Head of Engineering

About Us

Sellry is a technically-oriented ecommerce development agency with a highly creative flair. We specialize in helping premium ecommerce clients maximize the potential of their brand and conversion rate simultaneously. Our clients range from pre-revenue startups with an awesome angle to global tech companies. We have a vast amount of experience in a diverse range of verticals, business models and aesthetic styles, allowing us to discern the deeper problem as well as the best way to solve it. Our clients can truly relax because we’ve got their backs. 

Our team is passionate, highly skilled and committed to high performance, elegant solutions. We value what is up and coming and prepare accordingly to offer the best services, products and support out there. When we can’t find solutions that service our clients and the needs we identify, we create them.

 

Position Description

As Head of Engineering, you are our top-level organizational technical leader. You are highly adept in technical skills and the leadership of tech teams. You draw on that expertise to set up excellent processes and accountability within our tech department. This structure leads to consistency, visibility, predictability and peace for our clients, our board and Sellry as whole. 

You lead with persuasion and wisdom. You value and know how to work with strategic, creative and technical types. You triage tricky technical client problems with clarity and calmness. You maintain the delicate balance of soft skills while holding the line where firmness is needed. 

You are committed to the well-being of Sellry, her people, and her clients. 

As a fully distributed team, we value talent regardless of location. US hours, fluency in English and cultural familiarity are must-haves as you will be communicating directly with clients and this will aid in customer trust and relaxation.

 

Responsibilities

1. Oversee daily operations of technical staff.
2. Delegate to, manage and hold the tech team tightly accountable.
3. Review and perfect process on an ongoing basis within the tech department including engineering best practices, requirements gathering, documentation, solution architecture, code quality standards, definitions and methodologies.
4. Orchestrate and manage team activities in triage situations, including assigning and directing resources, deciding on high-level problem-solving strategies, and team/client communications.
5. Conduct/arrange for training within the tech department, with the aim of creating internal consistency and external predictability for clients, partners and everyone else at Sellry.
6. Establish a strong engineering culture down to the details of code quality, definitions, methodologies etc.
7. Lead our internal teams to adopt up-to-date and leadership-approved technologies, strategies, patterns, methodologies, conventions and standards.
8. Exemplify calm, rational, evidence-based decision making. Create clarity out of confusion, even in the face of an apparent crisis.
9. Maintain up-to-date resource plans. Predict gaps in resourcing and provide early warning to leadership when gaps are anticipated.
10. Participate in the recruiting, hiring and firing processes for technical staff.
11. Ensure maintenance and progress of development milestones and technical pieces of project plans.
12. Work closely with other technical, strategic and other internal leadership as well as clients.
13. Approve technical aspects of client-facing plans and proposals, including key dates.
14. Monitor output of technical deliverables to ensure quality (code, systems, documentation, etc).
15. Take charge of translating business requirements into technical requirements.
16. Support PMs in breaking down technical solutions into granular planning artifacts. Identify when the involvement of subject matter experts are required for investigation and planning.
17. Communicate crucial needs to non-technical team members/clients.
18. Create program establishment guides for new technologies.
19. Onboard/ recruit new members of the tech team.
20. Participate in regular team and leadership meetings.
21. Lead internal technical meetings.
22. Help to deliver mutual value within tech partnerships.

 

What we’d like to see 

• Available during the standard business hours
• You have at least 6 years of experience leading technical teams on end-to-end delivery of complicated web/app/mobile development projects.
• You have the ability to translate high-level business needs into granular technical requirements.
• You know how to mitigate reasonable risks and plan with an appropriate level of granularity.
• You set timelines, estimates and other expectations accurately and with appropriate caveats.
• You balance high-level thinking and detail orientation.
• You are exceptional at delegation and multitasking.
• You are exceptional at root cause analysis. You can sense BS and are quick to call it out in a professional manner.
• You are good at spotting and cultivating talent and putting people in positions in which they will succeed.
• You spot danger in advance and provide early warnings.
• You are extremely organized, model efficient time management and train others to do the same.
• Ability to execute many simultaneous initiatives – on time, on budget and high quality.
• You are eager to dive right in and triage situations when required, and afterwards implement procedures, training and whatever else is required to avoid a similar situation in the future.
• You communicate clearly and accurately both verbally and in writing. You are respectful and know how to get people on board.
• You always seek to be evidence-informed, but you know how to combine inputs.
• You are an excellent listener and take good care of people. You ignite and foster growth and improvement in individuals and teams.
• Rapid, rational thinker able to simultaneously balance business and technical priorities with the needs of team members.
• Able to course-correct a project that is off-track from a technical perspective, including analysis, resource planning, management.
• Able to communicate accurately and clearly, both verbally and in writing.
• Able to hold the right lines without budging, but you’re the first to admit when you’re wrong.
• Conversant in at least two programming languages; highly skilled in at least one.
• Proficient in front-end web development (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript).
• Familiarity with modern infrastructure and devops approaches.
• Experience with a variety of software and web development patterns and approaches.
• Meticulous when it comes to source control, coding standards and technical documentation.
• Experience training and holding team members accountable to adhere to high standards for engineering practices code management and code documentation.
• Experience orchestrating joint efforts between, and balancing resources across multiple teams.
• Bonus: Experience with modern ecommerce platform integration and customization.
• Bonus: Experience interacting with a variety of types of businesses, resources and teams.
• Bonus: Experience leading non-technical resources.

 

To Apply

Send a cover letter with examples of projects you’ve worked on.  Outline why you are interested in the job and what drew you to apply.  Bullet point a list of your experience and include a brief paragraph on yourself. 

Looking forward to working with you!