Engineering Manager, Babbel
Data Platform
Subscription-based language learning software
Be an early applicant
Subscription-based language learning software
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
1001+ employees
Company mission
To create mutual understanding through language.
Role
Who you are
- Experience managing and developing data engineers, ideally in a data platform, infrastructure or internal-product context
- A strong track record of delivering and operating reliable production systems, including data pipelines, modelling, schema evolution, testing, CI/CD, monitoring and incident management
- Experience working with Product, Analytics, Data Science and Engineering stakeholders in cross-functional teams, balancing delivery, quality, cost and sustainability
- Technical leadership: Strong understanding of modern data platform architecture, including cloud infrastructure, data processing, streaming, orchestration and analytics tools. Experience with technologies such as AWS, Terraform, Databricks, Kinesis or similar, dbt and Airflow is relevant
- Data governance and responsible AI use: Practical understanding of access controls, IAM, least-privilege patterns, encryption, lineage, audit logging and governance for AI or agent workloads
- People leadership and team development: Creates a healthy, collaborative and accountable team culture through clear expectations, constructive feedback, coaching and career development
- Product and delivery leadership: Treats the data platform as a product for internal customers, communicates clearly, manages trade-offs and makes sound build-versus-buy, vendor, cost and reliability decisions
- The role requires both technical depth and strong people leadership, together with the ability to create clarity, resolve ownership gaps and help teams deliver sustainably
- This role requires strong proficiency in English. Please note that our company’s operating language is English, so you will need to be able to work in English
- We are a learning company, inside and out, and we encourage you to apply even if you do not fit all the technical requirements - all candidates are assessed based on skills, qualifications and on our business needs
What the job involves
- We are looking for an Engineering Manager to lead Babbel’s Data Platform team. The team owns the data infrastructure, pipelines and platform capabilities that support analytics, data science, product teams and engineering across the company
- This is a hands-on role. You will be responsible for both team health and delivery outcomes, creating an environment where engineers can do their best work while delivering reliable, scalable and well-governed data products
- You will work closely with Data, Analytics, Product and Engineering leaders to turn strategy into sustainable execution
- Lead, coach and grow a data engineering team responsible for Babbel’s data platform and infrastructure
- Own reliable delivery and operational excellence across the platform, including quality, observability, SLAs/SLOs, on-call and incident management
- Partner with Analytics, Product, Data Science and Engineering teams to prioritise and deliver platform capabilities that make trustworthy data easy to discover, access and use
- Drive an architecture that supports governed AI and agent workloads at scale, with appropriate access controls, lineage, auditability and cost guardrails built in
- Establish clear ownership, strong engineering practices and a predictable delivery cadence while continuously improving platform performance, cost and sustainability
- You will work across Data, Analytics, Product and Engineering, building trusted relationships with internal customers and technical stakeholders
- Please state your pronouns in your application, and let us know if you’d like to be addressed by a name other than the one appearing on your official documents
Our take
Babbel is one of the leading lights in the language eLearning sector. Its premium subscription-based online learning resources cover over a dozen predominantly European languages, at all proficiency levels. They include interactive lessons and podcasts - all developed and delivered by professional educators and linguists.
Learning languages online has become big business in recent years, and this has led to a surge of VC investment in the sector. This diversified the field of competition, tripling revenue for smaller rivals like Busuu and driving up engagement on online tutoring sites. It has ramped up pressure on incumbents like Babbel, and its better established (but pricier) competitor Rosetta Stone, to diversify their offerings.
To get there, Babbel has taken a smart cue from live tutoring sites like Preply, which also saw a surge in engagement over recent years. Babbel has launched its own live tuition offering and additional B2B services, demonstrating a savvy use of its leading position and strong resources to keep a tight grip on its substantial market share.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
22% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Jul 2015
$22m
SERIES C
Mar 2013
$10m
SERIES B
Total funding: $33.3m
Company benefits
- 30 vacation days and flexible working hours
- BVG card or Swapfiets bike
- Jobbatical and Sabbatical options
- Many internal & external learning opportunities to choose from
- A yearly Learning & Development budget
- Visa and relocation assistance
- Full access to Babbel & Babbel Live classes
- Modern office in the heart of buzzing Berlin equipped with a family, music, faith and nap room
- Various internal communities to be part of including the Femgineers, DEI Ambassadors, Accessibility & Disability Group and more
Company HQ
Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany
Leadership
Markus Witte
(Co-Founder & Executive Chairman)Currently a Partner at Wachstumsbegleitung, a Fellow of JoinPolitics and was Previously an Independent Board Member at Blinkist.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job
View 5 more jobs at Babbel