Engineering Manager - Java Backend - Marketing Org at Groupon

Groupon is a marketplace where customers discover new experiences and services everyday and local businesses thrive. To date we have worked with over a million merchant partners worldwide, connecting over 16 million customers with deals across various categories. In a world often dominated by e-commerce giants, we stand out as one of the few platforms uniquely committed to helping local businesses succeed on a performance basis. Groupon is on a radical journey to transform our business with relentless pursuit of results. Even with thousands of employees spread across multiple continents, we still maintain a culture that inspires innovation, rewards risk-taking and celebrates success. The impact here can be immediate due to our scale and the speed of our transformation. We're a "best of both worlds" kind of company. We're big enough to have the resources and scale, but small enough that a single person has a surprising amount of autonomy and can make a meaningful impact. We are undergoing a radical transformation—and we’re seeking engineering leaders for the Marketing org (Organic or paid marketing domains), powering millions of real-time communications and defining the future. Our mission is to drive engagement and conversions by reaching the right users with the right message at the right time—without relying on paid media. Our development ecosystem: • Languages: Java, Spring, Ruby • Frontend: NodeJS, ReactJS • Databases: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, Memcache • Infrastructure: AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform • Messaging: Kafka, RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ • Monitoring & Logging: ELK, Wavefront, Splunk • Development Tools: GitHub, Jenkins, JIRA, Confluence, Asana Your Responsibilities: As an Engineering Manager II (EM II), your work will directly contribute to our business-critical platforms and global communications infrastructure. You will be accountable for: 🌟 1. Customer Communication Excellence • Drive reliability, performance, and personalization across our Dispatch and Subscription systems. • Achieve a 99.99% delivery success rate and under 1s latency for real-time communications. 🌟 2. Subscription Platform Growth • Lead engineering teams focused on the evolution and scalability of our subscription systems. • Enable 2x growth in subscriber engagement and conversion over the next 12 months. 🌟 3. Platform Scalability & Operational Efficiency • Reduce technical debt and optimize resource usage across core services by modernizing legacy infrastructure and adopting cloud-native patterns. • Achieve a 30% reduction in platform operational costs while improving performance benchmarks. 🌟 4. Engineering Team Performance & Growth • Build high-performing, autonomous, and globally distributed teams that execute with agility and ownership. • Maintain 90%+ team engagement and less than 10% regrettable attrition, with measurable velocity improvements. 🌟 5. AI-First Transformation Enablement • Champion the integration of AI/ML where it enhances business outcomes, from system automation to intelligent routing and customer experience. • Deliver at least 2 AI-driven features or systems into production per year. You’ll spend time on the following: • Take full ownership of the project deliveries across multiple platform services. • Collaborate cross-functionally to ensure delivery of business features aligned with cost, scale, and speed goals. • Drive technical discussion and decisions within the team’s scope, participate in design and code reviews • Hire and develop the team members, and manage their performance actively • Lead and mentor engineers and managers, focusing on impact, autonomy, and innovation. • Establish and enforce engineering best practices, especially in a microservices, cloud-native, CI/CD environment. • Drive architectural decisions that align with Groupon’s transformation and cost optimization objectives. • Manage team health and performance through coaching, feedback, and regular career development conversations. • Lead with empathy, vision, and a strong bias for measurable results. We’re excited about you if you have: • 10+ years of overall industry experience with 4 years of leadership (hands-on engineering management) role in developing and supporting web applications, micro services in a distributed environment • Experience with managing platform services, delivering projects in a dynamic environment • Experience with managing high-performance individuals in different time zones. • Good communication and collaboration skills, and the ability to deal with ambiguity. • Strong experience in programming languages - Java and competent in designing and building enterprise-scale applications, common frameworks, etc. • Experience building and scaling large-scale distributed systems and development experience with service-oriented architectures/microservices • Prior AWS/GCP/Azure/Pivotal Cloud Foundry experience is a must. • Proven success managing and scaling platform services in fast-moving environments • Experience leading cross-regional teams and driving platform-level strategies • Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and messaging patterns • Passion for mentorship, performance management, and Values ​​alignment. • Commitment to customer impact, technical quality, and agile practices We value Managers who are: • Customer-Driven: You make decisions anchored in customer outcomes. • Operationally Excellent: You scale systems without compromising efficiency. • Strategically Minded: You prioritize initiatives that align with company growth and margin goals. • Empowering Leader: You invest in people and create a strong team with values ​​alignment. • AI-Forward Thinker: You embrace technology shifts and harness AI for scale and innovation. #LI-Hybrid Groupon is an AI-First CompanyWe’re committed to building smarter, faster, and more innovative ways of working—and AI plays a key role in how we get there. We encourage candidates to leverage AI tools during the hiring process where it adds value, and we’re always keen to hear how technology improves the way you work. If you’re passionate about AI or curious to explore how it can elevate your role—you’ll be right at home here. Groupon’s purpose is to build strong communities through thriving small businesses. To learn more about the world’s largest local e-commerce marketplace, click here. You can also find out more about us in the latest Groupon news as well as learning about our DEI approach. If all of this sounds like something that’s a great fit for you, then click apply and join us on a mission to become the ultimate destination for local experiences and services. Beware of Recruitment Fraud: Groupon follows a merit-based recruitment process without charging job seekers any fees. We've noticed an increase in recruitment fraud, including fake job postings and fraudulent interviews and job offers aimed at stealing personal information or money. Be cautious of individuals falsely representing Groupon's Talent Acquisition team with fake job offers. If you encounter any suspicious job offers or interview calls demanding money, recognize these as scams. Groupon is not responsible for losses from such dealings. For legitimate job openings (and a sneak peek into life at Groupon), always check our official career website at Groupon Careers