At Zeelo, we’re on a mission to revolutionize how frontline workers commute by delivering reliable, sustainable, and scalable transportation solutions. We partner with global leaders like Amazon, Barclays, and UPS, and we’re expanding after a successful Series B raise. If you’re passionate about building solutions, working in a scaling organization, and seeing the direct impact of your work—this is your seat on the bus.
About the Role:
As an Engineering Manager leading our platform transformation, you will be responsible for orchestrating our migration from a PHP monolith to a service-oriented architecture while simultaneously transforming our engineering practices and culture. This is a hands-on leadership role requiring both technical depth and people management expertise. You will lead a distributed team across the UK and offshore, driving technical excellence while building a high-performing, collaborative engineering culture during a period of significant change.
What You'll Do:
- Maintain hands-on involvement in architecture decisions and code reviews, contributing directly to critical path work when needed
- Lead the decomposition of our PHP monolith into services, defining extraction strategies, service boundaries, and migration patterns
- Establish architectural standards for service communication, data consistency, and distributed system patterns
- Define and implement API design standards, versioning strategies, and service contracts
- Drive decisions on technology choices for the new platform (service mesh, API gateways, event streaming, containerization strategies)
- Design data migration and dual-write strategies to ensure zero-downtime transitions
- Work with VP Product to create and maintain a multi-quarter roadmap for the platform transformation, with clear milestones and success metrics
- Establish metrics for transformation progress (services extracted, legacy code retired, system reliability, team velocity) and communicate progress to stakeholders at all levels.
- Build and lead a distributed team across UK and offshore, creating cohesion despite geographical boundaries
- Transform team practices from monolithic development to service ownership ("you build it, you run it")
- Establish clear communication patterns and documentation standards for asynchronous collaboration
Who you are:
- Proven experience leading monolith-to-microservices transformations in production environments
- Deep hands-on experience with PHP and modern service-oriented technologies (containerization, Kubernetes, service mesh)
- Track record of managing distributed engineering teams across multiple time zones and cultures and integrating contractors as needed
- Expertise in incremental migration strategies and running parallel systems safely
- Experience implementing DevOps practices and cultural transformation in traditional development teams
- Experience with cloud platforms (preferably AWS) and cloud-native architectures
- Strong background in API design, system integration patterns, and data consistency strategies
- Excellent communication skills with ability to influence both up and down the organization
- Demonstrated ability to make pragmatic technical decisions under uncertainty and time pressure
- Growth mindset with enthusiasm for leading teams through significant technical and cultural change
Why Zeelo?
- Mission-driven work: Every commute we power helps reduce CO₂ emissions and makes work more accessible especially in areas with limited public transport
- Global exposure: Be part of a 120+ person team across the US, UK, and Spain
- Best-in-class tech: Our platform is redefining how organizations move their people
Top Skills
What We Do
Zeelo is the most trusted and sustainable bus commute in developed markets
Here at Zeelo, the smart shuttle platform, our programs are designed to get people to work and school in a smarter, faster, safer, greener and more reliable way.
The power of our technology and data platform allows us to quickly build you the most optimized shuttle routes to serve your exact needs; like hiring for unfilled jobs, improving social mobility and achieving your net zero ambitions.
We’re the developed world’s leading smart mobility platform; helping organizations make informed, efficient and sustainable transportation decisions that benefit their riders while meeting their goals and keeping their costs down.
Plus, riders are completely in control of their commute experience, with Zeelo’s smart mobility apps for riders, parents and our drivers.
We’re proud to already be a carbon-neutral business, meaning from day one, our client's services are 100% carbon-neutral at no extra cost. But that’s not enough, so we’re committed to achieving Net Zero by 2030, as we transition to a fully electric fleet with our nationwide network of Operator Partners
Through the power of data and technology, we’re finally breaking down the age-old commuting challenges, enabling access to safe and sustainable transportation for everyday journeys.
