Engineering Manager - CS Tech

About the job

At Catawiki, every day brings the extraordinary! Whether it’s Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula 1 Car, a Woolly Mammoth’s Skeleton, Lady Gaga's Jumpsuit or Usain Bolt’s running shoe, we encounter exceptional objects every day.

We’re a one-of-a-kind marketplace for buying and selling special objects. Each week, more than 100,000 unique items are auctioned, all carefully curated by our passionate in-house experts.

Having sold over 25 million unique objects, our mission is to become the world’s most popular destination for special objects. As a growing, diverse and sustainable scale-up, we proudly live by three core values. If these values resonate with you, we’d love to explore how you can join us.

• Taking ownership and driving impact
• Being open to change and feedback
• Being passionate about our mission and our customers.

Your Mission

Customer service is an area where Catawiki needs to do better. Feedback in app and Trustpilot reviews highlights frustration with the support experience. As Engineering Manager for CS Tech, you'll lead a cross-functional team with a clear mission: help buyers and sellers get the responses they need while reducing the cost of handling customer contacts. AI will be central to how you achieve both.
You'll build an empowered engineering team and shape the technical foundations for better, more cost-effective customer support. You won't be coding full-time, but you'll own technical direction, guide architectural decisions, and help the team deliver faster and more safely. Alongside this, you'll coach Engineers, support their development, and grow future leaders.

What You'll Do

You'll help shape Catawiki's post-order journey by leading the team and the technical decisions behind a more reliable shipping experience. Your work will connect customer needs, engineering quality, and the team's growth.

• Lead and grow the team: Build a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Set technical direction: Drive system ownership for the Fulfilment domain, ensuring scalable, maintainable architecture that supports long-term product ambitions.
• Improve the CS experience: Reduce post-order friction and increase reliability for buyers and sellers.
• Shape the roadmap together: Partner with Product and UX to translate business priorities into technical strategy and deliver customer-centric solutions.
• Enable better delivery: Establish engineering standards, improve delivery processes, and introduce measurable quality metrics to help the team deliver faster and with higher quality.
• Balance today and tomorrow: Address immediate delivery needs alongside strategic platform improvements in an evolving scale-up environment.

What You'll Bring

You measure what matters, stay close to the details when needed, and know when to guide versus when to step in. You balance technical leadership with people leadership and care about the team, the systems, and the outcomes they own.

• Software engineering foundation: You bring 5–10 years of software engineering experience.
• People leadership: You have proven experience (3+ years) coaching and developing Engineers, managing performance, and supporting career progression.
• Cross-functional collaboration: You've worked in product teams, partnering effectively with Product, UX, and business stakeholders.
• Technical judgement: You're confident guiding architectural trade-offs and decisions about complex systems.
• End-to-end ownership: You tackle problems through to resolution and move solutions forward through ambiguity.
• Clear communication: You manage stakeholders effectively and influence across teams and seniority levels.
• Relevant domain experience (nice to have): Experience in marketplaces, e-commerce, or scale-ups.

If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't perfectly match every requirement, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be exactly who we're looking for.

How We Work

You'll be part of our growing Engineering and Product Hub in Portugal, working across locations and disciplines to improve customer service for buyers and sellers.

• You'll work with engineering teams across Amsterdam and Lisbon as part of our growing engineering and product hub in Portugal.
• You'll collaborate with stakeholders across product, design, data, and commercial teams.
• You'll balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution in an environment that values clarity, ownership, and measurable impact.

Where You’ll Be

This is a Hybrid role based in Lisbon. You will work from our Lisbon Hub a minimum of 2 days per week.
At this time, we are only considering candidates who are already based in the Portugal. As a result, visa sponsorship and relocation support are not available for this position.

In Return

You'll be part of an enthusiastic, highly motivated team of 800+ Catawikians.

• A competitive Annual Gross Base Salary depending on your level, competencies, and overall experience.
• Meal Allowance Card stipend per working day, in addition to salary.
• Health Insurance from day 1 (including dental coverage), with access to multiple hospitals and clinics and a vast wellness network.
• A Work From Home Allowance to help with your monthly household bills.
• Commuting between your home and our office is covered by Catawiki.
• Amazing Office right in the centre of Lisbon.

Why You'll Love Working with Us

• Create a visible impact by working at scale in a global organisation serving millions of customers across 80+ categories. In our flat structure, every role has a broad scope and directly impacts both our customers and the business.
• Learn and grow through our Learning & Development initiatives, including clear development plans and mentorship programmes to support your career progression.
• A culture of connection defines us. We’re a passionate, diverse team of 800+ Catawikians representing 60+ nationalities. We foster an inclusive and queer-friendly environment where everyone is encouraged to bring their full self to work.
• Celebrate life’s moments with us. You’ll receive a €100 Catavoucher when you join, a €50 Catavoucher on your birthday, and an extra day off each year to “Pursue Your Passion”. We also offer additional leave for key work anniversaries and important life events. Benefits may vary by location.

Our Offices and Way of Working

Our vibrant offices in Amsterdam and Lisbon are designed to inspire collaboration. Most Catawikians operate in a hybrid setup, combining office-based and remote work, with a minimum of two days per week in the office, unless a role is explicitly stated as fully remote or fully office-based.

Interested?

Apply with an English CV and Cover Letter. By applying, you agree to Catawiki’s Applicant Privacy Policy. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support the review of your application. AI may help us assess how your experience matches the requirements of the role, but hiring decisions are always made by our recruitment team