Engineering Team Leader – Core team/Chuck Norris

Who are We

The Mobile Fulfilment Systems department at Ocado is at the forefront of developing cutting-edge automation solutions for both in-store and warehouse online order fulfilment. We leverage distributed backend systems, intuitive mobile applications, and advanced autonomous mobile robots to enable fast, scalable, and cost-effective order collection.

Our scope spans mobile apps, backend microservices, workflow orchestration, integration APIs, and cloud-native components. All these drive the success of our flagship Chuck Autonomous Mobile Robot. The Core team owns 10+ microservices, holding the logic that determines whether autonomous mobile fulfillment happens smoothly or breaks down under pressure. It powers job assignments, reassignments, healing strategies, product movement, and operational flow. This system must work flawlessly – across thousands of robots and dozens of customers.

The team also designs and develops the fulfillment logic inside Porter, Ocado’s strategic new product that blends human and robot workflows. Its reliability is fundamental to future operational success and customer satisfaction.

The Engineering Manager must combine deep technical insight, business-driven prioritization, and human leadership to deliver outcomes under high complexity and scale. They must ensure resilient architecture, adaptive workflow systems, and responsive support in a 24/7 environment.

What You’ll Be Doing

People Management:

• Grow and support a team of backend engineers and workflow system experts.
• Drive continuous improvement and deep ownership culture.
• Tailor mentoring and feedback to individual strengths and ambitions.

Technical Leadership:

• Lead architectural strategy for distributed workflow systems and fulfillment orchestration.
• Dive deep into job lifecycle, healing, and inventory logic.
• Make smart technical trade-offs and accelerate decision-making under ambiguity.

Business Awareness:

• Understand fulfillment KPIs, operational workflows, and cost levers.
• Collaborate closely with stakeholders to deliver value-focused improvements.
• Evaluate and explain architectural decisions in business terms.

Outcome Orientation:

• Ensure correctness, speed, and scalability of critical job execution flows.
• Prioritize work that unlocks new workflows or improves existing ones for operations.
• Navigate across ambiguity and system constraints to push forward delivery.

Mindset & Leadership:

• Be the calm, competent force during high-stakes moments.
• Show ownership, urgency, and clarity at all times.
• Inspire a strong sense of mission and accountability in the team.

What Are We Looking For

Essential:

• Strong technical leadership in distributed backend systems, algorithms, and system orchestration.
• Demonstrated ability to make architectural decisions that optimize for performance and scale.
• Experience guiding a team through complexity with urgency, pragmatism, and long-term focus.
• Business-minded engineering – able to propose multiple viable options based on cost, risk, and benefit.

Nice to have:

• Background in robotics, logistics, or real-time systems.
• Familiarity with system reliability, recovery patterns, and optimization of large-scale processes.
• Experience translating abstract requirements into maintainable, scalable software solutions.

Our Social Benefit Package Includes

The feeling of being part of a team that makes a difference in the world of automation and smart technology is great but here’s also a list of our social benefits.

• Hybrid office attendance policy that sees you onsite 40% of your time
• 30 days of “Work from anywhere” program
• 30 days of annual leave
• Share plan program
• 300 BGN additional monthly allowance
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave policy
• Medical plan including health & dental coverage
• Life and disability insurance
• Employee assistance program

We also have regular divisional socials, sports clubs not to mention the Ocado Technology Academy for a packed schedule of courses, conferences and events. If you think you have what it takes to make a difference, please submit your application below.