Manager, Software Development

Get to know The Pokémon Company International

The Pokémon Company International, a subsidiary of The Pokémon Company in Japan, manages the property outside of Asia and is responsible for brand management, licensing, marketing, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the animated TV series, home entertainment, and the official Pokémon website.

Pokémon was launched in Japan in 1996 and today is one of the most popular children's entertainment properties in the world.

Learn more online at corporate.pokemon.com and pokemon.com.

Get to know the role

• Job Title: Manager, Software Development
• Job Summary: Manager, Software Development will lead the engineering team behind the headless eCommerce platform powering PokemonCenter.com. This role is ideal for a technically adept leader with a strong understanding of modern cloud-native architectures, agile delivery, and platform engineering. You’ll be responsible for ensuring the platform is scalable, resilient, and delivers a world-class shopping experience to Pokémon fans globally.
• People Manager: Yes

What you’ll do

• Lead and mentor a cross-functional team of engineers working on a headless, event-driven eCommerce platform.
• Oversee the development and integration of APIs, microservices, and front-end components using a composable architecture.
• Collaborate with Product, UX, Marketing, and Operations to deliver seamless customer experiences.
• Champion agile delivery practices and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
• Ensure high availability, observability, and performance of the platform through proactive monitoring and incident response.
• Drive platform engineering initiatives and contribute to architectural decisions.
• Manage third-party integrations and vendor relationships (e.g., CMS, PIM, payment gateways).
• Drive development project prioritization and resource allocation. Lead sizing estimations and maintain delivery schedules.

What you’ll bring

• 8-10 years in software development, with 5+ years in a leadership or management role.
• Bachelor's degree in a related field or a demonstrated equivalent level of applicable experience.
• Proven experience with headless or composable commerce platforms (e.g., Elastic Path, commercetools).
• Strong understanding of agile methodologies and experience leading Cross Functional SAFe or Scrum Agile teams.
• Have experience scaling platforms across regions, including localisation, compliance, and performance tuning for international markets.
• Driving sprint planning, retrospectives, and backlog grooming.
• Experience with cloud platforms (preferably AWS; GCP or Azure also acceptable).
• Demonstrated ability to lead incident response and cross-team collaboration during outages.
• History of successfully delivering projects on schedule and budget.
• Hands-on experience implementing observability frameworks and Software Reliability Engineering practices.
• Experience managing vendor contracts, SLAs, and performance metrics.
• Project prioritisation, resource allocation, and delivery schedule management.

What We Value Most

• Strong stakeholder communication and influence skills,
• A strong grasp of cloud-native architecture, platform engineering, and application monitoring.
• Experience navigating incident response and collaborating across teams to resolve outages.
• A passion for building resilient, scalable systems that support high-traffic eCommerce environments.
• A collaborative mindset and a desire to mentor and grow engineering talent operating in a distributed / global development framework (North America, Europe, UK, India).

Technical Stack & Tools

• Frontend: React, Next.js
• Backend: ElasticPath, Java, Spring Framework (not Spring Boot), GraphQL, Python
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Messaging & Integration: ActiveMQ or general Enterprise Integration Patterns (EIP)
• Monitoring & Observability: DataDog, New Relic (highly valued)
• Cloud & DevOps: AWS (preferred), lambdas, Google Cloud Platform, or Azure; CI/CD pipelines, Mulesoft
• Other: Experience with event-driven systems and platform engineering
• Bonus: Familiarity with Python (used for scripting)

Base Salary Range:

For this role, new hires generally start between £83,500.00 - £99,000.00 per year. The full range is £83,500.00 - £125,000.00 per year. This range is applicable for the labor market where the role is intended to be hired. The final base salary is directly related to the candidate’s qualifications and professional experience uniquely.

How you’ll be successful

• Passion for Pokémon: Develops an understanding of the Pokémon brand, the impact it has on our people, culture, business, fans, and communities, and applying that knowledge and passion to everything you do.
• Challenging the Expected: Approaches challenges with curiosity and creativity, embracing the possibility of failure as an opportunity to learn something new, develop innovative ideas, solve complex problems and identify unique opportunities.
• Integrity and Respect: Demonstrates integrity and respect by leading with empathy, listening to others, seeking out different perspectives, and taking personal responsibility for decisions, actions, and results.
• Dedicated to Quality: Takes ownership to maintain and promote high standards, looks for new ways to learn and improve, and embraces a growth mindset to seek and apply feedback from others in an effort to continuously improve.
• Building Relationships: Develops and strengthens relationships, adopting a “team first” mentality and working collaboratively to solve problems and meet shared goals.
• Delighting Customers: Listens and understands the interests and needs of our customers and stakeholders, making them feel heard and important, and embracing these learnings to continue delivering a unique Pokémon experience.

What to expect

• An innovative culture driven by impact, delivering meaningful outcomes.
• Company events that celebrate the spirit of Pokémon.
• Competitive cash-based compensation programs.
• 100% employer-paid healthcare premiums for you.
• Generous paid family leave.
• Employer-paid life insurance.
• Employer-paid long and short-term income protection insurance.
• US Employees: 401k Employer Matching.
• UK/IRE/MX Employees: Pension Employer Contributions.
• Fitness reimbursement.
• Commuter benefit.
• LinkedIn learning.
• Comprehensive relocation package for certain roles.
• Hybrid work environment.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this role. They are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required. Employees may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities from time to time, as needed. For roles in the United Kingdom, candidates will need the right to work. In some cases, and for some roles, the Company may be able to arrange a visa. For roles in Ireland, this role requires candidates to have the right to live and work in the Republic of Ireland. However, we welcome applications from all nationalities and may consider supporting an employment permit application, in appropriate and suitable cases.

The Pokémon Company International is committed to the inclusion of all qualified applicants for consideration in our job application process. If you require reasonable accommodation to complete a job application, pre-employment testing, or a job interview, or to otherwise participate in the hiring process, please contact the Talent Acquisition team at accommodationrequest_ta@pokemon.com.