Engineering Manager - Platform and IT & Compliance

At trawa, our culture is generally "office-first with flexibility", where most of us are in our beautiful Berlin office the majority of the week, with room to occasionally work from home when needed. The Tech team follows a more hybrid rhythm, spending minimum 3 days a week in the office.

What You'll Do

You'll drive the evolution of four key areas:

• Scalable, secure infrastructure on AWS that powers our mission-critical services with high availability
• Great developer experience through CI/CD pipelines, observability tooling, and internal platforms that help teams ship faster and with confidence
• IT operations and security, owning the tools, processes, and policies that keep trawa's systems and data safe
• End-to-end ownership of our compliance and audit processes, managing the implementation of frameworks like ISO 27001, GDPR, and NIS 2, while coordinating with internal stakeholders and leading external audits

Our tech stack

• AWS, Terraform, Docker, GitHub Actions
• Python, TypeScript
• Dash0, Sentry, Incident.io
• Primo, Vanta

Your First 90 Days

First 6 Weeks (Onboarding):

• Establish strong relationships with your direct reports, peers and stakeholders
• Understand the team’s current OKRs and how they impact the organisation
• Gain a comprehensive understanding of trawa's current tech stack, infrastructure, and security posture

By Month 3 (Ramp-Up):

• Define and share a clear vision and strategic roadmap for the Platform team that enhances developer experience and productivity
• Assess the current state of our IT operations and create a strategic roadmap to support trawa's growth
• Assume full ownership of our compliance programs and present a 6-12 month roadmap for maintaining and strengthening our security posture

What We're Looking For

• You have at least three years of experience in a technical leadership role with people management responsibilities, ideally in a fast-moving startup environment. You know how to lead across multiple teams, balance competing priorities, and create an environment where engineers do their best work.
• Hands-on background in one or more of the following fields: SRE, DevOps, Platform Engineering, or IT/Security Engineering
• You bring deep experience in cloud engineering on AWS, working with infrastructure as code, cloud‑native patterns, and containerised systems. You’ve built or led large‑scale distributed services, with a strong grasp of security, reliability, observability, and cost efficiency in modern cloud environments
• Practical experience with compliance frameworks such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2. You've either led or played a significant role in an audit or certification process
• Clear communicator who builds trust and fosters collaboration across teams and with non-technical stakeholders
• Inclusive leader who creates an environment where engineers of diverse backgrounds and experiences can thrive

Don’t meet every single requirement? We still encourage you to apply!

At trawa, we’re dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace. If you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly, we encourage you to apply – you may be the right fit for this or another opportunity.

Why Join Us

• Real impact - At trawa, you will be part of a team that is dedicated to making a positive impact on the world. We value creativity, collaboration, and diverse perspectives.
• Early ownership - We empower our team members to take ownership of their work and drive results, regardless of background or experience level.
• Mentorship that matters - Regular leadership sessions, cross-functional exposure, and engineers who are genuinely invested in your growth.
• Learning culture - We provide an annual budget and dedicated time for professional development. You’ll have opportunities for mentorship, learning, and career progression.
• Inclusive by design - We’re an equal opportunity employer, and our team reflects that. Our tech organisation brings together over 15 nationalities, contributing a variety of languages, experiences, and perspectives. At trawa, we’re family-friendly with parents across all levels, and our diversity is represented throughout the company, including leadership. We’re committed to an inclusive environment where everyone can do their best work.
• Solid benefits - We offer a competitive compensation package including salary and stock options, 30 days of vacation, and a range of benefits including subsidies for home internet and lunches, a Sports Club membership, a productivity budget for work essentials (e.g., headphones, monitor), dedicated learning days with an annual learning budget, plus a weekly team lunch and regular team events.