culture. We offer a dynamic environment with driven, fun, and flexible individuals who thrive on challenge and responsibility. This is an opportunity to contribute to our culture and join a company that’s on the move.

We live the Poppulo values each day, as they are key to everything we do.

• Bring Your Best Self

We show up authentically, are self-aware and always strive to be better.

• See it. Own it. Solve it.

We proactively innovate and solve for our customers and each other. We set an example with high standards for our work. We foster a culture of learning, acknowledging our successes and our failures.

• Together We’re Better

We value and celebrate our diversity. We learn from others, respecting their expertise, and focus on building trust. That's what makes us a team.

Named a Great Place to Work in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, we are a fast-growing global technology company, with offices in Ireland, the US, and the UK.

Poppulo is an equal opportunity employer.

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