About the role
At Superchat, we're rebuilding how businesses talk to their customers. The phone call, the contact form, the support ticket: all of it is being replaced by messaging and AI. We're building the platform that runs underneath. Founded in 2020, Superchat has become the platform of choice for 10,000+ businesses worldwide , from globally recognized brands like Allianz, Auto1, Enpal, Danone, and GASAG to the small businesses, dental practices, and one-person startups that need to look bigger than they are. Today, millions of messages flow through Superchat every single day . We started as a unified inbox: one place for every channel a customer might pick, WhatsApp, email, SMS, Instagram. Then ChatGPT happened, and the second chapter began: AI agents that respond across chat, email, and voice at the quality of the best human teams. We're 100 people , profitable , and have raised €18M in funding (last round 4.5 years ago, we've been growing on our own money since). Headquartered in Berlin. We're hiring an Engineering Manager to lead one or more squads. You'll partner directly with the CTO to develop engineers, ship reliable software, and shape how our team works as we scale. Who We Want Experienced engineering people manager. You bring 3–5+ years of people management experience in software engineering, ideally in B2B SaaS environments. Strong delivery leadership. You have a track record of leading squads of 5-10 engineers through full product and delivery cycles. Technically credible. You come from a strong technical background as a backend or full-stack engineer (former Senior Engineer or equivalent). You read code comfortably, engage on server-side architecture and trade-offs, and contribute meaningfully to technical discussions about the systems your squads own. Backend experience in Java/Kotlin is a plus, since our backend runs on Kotlin/Quarkus. Builder of strong engineers. Your former reports got promoted, took on broader scope, or grew into roles that better matched their strengths. Strong hiring instinct. You have experience hiring engineers and successfully closing high-quality candidates. Comfortable with difficult conversations. You are comfortable having clear, honest, and sometimes difficult conversations when needed. Clear communicator. You are fluent in written and spoken English. You communicate clearly across engineering, product, and leadership teams and create alignment through strong written and verbal communication. Who We Don’t Want Pure delivery manager. You treat engineering as a ticketing operation focused only on timelines and task tracking instead of product quality, technical health, and team growth. We need engineering leaders, not project coordinators. Engineer escaping into management. You moved into management mainly to stop coding rather than because you genuinely enjoy leading, coaching, and developing people. This role requires a real interest in people leadership, not retreating from technical work. Top-down architectur