Director, Engineering

Forget the kennel! DogVacay is the leading online service connecting pet owners with over 20,000 loving sitters across the U.S. and Canada.

Overview... We are looking for a leader with a strong technical background that can lead our talented group of developers. This role will be responsible for the back-end team and potentially, depending on the experience of the candidate, the mobile app team. Even though we don’t expect someone in this role to code on a daily basis, we are looking for someone who is technical and is comfortable reviewing code and having spirited debates with the engineers and software architects.

• Mentor and lead a team of 5-6 back-end and mobile (iOS/Android) engineers and help hire and onboard new engineers.
• Work with the engineers to design and build features that are easy to maintain and scale.
• Establish and drive the best agile development practices within the team.
• Ensure timeliness and quality of deliverables.
• Identify the bottlenecks within the development process and optimize the productivity of the team.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with key stakeholders from the Engineering team, Product and Marketing to identify and build features that impact our end users and drive business feature deliveries and platform enhancements.
• Identify and nurture the next generation of leaders at DogVacay.

• Experience managing teams of 5+ back-end engineers or architects.
• Experience with implementation and delivery of large-scale projects using Java or other languages that run on the JVM.
• Experience with high traffic, consumer-facing websites is preferred.
• 8+ years of development experience.
• 4+ years of management experience.

Education:

• BS/MS in Computer Science or equivalent work experience.

Skills/Requirements:

• Must be very comfortable reviewing code and having technical discussions with the engineers.
• Very clear understanding of Service Oriented Architecture and REST principles.
• Must be very comfortable with agile and Test Driven Development methodologies.
• Experience with Amazon Web Services is preferred.
• Good understanding of front-end technologies, event-driven architectures and NoSQL stores.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Excellent problem solving skills.
• Must be self-directed and thrive in a fast paced and entrepreneurial culture.

Personal Attributes:

• You thrive in a fast-paced and constantly changing start-up environment.
• You're amazing under pressure and you don't mind wearing a few different hats.
• You enjoy a variety of tasks and don't mind switching between projects throughout the day.
• You are extremely detail oriented and can effectively manage team workflow.
• You are analytical, resourceful and a creative problem solver.
• You are a team player who is willing to do what it takes to support your co-workers