Head of Engineering, Workstream
$200-250k
Offers equity
3 days a week in office (Menlo Park, CA)
HR and payroll solutions built specifically for restaurants
Be an early applicant
HR and payroll solutions built specifically for restaurants
201-500 employees
Be an early applicant
$200-250k
Offers equity
3 days a week in office (Menlo Park, CA)
201-500 employees
Company mission
To help businesses hire faster and smarter, so they can focus on supporting their team and serving their customers.
Role
Who you are
- Proven Scale Leader: You have a track record of success leading engineering organizations of 100+ employees and managing other senior leaders
- Bilingual & Bicultural: You are fluent in Mandarin (critical) and have a deep understanding of both Chinese and Western business cultures
- Technically Sharp: You are still technical enough to win the respect of senior architects and can navigate complex technical trade-offs
- Global Mindset: You are comfortable with regular international travel (quarterly trips to China and travel to Canada as needed)
- Startup Grit: You thrive in fast-paced, Series B environments and are comfortable filling leadership gaps during organizational transitions
- People Developer: You have experience managing high-level Engineering Managers and helping them scale their own respective teams
What the job involves
- We are looking for a Head of Engineering to lead our global engineering and QA organizations. Following a period of rapid growth, we are looking for a seasoned technical leader who can unify our distributed teams, optimize our delivery speed, and maintain a high bar for architectural excellence
- Reporting directly to the executive team, you will oversee an organization of 80+ engineers and 12 QA professionals. With 70% of our engineering talent based in China, this role requires a leader who can bridge Eastern and Western business cultures and drive a singular, high-performance engineering culture across the globe
- Engineering Leadership: Lead and scale a global engineering organization of 80+ people, including Data, Mobile, and Core Engineering teams
- Operational Excellence: Optimize delivery cycles and engineering processes to ensure high-velocity shipping without compromising on quality
- Technical Strategy: Make critical architectural decisions and provide technical guidance that supports Workstream’s long-term product roadmap
- Global Management: Manage a distributed leadership team (including managers of Data, Mobile, and QA) and drive alignment between our US and China offices
- Culture Building: Foster a unified engineering culture that balances the strengths of Chinese and Western work styles, ensuring all teams are marching in the same direction
- Budget & Strategy: Manage the engineering budget and headcount planning to support our aggressive growth goals
Our take
Recruiting new staff can be a slow andf frustrating process for HR teams, especially in industries that rely on hourly workers. Roles often need filling quickly, turnover can be high, and managers don't always have time to sit at a desk sorting through applications and emails. So, chasing candidates, scheduling interviews, and keeping people engaged can take hours each week, often delaying businesses , leaving them short-staffed when they need people most.
Workstream is a HR and hiring platform built specifically for hourly workers, with text messaging at the centre of how it works. Instead of forcing candidates to apply through long online forms or emails they may never check, Workstream allows people to apply, communicate, schedule interviews, and even complete parts of onboarding directly through their phone. And for employers, the platform automates most of the hiring process, so managers can source, screen, hire, and onboard staff with ease.
Whilst the company operates in a competitive HR software market, its carved out a strong position by focusing on deskless and hourly workers, a group often overlooked by traditional HR tools. Its growing list of customers also span quick-service restaurants, retail, logistics, and other hourly-heavy industries, and the company has attracted significant investor backing as a result. Competition may remain strong but Workstream's clear focus, steady expansion, and continued product adoption give it a strong foothold in the market.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Sep 2022
$60m
SERIES B
Aug 2021
$48m
SERIES B
Total funding: $118m
Company benefits
- Health and wellness: We care about the physical and mental health of each of our team members. We offer every employee comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans, and access to a generous number of fully-paid counseling sessions with licensed therapists every year.
- Competitive compensation (and equity): As a company, we have ambitious goals with a high-potential financial upside—and we share that with every employee through competitive market compensation and generous stock.
- Flexible time off: We believe team members do their best work when their life feels balanced. We promote work-life harmony through flexible PTO and paid parental leave.
- Professional development: We believe in becoming 1% better each day. That’s why we offer a quarterly learning reimbursement that can be used toward continuing education, books, subscriptions and more.
Company HQ
SoMa, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Desmond Lim
(Co-Founder & CEO)Prior to co-founding Workstream in 2017, Desmond was a Product Manager at MIT Media Lab and WeChat.
Max Wang
(Co-Founder & CTO)Previously, Max co-founded VC.CN where he served as the CTO for 5 years.
Lei Xu
(Co-Founder & CSO)Lei previously co-founded Emote where he served as the CTO for 2 years. Prior to that, he spent 3 years at Google in Revenue Acceleration and Software Engineering roles.
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