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Hadean is building next-generation defence technology, including AI-powered digital wargaming and Command & Control systems. populAI is a continent-scale simulation engine that fills training scenarios with realistic actors (pedestrians, traffic, shipping, aircraft, satellites, critical infrastructure) and reacts to trainee decisions with emergent complexity.
The populAI team is cross-functional, comprising Software, QA, and DevOps Engineers, including seasoned simulation specialists. The core technology stack includes a C++ simulation engine, a custom distribution framework for cluster partitioning, TypeScript/React frontend, and Node.js services. The team is integrating LLM-backed capabilities for natural language control, actor generation, and simulated social media. Work ships into live customer exercises, demonstrators, and integration hackathons.
As Engineering Manager for populAI, you will own people leadership and delivery for the team. You will set clear expectations, develop individuals, remove blockers, and translate product priorities into reliable execution. You'll partner closely with the Product Manager and technical leadership, pulling in customer and business context from Field Engineering and senior stakeholders.
Key responsibilities include: owning end-to-end delivery by turning product goals into executable plans and managing stakeholder commitments; line-managing a multidisciplinary team with direct feedback, performance conversations, and development of technical leaders; staying hands-on by picking up delivery work when needed and maintaining first-hand understanding of the codebase; owning hiring to define profiles, run processes, and make the case for headcount; partnering with Product to understand the commercial environment, challenge assumptions, and negotiate scope and timeline; working with the technical lead on technical direction and architecture decisions; and shaping the team environment by pulling in customer and business context to ensure alignment and autonomy.
This role is deliberately weighted towards people, delivery, and product partnership. You will lead the people and own the output, drawing on deep specialists for architecture and implementation decisions. A strong engineering foundation is essential—you need enough technical context across the stack to earn credibility, understand performance, ask incisive questions, and give candid, evidence-based feedback.
Benefits include hybrid working (1 day per week in Shoreditch, London office), private health insurance, enhanced pension, enhanced parental leave, 3 extra days off at Christmas (on top of 25 standard days), L&D budget, regular socials, and share options.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Have led and line-managed a software engineering team, with demonstrated improvements for people and delivery
- Want to manage—engineering management is your craft, not the next career rung
- Have partnered with Product as an equal to shape priorities and push back on scope
- Have handled underperformance, conflict, ambiguity, and difficult conversations with senior people
- Experience with behavioural or agent-based simulation (game AI, VFX crowd simulation, industrial human behaviour simulation, or defence CGF)
- Experience with systems languages, ideally C++, for performance-sensitive, real-time applications
- Ability to obtain and maintain UK Security Vetted status to at least SC level
DESIRABLE:
- Have grown a team (hired into it, shaped it, developed people into more senior roles)
- Experience delivering data-intensive, real-time, distributed, or mission-critical products
- Familiarity with defence, military modelling and simulation, or regulated and security-conscious environments
- Experience leading a product or team through modernisation, legacy migration, or significant product direction change
- Track record of building effective Engineering Manager / technical lead partnerships or mentoring other managers
- Desire to be in the room where product meets users—travelling to deployments, hackathons, and industry events
