Engineering Manager - Backend & DevOps

About Drive lah / Drive mate

Drive lah and Drive mate are peer-to-peer car-sharing platforms operating in Singapore and Australia

respectively. We connect car owners with people who need a vehicle, making car access more flexible and

affordable for everyone. As a fast-growing mobility technology company, we build and maintain web and

mobile platforms used by thousands of users across two markets. We operate as a remote-first team that

values ownership, trust, and speed.

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Engineering Manager who can lead from the front; someone who

combines strong technical depth with the ability to build and grow high-performing teams. In this role, you

will fully own backend architecture and engineering, including devops and infrastructure, while providing

technical leadership and support to our frontend and QA teams.

This role is best suited for someone who combines strong technical knowledge with excellent people

management skills and enjoys working in dynamic startup environments. A non-negotiable for this role is a

genuine, working fluency with AI coding tools - Cursor, Claude, Copilot, or equivalent. We are not looking

for curiosity about AI; we are looking for someone already building with it daily and leading others to do

the same.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Delivery

• Own backend architecture and engineering decisions end-to-end, including system design, scalability,

and API design.

• Take hands-on responsibility for dev ops, infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, & deployment practices.

• Provide technical guidance, code reviews, and architectural input to frontend engineers.

• Set QA standards, tooling direction, and quality gates, without being hands-on in test writing.

• Drive adoption of AI coding tools and modern engineering practices across the team.

• Ensure high code quality, reliability, and performance across all platforms.

Team & Cross-Functional

• Lead, mentor, and manage a distributed team of backend, frontend, and mobile engineers.

• Conduct regular 1-on-1s, performance reviews, and career development conversations.

• Support hiring and onboarding of engineers as the team scales.

• Collaborate closely with Product, Design, QA, and Operations teams.

• Translate business requirements into clear, scalable technical solutions.

• Participate in sprint planning, roadmap discussions, and delivery management.

• Proactively identify risks, blockers, and dependencies.

Technical Skills

Full ownership - Backend & DevOps

The EM will be hands-on here: making architectural decisions, writing and reviewing code, owning

infrastructure and deployment pipelines.

• Node.js, Express.js

• JavaScript (ES5/ES6), TypeScript

• Database design and query optimisation

• System architecture and API design

• CI/CD, DevOps practices, cloud infrastructure

Supporting role - Frontend

The EM provides technical guidance, reviews, and architectural input. Dedicated frontend engineers own

day-to-day delivery.

• React, Redux, TypeScript

• HTML, CSS, JavaScript (ES5/ES6)

Supporting role - QA

The EM sets standards, tooling direction, and process - not hands-on test writing.

• Test strategy and coverage standards

• QA tooling and automation frameworks

• Quality gates within CI/CD

What You Bring

• 5–6 years of experience in Engineering Management or technical leadership roles, with strong prior

hands-on engineering experience.

• Proven track record of managing and mentoring engineering teams in remote or distributed

environments.

• Deep backend engineering expertise with the ability to contribute directly to architecture and code.

• Experience in startup or high-growth product companies.

• Working fluency with AI coding tools as a core part of your development workflow — not an

experiment.

• Strong understanding of scalable application architecture and modern engineering practices.

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills across technical and non-technical

audiences.

• Experience with Agile/Scrum methodologies.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field preferred.

Why Join Us

• Fully remote with flexibility across time zones.

• High ownership over technical direction - backend, dev ops, and team culture.

• Work on products used by thousands of users across two markets.

• Collaborative team that values speed, trust, and continuous improvement.

• Exposure to modern AI-driven development workflows from day one.