Engineering Manager - First Connect

Your question is, what's the connection between First Connect and Hippo Insurance?Let’s discuss it during our call! To give you a glimpse: First Connect has been a product developed and supported by Hippo Insurance for years, and it’s now continuing its journey in the startup world. 
First Connect (FC) is a software platform for insurance agents to enable them to work efficiently and bring the industry into the 21st century.  First Connect’s flagship offering is a powerful comparative rater where FC users – the insurance agents – can enter data once and generate multiple insurance quotes to offer their customers. Future work on this tool will dramatically change the market by leveraging integrations with external data sources to make the agent’s experience smoother. We plan to integrate an ever-growing number of insurance companies through APIs to offer their insurance products.  In this role, you will own this area, making FC’s rater the best in class in terms of user experience, speed, accuracy, and costs. You will rebuild it to design the flows and also own the underlying integrations while incorporating it into our new SaaS offering. Interview our users to understand their needs, then work closely with our engineering, design, and business teams, as well as the carriers themselves, to prioritize, build, and monitor this product suite. 
So if you're an Engineering Manager looking to shake things up and have a good time while you're at it, you’ve come to the right place. 🚀

What will you do:

• Lead, mentor, and support a distributed team of backend engineers working on carrier integrations.
• Oversee end-to-end development of API integrations with insurance carriers – from planning and design to deployment and maintenance.
• Serve as the team’s technical leader, conducting code and design reviews, and promoting best engineering practices.
• Build strong, trust-based collaboration across teams (Product, QA, other engineering units) and with external stakeholders (carrier tech teams).
• Tackle complex technical challenges, especially around integrating with unreliable or poorly documented external APIs.
• Ensure system reliability, scalability, and maintainability while balancing urgent business goals.
• Drive continuous improvement, proactively resolving blockers and managing technical debt.
• Collaborate directly with carrier tech contacts to debug issues and fine-tune integration flows.
• Contribute to architectural decisions, especially as the team scales and the project evolves.
• Help shape the roadmap and prioritize engineering efforts to deliver real value to agents and carriers.
• Foster a culture of accountability, psychological safety, and shared success within the team.
• Support future team growth – including potentially building and leading a second engineering team focused on a new carrier portal.

We might be a match if you…

• Have hands-on experience in software development, particularly backend (e.g., Node.js, TypeScript).
• Bring a strong track record of engineering team leadership and people management.
• Communicate clearly, manage escalations with confidence, and keep projects on track.
• Are passionate about building user-focused, customer-centric solutions.
• Know how to build high-performing teams, nurture talent, and influence cross-functional stakeholders.
• Thrive in dynamic, fast-paced environments with shifting priorities.
• Have solid technical expertise in areas like JavaScript/Node.js, React, or Python.
• Understand core CS concepts like algorithms, data structures, and system design.
• Have experience working with modern databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, BigQuery).
• Feel comfortable navigating ambiguity and taking ownership from zero to one.

Recruitment process:

• Send us your CV – it's the best way for us to get to know you.
• Meet Katrina, one of our Recruiters.
• Meet Michał and Krzyś (Engineering Interview).
• Conversation with Wojtek (Manager interview).
• Interview with Yotam (Product Interview).
• Meet on the final stage with Marcin and Alicja.
• and... welcome aboard! 👋

What benefits are waiting for you?
Salary31.000 - 35.000 PLN + VAT on B2B or equivalent on the contract of employment
Basics 📝 Form of employment of your choosing🌎 Remote work & flexible working hours 🤒 Paid sick leave🏖️ Paid holidays
Health & Safety💊