This player-coach role will be responsible for building a team of 5-6 engineers, overseeing development, and collaborating closely with our UK-based VPE, Agile Delivery Manager, and engineering teams.

You'll play a critical part in maintaining our existing product stability whilst building a strong engineering culture in Manila. This role will be responsible for managing a team of engineers, overseeing the development and collaborating closely with Product, Design, and the Agile Delivery Manager.

Who are we? At CultureAI, we help organisations prevent cyber breaches by tackling human risk. We're disrupting the security awareness industry with our data-driven approach to measuring employee security behaviours and driving personalised security coaching and interventions.

Our mission is to make the world more secure. We see direct parallels between how we elevate security through our company and empower it within. We believe in creating a safe space for our employees to express, innovate, and educate. Diversity and inclusion are at the core of what we do, helping us drive our security ambitions and making the world a more secure place for all.

Day in the Life Team Leadership & Development

• Recruit, hire, and onboard 5-6 engineers (2 QA, 3-4 Full-Stack) within your first 3 months
• Conduct face-to-face interviews in Manila, partnering with our VPE and Head of Talent remotely
• Hold regular 1-1s, performance reviews, and career development conversations
• Foster technical excellence and continuous learning within your team

Hands-On Technical Contribution

• Spend 30-40% of your time coding alongside your team once the team is established
• Conduct thorough code reviews ensuring adherence to CultureAI standards
• Provide PHP/Laravel expertise for mentoring and problem-solving
• Make technical decisions for bug fixes and customer enhancements
• Use monitoring tools (Sentry, Datadog) to proactively identify and resolve issues

Delivery & Collaboration

• Own the RUN workstream (80% bug fixes, 20% customer enhancements)
• Partner with our Agile Delivery Manager to define your team's delivery process
• Ensure P0/P1/P2 bugs are resolved within SLAs
• Participate in daily standups with VPE and ADM
• Maintain 9am-12pm UK time availability for critical collaboration

Knowledge Transfer & Quality

• Lead knowledge absorption from UK team during ramp-up period
• Ensure your team documents learnings and creates runbooks
• Use our monitoring and alerting using Sentry and Datadog
• Partner with our Senior Customer Support Engineer on bug investigations

Essential Experience What You Bring to the Team

• Proven track record as a player-coach in similar sized teams
• Strong hands-on PHP/Laravel expertise that's current and deep
• Experience building and scaling offshore/remote teams
• Background in maintaining systems whilst ensuring stability

Technical Excellence

• Expert-level PHP/Laravel knowledge for code reviews and mentoring
• Strong understanding of MySQL, Redis, and caching strategies
• Experience with AWS services (RDS, EKS preferred)
• Proficiency with monitoring tools (Sentry, Datadog)
• Understanding of CI/CD practices and deployment pipelines

Leadership & Communication

• Demonstrated ability to recruit and build teams from scratch
• Experience managing mid to senior-level engineers
• Excellent English communication (written and verbal)
• Strong async communication skills for distributed team collaboration
• Cultural sensitivity and ability to bridge working styles
• Ability to balance hands-on coding with management responsibilities

Beneficial Knowledge

• Experience in B2B SaaS or cybersecurity domains
• Familiarity with enterprise integrations (SCIM, SAML, OAuth)
• Experience with Deel or similar EOR arrangements
• Understanding of GDPR and data protection requirements
• Knowledge of agile methodologies (Scrum/Kanban)
• Understanding of frontend technologies and frameworks.

Additional Requirements For Manila-based Candidates

• Timezone flexibility: Must be comfortable working with some overlap with UK business hours (GMT/BST) to collaborate effectively with the majority of the team.
• Location: Must be legally eligible to work in the Philippines.
• Passport Requirement: Must hold a valid Philippine passport (for identity verification and compliance with Deel).
• Language: Must be fluent in English (written and spoken) to collaborate with our global team.
• Remote Work Setup: Reliable internet connection and a workspace that supports effective remote work.
• Cultural Fit: Comfortable working with a UK-based engineering, product, and design team, bridging time zones and communication styles.