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PolyAI Logo PolyAI · IT - Software Development

Engineering Manager - Runtime Team

United Kingdom, London · Job Posted February 01, 2026
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Job Description

PolyAI automates customer service through lifelike voice assistants. We’re looking for a talented Engineering Manager to join our Runtime Engineering team. Our Runtime team own the global infrastructure that powers real-time voice interactions. In this role, you will focus on leading and developing a high-performing engineering team while staying close to the technical challenges at the core of our agentic process: streaming audio, transcribing speech, using LLMs and acting on their output, and synthesising natural voice. You will guide the team as they design and optimise systems across the media stack to deliver low-latency, secure, and reliable conversations. Your leadership will directly shape the user experience of every call, driving down response times, improving comprehension, and ensuring we meet strict SLAs for performance and security.

Job Responsibility

  • Lead, develop, and mentor a cross-functional team of 3 to 5 engineers, focusing on people management, career growth, and building a strong team culture
  • Run team operations end to end, including sprint planning, review cycles, and performance management, ensuring clear goals, predictable delivery, and accountability
  • Drive hiring efforts to grow the team, partnering with Talent and contributing to a high-quality interview process
  • Partner closely with Product to translate business goals into an actionable roadmap and measurable outcomes for internal tooling, observability, and scalability
  • Oversee the software architecture of our multitenant conversational AI platform, ensuring robustness, scalability, and reliability, particularly in externally facing developer APIs
  • Champion and enforce strong engineering standards and best practices across the team
  • Support technical decision-making, guiding engineers through design choices, trade-offs, and architectural challenges while maintaining a strong understanding of the systems in your domain

Requirements

  • 3 or more years of experience working in a SaaS company
  • At least 5 years of professional experience as a Software Engineer and a strong technical foundation
  • Proven experience managing a team or having direct reports, including sprint leadership, performance reviews, technical mentorship, project planning, and delivery
  • Demonstrated ability to build and execute a roadmap for an engineering team, collaborating closely with cross-functional partners
  • Experience coaching engineers through technical challenges and architectural decisions
  • Significant expertise in Python is a must
  • Experience with GoLang is preferable but not essential
  • Experience with React is a plus
  • Experience with internal tooling, observability, and scaling distributed systems
  • Experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, GCP, or Azure)

Nice to have

  • Experience with GoLang
  • Experience with React

What we offer

  • Participation in the company’s employee share options plan
  • Tenure-Based PTO: 25 holidays when you join, gaining an additional 1 day after 2 years of service, then 1 day each year until capped at 32 holidays
  • Flexible working from home policy
  • Work from outside of the UK for up to 6 months each year
  • TELUS Health EAP 24/7 - confidential, judgment-free support for any work, health, or life challenge
  • Enhanced parental leave
  • Bike2Work scheme
  • Annual learning and development allowance
  • One-off WFH allowance when you join
  • Company-funded fertility and family-forming programmes
  • Menopause care programme with Maven
  • Private healthcare and dental cover, discounts on gym members and relaxation apps, and access to a range of mental health programs
  • Sabbatical Program: 5-week paid sabbatical available after 5 years of employment
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