Head of Engineering, iNaturalist
$182.3k
More information about location
iNaturalist is the leading biodiversity platform on the planet
Open for applications
iNaturalist is the leading biodiversity platform on the planet
1-20 employees
Open for applications
$182.3k
More information about location
1-20 employees
Company mission
iNaturalist's vision is a world where everyone can understand and sustain biodiversity through the practice of observing wild organisms and sharing information about them.
Role
Who you are
- Extensive experience managing and growing a team of 10+ engineers. Experience managing in a remote environment and experience with open source projects.
- Technical Expertise: Experience with the following technologies: mobile and web development, database management, AI, and backend operations and software development processes including systems architecture, software design, and testing that cover all phases of traditional software development lifecycle. Experience with agile/scrum, cloud deployments, and managing major vendor relationships (e.g. Google, Azure, Apple)
- Collaborative Spirit: Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across departments and with diverse stakeholders.
- Passion for Nature: A strong commitment to nature and technology as well as an interest in science and conservation.
- The ideal candidate will possess a blend of strategic vision, technical expertise, and team leadership skills to effectively lead our engineering team
What the job involves
- INaturalist seeks a dynamic and experienced Head of Engineering to join our leadership team. This important role will report directly to the Executive Director and will be pivotal in shaping the future of iNaturalist
- Strategic Planning: Collaborate with the Executive Director, Head of Engagement, and Head of Development to develop and execute organizational strategies, goals, and operating plans
- Goal Setting: Contribute to setting and achieving goals that focus on expanding iNaturalist’s impact on biodiversity, growing the community, enhancing the product, building organizational capacity, and ensuring sustainability.
- Cross-functional Collaboration: Foster a collaborative environment across all departments to ensure alignment and integration of efforts towards common goals.
- Team Leadership: Cultivate a culture of high performance coupled with a celebration of achievement within the engineering team. Develop career paths, conduct performance reviews, and manage recruitment and hiring processes.
- Technical Oversight: Overseeing a team of 10 engineers, designers, and project managers involved in mobile and web interfaces, database systems, AI models, and backend operations.
- Workflow: Coordinate and streamline the management of engineering projects, timelines, and launches. Ensure timely delivery of high-quality products.
Application process
- Instead of a cover letter, we will ask you to answer two questions that will be reviewed (by real people, not AI) and assessed separately from each other, your resume, and your name. The hiring team will review your answers and resume in a batch of answers and resumes from other candidates in randomized orders. Randomization and anonymization of each element in the initial review process minimizes bias.
- Applied asks for your demographic information, but we never see it in association with you—only summarized in aggregate. We use it to assess the overall demographics of the candidate pool
- After initial review of applications on a rolling basis, advancing candidates will be asked to answer a few more questions within one week
- Written follow up (July/Aug)
- First round interview (Aug)
- Second round interview (Aug)
- Offer (Sept)
- Ideal start date: October 1
Our take
With a broader understanding of biodiversity more crucial than ever in the wake of climate change and manmade monocultures, iNaturalist’s digital species database is one of the largest in the world. With 400,000 active monthly contributors and 4 million monthly users, iNaturalist has created a database of 100 thousand species.
iNaturalist acts as a non-profit, and leverages advances in computer vision and data analysis. Founded in 2008, it has created an accessible mobile app and website that allows anyone to explore, research and contribute to databases of animals and plants. iNaturalist effectively runs as a social media network for professional and civilian eco-scientists.
What started as the Master's project of a Berkeley grad student became an independent entity thanks to a $10 million startup grant. With such a large user base, iNaturalist is an impressive feat of scientific cataloguing and a crucial addition to the digital learning marketplace.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Company benefits
- Why Join Us? Impact: Play a pivotal role in a mission-driven organization dedicated to biodiversity conservation and community engagement. Innovation: Leading a team of developers building cutting-edge technology that empowers millions of people to make a positive impact on nature. Growth: Be part of a growing organization with opportunities for personal and professional development. If you are passionate about biodiversity, technology, and leading talented teams to achieve meaningful impact, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity.
- A mission that matters. With species going extinct daily, the need to protect and document biodiversity has never been more essential. iNaturalist has become the go-to data source to measure biodiversity conservation and protection.
- A great team. Smart, hard-working nature lovers make up our small team. We live in countries all over the world but come together each day to further our mission. For this position, to facilitate collaboration across time zones, we require that you be a resident of and eligible to work in the lower 48 states (i.e., not Alaska or Hawaii).
- Flexible work. We are a virtual team, and most of this position’s work can be performed from home or wherever you are comfortable. You’ll even get some funds to set up your office and a monthly stipend to defray some of the costs. Once a year we travel to an annual, nature-filled team retreat.
- Great benefits. We offer a pretty awesome benefits package, including medical, dental, vision and life insurance, plus an employer-funded health reimbursement account and employee-funded flexible spending accounts. There is a 401k plan with a 5% match. This position is eligible for unlimited personal time off, and unlike some tech companies, we really mean it – everyone is expected to take a minimum of three weeks a year off. Eligible new parents get up to 12 weeks of paid leave and an additional 18 of unpaid.
Company HQ
San Rafael, CA
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