Senior Engineering Manager (Berlin, Germany)

Senior Engineering Manager

Company Overview

JustPlay is redefining rewarded gaming with a self-sustaining ecosystem designed to ensure fairness and endless rewards. Unlike traditional models relying on external budgets, JustPlay fully integrates game development, monetization, and reward distribution, offering players consistent incentives, deeper engagement, and the option to give back through matched donations.

With millions of players and unmatched retention rates, JustPlay sets the new standard for sustainable, fair, and rewarding gaming experiences—where the fun lasts, and the rewards never run dry. … Show more

Job Summary

We’re looking for an experienced engineering leader to help scale our engineering organization and strengthen our technical foundation. As a Senior Engineering Manager you’ll report directly to the CPTO and drive technical execution, develop high-performing teams, and ensure our systems stay scalable, reliable, and secure.You’ll work in an environment that values focus, pragmatism, and continuous improvement. You’ll face challenges with existing systems, and your job will be to prioritize what matters most while delivering impactful results. Initially, you’ll manage individual contributors, not managers, as we define the right long-term structure.You’ll collaborate closely with Product, Design, Data, and Commercial Teams (UA & AdMon) teams to align engineering work with company priorities while maintaining a healthy, transparent team culture.We also expect you to champion efficiency through AI tooling, encouraging and guiding the use of AI in analytics, coding, planning, and QA execution to help our engineers and teams move faster and smarter engineering work with company priorities, while maintaining a healthy and sustainable team culture.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and grow multiple engineering teams, including:
• Rewarding Systems: Core reward logic driving user engagement.
• Fraud: Scoring systems to identify and block bad actors.
• Customer Experience: CRM and customer support integrations.
• Cashout: Systems enabling users to claim rewards seamlessly.
• Platform/DevEx: Developer experience, infrastructure, observability, and deployment tooling.
• Mentor senior engineers and emerging leaders, providing clear growth paths and feedback.
• Own hiring and team structure decisions in partnership with our Talent team.
• Promote a culture of ownership, inclusion, and technical excellence.
• Define the technical direction for your teams while contributing to a broader engineering strategy.
• Ensure timely and high-quality delivery of cross-domain projects.
• Oversee system scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Identify and manage technical debt, balancing it against feature delivery.
• Understand service costs and drive technical efficiency.
• Introduce and expand AI-powered tools that improve developer productivity and quality.
• Partner with Product and Design to align roadmaps with company goals.
• Improve how teams plan, estimate, and execute work.
• Define and measure KPIs for team health, delivery speed, and quality.
• Help evolve engineering org structure, processes, and rituals.
• Work with leadership to continuously improve how engineering supports company growth.
• Leverage AI-based insights for planning, analytics, and quality assurance to enhance team efficiency.

Requirements / Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 3 years in a leadership role.
• Proven track record leading multiple engineering teams in a product-led company.
• Strong technical background in backend systems, APIs and cloud infrastructure
• Experience scaling teams and building high-performance engineering cultures.
• Experience leading transformational initiatives and driving measurable improvements.
• History of owning OKRs and contributing to company-level objectives.
• Proven experience establishing, measuring, and improving DORA4 metrics.
• Proficiency in at least one JVM language, Kotlin preferred.
• Strong architecture and system design skills across distributed systems.
• Experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and modern infrastructure practices (IaC, CI/CD, observability, reliability engineering).
• Deep understanding of platform and infrastructure challenges in high-scale environments.
• Proven experience implementing or leveraging AI tools to enhance engineering efficiency (analytics, coding, planning, QA).
• Strong background in architecture design and technical decision-making.
• Skilled in leading through influence and aligning multiple teams around shared goals.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate across departments.
• Strong problem-solving, prioritization, and decision-making abilities.
• Demonstrated ability to lead teams through change, growth, and modernization.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in gaming, ad tech, or other performance-based products.
• Familiarity with event-driven systems, data pipelines, and fraud detection architectures.
• Track record of improving developer experience through tooling and automation.

Employment Type

Full Time

Salary & Benefits

Work-Life Balance and Flexibility: Flexible working hours and options for digital nomads, occasional office visitors, or regular office-goersEmployee Stock Options: Opportunity to join our Virtual Share Option Program (VSOP) and share in the success of an already profitable companyMental Health Support: Free personal coaching through our partner nilo.health to support our team members to live fulfilled lives at home and at workTraining & Development: A competitive personal development budget of up to 2000€/year for training, conferences, workshops, etc., and free language courses with ChatterbugGermany-Based Benefits: 25 vacation days, free Gympass gold subscription, free monthly Deutschland-Ticket, and a monthly €50 tax-free internet contributionState-of-the-Art Equipment: Doesn’t matter if you are a MacBook or Windows user; we will provide you with the technical gear you need to succeedA Relocation Package: Includes visa support for those who need itBerlin Office Perks: Ergonomic setup, free daily lunch, and a dog-friendly environment.Engaging and Diverse Work Environment: Join a diverse team, with over 30 nationalities working from 20 different locations *Benefits may vary depending on location and contract type. Do not hesitate to ask us about more details on our benefits offer.