Senior Engineering Manager

KAYAK

. Lead cross-functional agile engineering teams focused on sustaining and operational quality .

Posted 9/16/2026full-timeKaunas • LithuaniaSenior💰 $190,000 - $235,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates strong leadership in managing cross-functional engineering teams, focusing on quality operations and agile methodologies. Possesses deep technical expertise in backend architecture, API design, and software development lifecycle management.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Agile MethodologiesBackend ArchitectureTeam ManagementQuality Process DesignSoftware Engineering

ATS Keywords

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Hard Skills

Distributed SystemsAPI DesignCI/CD PipelinesAutomated TestingObservability PracticesSoftware Development LifecyclePerformance ManagementTechnical Roadmap OwnershipIncident RemediationData-Driven Decision Making

Soft Skills

Excellent CommunicationStakeholder ManagementMentoringCollaborationProblem Solving

Tools & Technologies

GitHubJiraAI-Assisted Development Tools

Industry Keywords

B2B SaaSQuality AssuranceEngineering Best PracticesEnterprise MaintenanceContractual SLAs

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Distributed Systems

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Lead cross-functional agile engineering teams focused on sustaining and operational quality
Mentor team members through technical guidance, performance feedback, and career development support
Own the team’s technical roadmap and align priorities with engineering leadership and broader platform strategy
Champion backend architecture decisions through design reviews and collaboration with technical leaders
Set and enforce engineering best practices for coding, testing, code coverage, and deployment quality
Manage day-to-day team operations, remove blockers, balance the backlog, and maintain reliability and security standards
Collaborate with engineering managers and cross-functional stakeholders to resolve dependencies and support product teams
Ensure business-unit-wide quality standards, processes, and SLAs
Manage high-impact incident remediation and develop operational tools using AI-enabled technologies
Monitor team health and delivery metrics, identify risks, and adjust priorities
Champion agile practices and high-impact engineering culture
Recruit and onboard frontend and backend engineering talent
Help shape KAYAK for Business’s growing engineering hub and corporate travel technology platform

Requirements

What you’ll need

Proven track record of managing teams for 3+ years within B2B SaaS applications, focusing on improving quality operations, managing enterprise maintenance and system sustainability, and meeting contractual SLAs
Demonstrated experience with quality process design and building quality-first culture
Experience overseeing cross-functional teams including quality engineers, quality assurance specialists, frontend engineers, and backend engineers
10+ years of software engineering experience
At least 5 years in an engineering leadership or management role directly managing software engineers
Proven track record of leading productive teams and shipping high-quality software in a fast-paced environment
Equivalent experience, training, or transferable skills considered
Proven ownership and innovation in a data-driven, results-oriented environment
Ability to rapidly learn and master new business domains
Experience steering organizational transformation, maximizing gains from agile methodologies, and fostering process optimization and innovation
Strong technical fundamentals in distributed systems, API design, and backend service architecture
Ability to guide architectural decisions and participate meaningfully in design reviews
Experience owning the full people management lifecycle, including hiring, onboarding, performance management, career development, and promotions
Track record of coaching and developing engineers at multiple levels through structured feedback, regular 1:1s, and career conversations
Understanding of agile delivery methodologies and the software development lifecycle, including CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and observability practices
Comfortable driving process improvements within a sprint-based team
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
Ability to articulate a clear technical vision to technical and non-technical audiences
Ability to collaborate across product, design, and engineering functions
Hands-on experience with version control systems such as GitHub, issue tracking such as Jira, and logging or observability platforms
Openness to adopting AI-assisted development tools
Comfort working in a global engineering organization across multiple time zones and office locations
A degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
No specific certification is required
Ability to work from the Kaunas office at least 3 days per week

Benefits

Comp & perks

Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year
Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth
Company-paid subscription to HeadSpace
Company-wide week off a year
No meeting Fridays
Paid parental leave
Generous paid vacation + time off for your birthday
Paid volunteer time
Development Dollars
Leadership development
Access to thousands of on-demand e-learnings
Travel Discounts
Employee Resource Groups
Competitive retirement and health plans
Free lunch 2 days per week
Fun quarterly events such as boat trips, arcades, ski trips, Thursday happy hours, and more
Commission-based compensation
Flexible spending account
Life insurance
Paid time off, including PTO, paid sick leave, medical leave, bereavement leave, floating holidays and paid holidays
Parental leave and benefits
Annual bonus
Recurring RSU grants