THE ROLE & THE TEAM
Partner Tech is one of the core organisations within Zalando. We are responsible for sourcing fashion products and consumer goods into Zalando. Through our platform and tools, we provide a wide range of products to customers all over Europe.
The organization is composed of more than 300 talented individuals who are dedicated to creating the best platform and inspiring opportunities for multi-million euro fashion brands and physical retail stores, connecting them with consumers across multiple European markets.
As an Engineering Manager for Customer Experience Model (CXM) within Partner Steering, you will lead a talented team of software engineers dedicated to evaluating partner performance, controlling their visibility on Zalando eCommerce shop, and implementing mechanisms to ensure adherence to Zalando standards like on-time delivery. This role is crucial in defining the technical strategy, overseeing execution, and fostering operational excellence for our CXM product domain.
Together with Partner Offer and Fulfilment Leadership you will work on the future strategy and vision for our partner platform.
INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN
At Zalando, our vision is to be the leading pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce - one that is inclusive by design. We only assess candidates based on qualifications, merit, and business needs. We welcome applications from people of all gender identities, sexual orientations, personal expressions, racial identities, ethnicities, religious beliefs, and disability statuses. We only want to know why you’re great for this role, so please avoid including your picture, age, and marital status in your CV as well.
We want to provide you with a great candidate experience. Please feel free to inform us of any accommodations you may need, so we can best support and assist you throughout the hiring process.
do.BETTER - our diversity & inclusion strategy: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/our-culture/diversity-and-inclusion
WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)
As Engineering Manager in Partner Steering, your impact spans technology, strategy, and team development:
Lead a high-impact team: Manage, coach, and grow a team of 6–8 engineers. Foster an inclusive, high-performance culture focused on ownership and learning.
Own technical architecture: Define and drive the CXM technical vision and roadmap. Collaborate with Principal Engineers to build scalable systems using JVM languages, microservices architecture, data engineering, QA automation, and AWS best practices.
Deliver CXM capabilities: Oversee feature delivery that drives partner evaluation, visibility control, and policy enforcement. Ensure adherence to standards while balancing speed and quality across the product lifecycle.
Drive operational excellence: Own system reliability and performance. Set and monitor SLOs/KPIs, lead incident response, and continuously improve cost efficiency, observability, and scalability.
Enable smart decisions & communication: Empower your team’s technical ownership and clearly communicate across technical and non-technical audiences to support strategic alignment.
Collaborate & innovate: Work closely with Product, Design, and Engineering peers. Influence product direction, champion experimentation, and create an environment that attracts top talent and fosters innovation.
WE’D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF YOU HAVE
Strong engineering & architectural expertise: Proven experience in system design, event-driven architecture, and microservices on Kubernetes/AWS. Proficient in OOP/functional programming and building resilient APIs.
Operational leadership: Experience running critical systems, with strong monitoring, SLOs, and incident management. You prioritize business value and operational reliability.
Track record of engineering leadership: Solid experience as an Engineering Manager or Tech Lead, with success building and retaining high-performing international teams.
Innovation mindset: You promote ownership and creativity, thrive in change, and drive continuous improvement and problem-solving.
Strategic stakeholder management: You align diverse interests, communicate effectively, and proactively manage collaboration and conflict resolution.
Resource planning & prioritization: You balance short- and long-term goals through data-driven prioritization, clear capacity planning, and effective delivery across product, tech, and business needs.
If you think you have what it takes, we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every single requirement. You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles.
OUR OFFER
Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer.
Employee shares program
40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners
2 paid volunteering days a year
Hybrid working model with up to 60% remote per week, actual practice is up to each team to best support their collaboration
Work from abroad for up to 30 working days a year
27 days of vacation a year to start for full-time employees
Relocation assistance available (subject to prior agreement)
Family services, including counseling and support
Health and wellbeing options (including Wellhub, formerly Gympass)
Mental health support and coaching available
Drive your development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review
