Engineering Manager(English)

Overview

We are looking for an Engineering Manager to lead multiple product development teams — including those behind THECOO's flagship products "Fanicon" and to connect business, product, technology, and organization.

Fanicon is a fan community platform where fans join paid communities and interact directly with Icons (creators, talents, artists, and others). 

In this role, you will work with the Head of Engineering, Product Managers, SRE, and other engineering leaders to create a state where teams can continuously deliver results while balancing high quality and speed.

Your primary role is people management and accountability for team outcomes, but you will also be expected to get involved in design reviews and technical decision-making as needed.

Mission

Your mission is to build a development organization where each engineer can perform to their full potential, and where the team can continuously deliver product value.

You will understand business and product goals, design the appropriate team structure, role division, and development process, and lead member growth support, hiring, technical decision-making, and cross-departmental collaboration.

We expect you to guide the team not only with a focus on short-term delivery, but with a mid-to-long-term perspective that includes technical quality, organizational health, and member growth.

Responsibilities

• Setting goals for the engineering team and running the team to achieve them
• Working with Product Managers to define roadmaps, priorities, and development plans
• Supporting member growth through 1-on-1s, ongoing feedback, evaluations, and career development
• Clarifying team roles and responsibilities, and making appropriate assignments
• Continuously improving development processes, communication, and decision-making processes
• Visualizing project progress, risks, and dependencies, and resolving issues
• Participating in design reviews and technical discussions, and supporting decision-making
• Driving initiatives to improve product quality, reliability, and development productivity
• Coordinating with stakeholders on incidents and major issues, and driving recurrence prevention
• Recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding engineers
• Coordinating cross-team issues and building consensus with other departments
• Developing the next generation of engineering leaders

Tech Stack

• Backend: Node.js / TypeScript / Express / NestJS
• Mobile: Kotlin / Swift
• Data stores: PostgreSQL / MySQL / Redis
• Data analytics: BigQuery
• Infrastructure: GCP / AWS
• Collaboration: GitHub / Linear / Slack / Notion
• Development style: Agile development

Day-to-day implementation is not a requirement for the Engineering Manager role, but
we expect you to be able to discuss with engineers and support design and decision-making based on a solid technical background.

Our Office

Requirements

• Experience developing and operating web services as a software engineer (roughly 5+ years, or equivalent experience)
• Experience managing engineers as an Engineering Manager or team lead
• Experience with people management, including 1-on-1s, feedback, evaluations, and career support
• Experience working with Product Managers to define and execute development priorities and plans
• Ability to understand technical risks and trade-offs and support engineers' decision-making
• Experience untangling dependencies across multiple projects or teams and resolving issues
• Experience building teams through recruiting and onboarding
• Communication skills to build trust with members from diverse backgrounds
• Ability to manage a team and carry out work in an English-language environment

Nice to Have

• Experience developing and operating consumer-facing or subscription services
• Experience managing multiple product teams or cross-functional teams
• Experience managing multinational, multicultural development teams
• Experience with organizational growth, team restructuring, or designing roles and responsibilities
• Experience leading a large-scale system overhaul or platform development
• Knowledge across multiple areas such as SRE, infrastructure, mobile, or backend
• Experience with incident management or improving service reliability
• Experience turning development productivity into metrics and using them to drive process improvement
• Experience promoting development processes or productivity improvements using AI tools
• Experience as a technical leader such as Tech Lead, Staff Engineer, or Architect
• Ability to communicate with business units and internal stakeholders in Japanese

Why This Role

• Be involved in both THECOO's flagship products and new platform development
• Have significant discretion not only over product outcomes but also over team design and organization building
• Work with the Head of Engineering and Product Managers, and be involved in decision
• making from both business and technical perspectives
• Build a global development organization with engineers from diverse backgrounds
• Contribute to the organization's mid-to-long-term growth through member growth support and leadership development
• Lead improvements across the entire development organization, including technical quality, development productivity, and culture

Who We're Looking For

We're looking for someone who sees the Engineering Manager role not as managing members, but as creating an environment where the team can deliver results.

Someone who engages with each member individually, gives candid and constructive feedback, and can balance individual growth with team outcomes. We also welcome someone who doesn't hold on to problems alone, but shares necessary information early and involves stakeholders to drive resolution.

We expect you to make decisions that balance the short and mid-to-long term, based on an understanding not just of technical details but of user value, business priorities, and organizational context.

THECOO's Values

At THECOO, we hold shared values (our "DNA") across the whole company: "Keep challenging what seems impossible" and "Freedom and Responsibility."

We want to work with people who, even when facing difficult product or organizational challenges, think about how to make things happen rather than why they can't, and who can take on challenges together with the team while taking responsibility for their own judgment.