Search Engineering Manager

About the Role:

Articore runs Redbubble, TeePublic, Dashery, and Frankly Wearing — some of the largest creator marketplaces in the world, with Redbubble's catalog alone exceeding 40 billion SKUs. As Engineering Manager for the Search & Content team, you'll lead a team of engineers working on a domain within our tech stack. You’ll report to the manager of a bigger domain team and partner with the engineering leadership, product, and stakeholders to win on search discovery and personalisation.

The Search & Content team owns search, discovery, and content quality across Redbubble and TeePublic — driving relevance, ranking, and personalisation across a catalog of 40 billion+ SKUs. With organic traffic and SEO central to how the company grows, this team is one of the highest-leverage groups in engineering: improvements here move the needle on acquisition, conversion, and the long-term defensibility of our content position.

As Engineering Manager for the team, you will be overseeing a team of 5-7 engineers and data scientists across 3 timezones — Australia, the US, and a growing group of engineers in India —and will be working closely with the dedicated product manager and strong tech lead who owns technical direction for the domain. You'll work closely with AU and US engineering leadership to keep delivery moving across time zones, and play an active role in shaping the culture, ways of working, and day-to-day effectiveness of the team.

Core Responsibilities:

Leading an engineering function, you will make an impact across three main areas of Delivery,

People, and Technology.

Delivery

• Lead delivery for the team: planning, work breakdown, rituals, unblocking, and managing dependencies to land product and technical objectives
• Partner with engineering leadership and counterparts in other teams to align work, distribute workstreams effectively, and enable knowledge transfer between teams
• Partner with the product manager to translate OKRs and business priorities into clear, achievable team objectives
• Evolve team processes and reporting to make delivery reliable and predictable as the team scales
• Coordinate with adjacent teams to align roadmaps and land cross-team initiatives
• Build a culture of accountability and continuous improvement — clear expectations, visible progress, and steady gains in delivery outcomes

People

• Own performance, development, and feedback for the engineers on your team — including reviews, growth plans, and career conversations
• Coach engineers on technical practice, engineering craft, and the behaviours that make teams effective
• Establish the practices that make a three-region team effective
• Level up a team into a new domain by building their depth in the Search domain
• Grow our India engineering presence on the team
• Provide regular, actionable feedback tied to OKRs and individual growth goals
• Calibrate with engineering leadership and counterparts in other teams to ensure consistent standards, expectations, and growth opportunities
• Build and sustain a healthy team dynamic — clear expectations, psychological safety, and strong engagement inside and outside the team

Technology

• Steward your domain's architecture and technical direction, ensuring solutions meet business objectives and align with our Engineering Principles, Tech Radar, and architecture standards
• Champion responsible operational ownership of your team's systems — fit-for-purpose support, observability, and reliability for the demands each system faces
• Continuously assess team capabilities against the technical demands of the roadmap, and close gaps through hiring, training, or rotation

• 7+ years of experience managing engineering teams, ideally in search, discovery, or a closely related domain
• 5+ years of hands-on experience with search infrastructure and information retrieval systems (e.g. OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, Solr, or vector/AI search) Familiarity with SEO engineering, content quality systems, or personalisation and recommendations at scale
• Track record of leading engineering teams to deliver complex software, including modern agile practices, dependency management, and cross-team coordination
• Strong understanding of modern software development practices and architectural patterns across one or more of cloud, web, native mobile, or data
• Experience using AI tooling in your day-to-day workflow, and curiosity about applying it more deeply

Key Attributes for Success:

• Proven people leadership: mentoring, feedback, goal-setting, performance management, and supporting career growth
• Demonstrated effectiveness operating in a global company, with the communication, discipline, and async judgment required to keep work moving across time zones
• Able to translate technical complexity for non-technical stakeholders and align decision-makers around clear outcomes, including timelines, scope, and risks
• Comfortable balancing system health against delivery pressure, and prioritising your own time across parallel, often-ambiguous efforts
• Inclusive collaborator who engages stakeholders across disciplines, backgrounds, and seniority — and leads teams confidently through change

• Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
• Retirement Plan (401k, IRA)
• Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)
• Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
• Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)
• Short Term & Long Term Disability
• Training & Development
• Work From Home
• Wellness Resources
• Stock Option Plan