Director, Product Engineering

May 6th, 2010

We are looking for a Director of Engineering, which might mean nothing to most people, except to the person we are looking for. The person we are looking for is the positive-minded rebel stuck in a lethargic, albeit successful bureaucracy, the lead engineer tired of having to manage bosses (and their ridiculous expectations) more than team members, the person we are looking for actually reads our entire, lengthy job ad.

In short, we are looking for someone who wants to be part of a world class team. We do not pretend to be a world class team yet (being on a world class team is not as easy as applying and a few interviews), but rather we look for someone who can help mold more than a dozen talented engineers into the kind of team which creates legends.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

-This position will direct the activities of a rambunctious product engineering staff accountable for delivering consumer-oriented content, products or services.
-Conducts ongoing assessment of software engineering needs and deploys sufficient resources to meet agreed on objectives, schedules and budgets at the highest level of quality and service.
-Develops operational policies and procedures to ensure competitive advantage in requirements gathering, design, development, testing, implementation and maintenance of software solutions.
-Participates in setting software engineering performance and service standards, and develops and implements operating plans to achieve those standards.
-Makes input into the formulation of the strategies and operating plans and executes or adjusts the operating plans accordingly.
-Interacts with senior management to evaluate progress towards objectives.
-Interacts with direct reports and peers in management and vendors to interpret information and improve cross-functional processes and programs.
-Builds and enhances important internal and external contacts.
-Negotiates with management on most sensitive time, budget and software functionality trade-offs.
-Ensures the ongoing training and development of direct reports.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Position requires at least 10 + years of product engineering experience, 5 of which are in a leader capacity.

Technically candidates should have deep expertise in client-side Web technologies, including Ajax, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, across all major browser platforms. The ideal candidate will also have server-side expertise in a language such as Ruby, Erlang, or Python, in combination with expert-level skills in C/C++ or Java. Additional language experience in other languages, especially Lisp, Scheme, or Haskell is desired. Experience working with working with relational databases (ex: Postgres, MySQL), document databases (ex: CouchDB) or distributed hash-based solutions (ex: MongoDB, Cassandra, Tokyo Cabinet) is helpful.

We do not expect to actually find someone with a title of “Director of Engineering” out there who meets our criteria, as life is rarely as generous as to have the right person looking for you while you look for them. Our expectations are that we will most likely find the right senior level engineer ready to make the next step in her or his career. If you think that with a little coaching and help, you can be a great Director of Engineering then please apply! If you think you can be a great Director of Engineering without a little coaching and help, then please do NOT apply. We have taken great care to look for people who are cool and humble.

E-mail cover letters and resumes to: hr@borderstylo.com

STATUS:
Full-Time