Alternatively, Grant Thornton

At Grant Thornton we do things differently - looking to the future, driving ambitious growth and pioneering positive change in our industry. Providing audit, tax and advisory services, we empower clients through strategic insight, curiosity, and genuine partnership. And we empower our people with real opportunity, an inclusive culture and work life balance. A true alternative.

With over 5,000 people in the UK, and a presence in 150 global markets, we're on an ambitious journey, from great to exceptional, and we need the best people to help us achieve our potential. And with that comes the opportunity to help redefine what our industry looks like, and what you want from your career.

Job Description:

MORE THAN YOU EXPECTED

Grant Thornton UK LLP is part of a global network of independent audit, tax and advisory firms, made up of some 58,000 people in over 135 countries. We're a team of independent thinkers who put quality, inclusion and integrity first. All around the world we bring a different experience to our clients. A better experience. One that delivers the expertise they need in a way that goes beyond. Personal, proactive, and agile. That's Grant Thornton.

NEW GROUND WON'T BREAK ITSELF.

Every day our teams help people in businesses and communities to do what is right and achieve their goals.

As a Senior Engineering Manager in our engineering function at GT, you will hold two connected responsibilities. Your priority is people management: line-managing a group of engineers and owning their growth, wellbeing and performance. Alongside that, you will own capacity and resource allocation for one or more pods, ensuring the right engineers, skills and balance of experience are in place to support delivery.

We work in a matrix, so the people you line-manage and the people in the pods you support will not always be the same. You will support and develop your own reports wherever they are deployed, and you will work with one or more pods that may include engineers who are line-managed by other managers. Getting the best from both, and working closely with your fellow managers to do it, is central to the role.

Technical direction sits with the Tech Lead in each pod and priorities with its Product Manager, so this is a people-and-capacity leadership role, not a hands-on coding or delivery-accountable one.

You will also help bring three former teams into one engineering function, working in an AI-native way with modern tooling, at a point when how we work is genuinely still taking shape and there is real room to influence it.

We're happy to talk flexible working and consider reduced hours and job shares, we'll support you to balance your work and life.

A look into the role

As a Senior Engineering Manager at GT, you will:

• Line-manage and develop a group of engineers, through regular one to ones, honest feedback and real career conversations. This is your primary focus, and your reports may be deployed across more than one delivery pod
• Own the growth, wellbeing and performance of the people you manage, drawing on input from the pods and leads they work with day to day
• Build trust and psychological safety with your people, so they feel able to ask questions, admit what they do not know, and do their best work
• Lead hiring, onboarding and retention for the people you manage
• Own capacity and resource allocation for one or more pods, making sure the right engineers, skills and balance of experience are available to support what the pod is being asked to deliver. This includes being clear when capacity, skills or dependencies mean something cannot land as planned
• Support everyone in the pods you lead to do their best work regardless of who manages them, and feed back to their managers on how they are getting on
• Partner with the Product Manager in each pod on what it takes on and in what order. Priority is owned by the Product Manager, but capacity, resource allocation and skills fit are your call
• Own capacity, resourcing and skills escalation for the pods you support, up to the Head of Engineering, ensuring risks are visible early and trade-offs are clear
• Support good agile ways of working alongside the Agile practitioner in each pod, without turning delivery into process for its own sake
• Work in genuine partnership with the Tech Leads and Product Managers in your pods, and with your fellow managers, succeeding through them rather than around them
• Help your pods make the most of AI-native delivery, ensuring they have the capacity and discipline to review AI-assisted work properly, because review quality is the real constraint, not build speed

Knowing you're right for us

Joining us as a Senior Engineering Manager, the minimum criteria you'll need is proven experience line-managing and developing engineers, and managing capacity and resource allocation in agile teams. It would be great if you had some of the following skills, but don't worry if you don't tick every box, we'll help you develop along the way.

• People-first leadership, with real strength in coaching, honest feedback, wellbeing and inclusive team-building
• Comfort working in a matrix, developing people who are deployed across different teams and leading one or more delivery pods whose members you do not all line-manage
• A track record of capacity planning, resource allocation, skills mapping, flow and unblocking in a sustainable delivery environment
• Confidence leading in a fast-moving, AI-native environment where the ways of working are still forming
• Strong partnership skills, succeeding through your Tech Lead and Product Manager rather than around them
• A background in software engineering, enough to earn engineers' trust and understand their world, without needing to do their job
• Experience in a regulated or professional-services environment
• Familiarity with modern DevOps and agentic development, for example Azure DevOps and Claude Code

Knowing we're right for you

Embracing uniqueness, the culture at Grant Thornton thrives on the contributions of all our people, we never settle for what is easy, we look beyond to deliver the right thing, for everyone. Building an inclusive culture, where we value difference and respect our colleagues helps our people to perform at the best of their ability and realise their potential.

Our open and accessible culture means you'll interact with leaders who are interested in you and everything you bring to our firm. The things that set you apart, we value them. That's why we give you the freedom to bring your whole self to work and pursue your passions inside and outside of work.

We're also committed to supporting you through different life stages, with a range of family friendly and wider leave policies. You can find full details of our reward, benefits and leave policies on our website: Reward and benefits.

Beyond the job

Life is more than work. The things you do, and the people you're with outside of work matter, that's why we're happy to look at flexible working options for all our roles, and we'll always do our best to keep your work and life in balance.

The impact you can make here will go far beyond your day job. From secondments, to fundraising for local charities, or investing in entrepreneurs in the developing world, you'll be giving back to society. It's that drive to do the right thing that runs through our every move, grounded in our firm's values - purposefully driven, actively curious and candid but kind.

We're looking for people who want to contribute, spark fresh ideas and go beyond expectations. People who want to be able to proudly do what's right, for the firm, our clients, our people and themselves. It's how it should be.

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