Senior Engineering Manager

Senior Engineering Manager
Pecs, Hungary
We rescue over 35 million books a year from landfill and get them back into the hands of readers. Now we need a senior engineering leader to help our D2C domain — the growth engine of the business — scale to match.
About World of Books
We're the UK's largest second-hand book retailer and a certified B Corp, at the heart of the circular economy. With 60+ engineers based in Hungary and product and leadership teams across the UK and US, we build technology that scales globally while doing good for the planet.
The Opportunity
Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) is our most customer-facing and commercially critical engineering domain. It covers WOB.com, our iOS and Android apps, and the platforms behind catalogue, inventory, pricing and orders.
As we scale, we're creating a new Senior Engineering Manager role to strengthen technical leadership across two cross-functional squads — Buyers (frontend, CRO, customer experience) and Mercuron (backend middleware, Shopify integration, data sync). You'll report to the VP of Engineering and sit on the Product & Engineering leadership team, with real influence over the future of our customer-facing technology.
Level EM6
Location Pécs, Hungary (remote-friendly, occasional team meet-ups)
Reports to VP of Engineering
Team Two squads, ~6–10 engineers each: Full-Stack, Backend, Mobile, QA

What You'll Own
• Set and execute the 6–12 month engineering strategy for D2C, aligned with our commercial growth targets.
• Lead two cross-functional squads, working closely with Staff Engineers and Tech Leads on day-to-day delivery.
• Hold the domain accountable for engineering quality — observability, reliability, test coverage, incident response.
• Oversee the Shopify ecosystem, Mercuron middleware, Algolia search, mobile app delivery and key supplier integrations.
• Drive our step-change towards AI-first engineering practices.
• Play an active role in senior hiring, ensuring every hire raises the bar.
What We're Looking For
• 5+ years as an Engineering Manager, leading multiple teams in a fast-paced product environment.
• Experience building and scaling consumer-facing digital products (eCommerce, web/mobile or B2C SaaS).
• Comfortable operating with high autonomy across 6–12 month horizons, and influencing product, tech and commercial teams.
• Experience with eCommerce platforms (Shopify or equivalent) and business-critical catalogue, inventory or order systems.
• Hands-on experience embedding AI tooling into engineering workflows.
• Strong people leadership — coaching engineers and technical leads, and managing performance.
What You'll Get
• A senior seat at the table, reporting to the VP of Engineering with real influence on D2C direction.
• Competitive compensation with participation in our annual management bonus scheme.
• Remote-friendly working, HQ in Pécs, with occasional team meet-ups.
• Flexible hours, 2 extra holiday days, a Health Fund, and sick leave topped up to 100%.
A mission you can be proud of — every book sold keeps something out of landfill.
How We Hire
A structured, respectful process — no unpaid take-home work. Screening call with our VP of Engineering, a leadership & strategy deep-dive, and a case study panel with Product, Engineering and People.
We're open to both internal candidates from within WOB and external applicants from the market. We believe in a fair process regardless of starting point.
Read more, waste less. Apply today.