Engineering Director, HopSkipDrive
$200-220k
+Equity in the form of Stock Options
More information about location
Safe youth transportation solution
Job no longer available
Safe youth transportation solution
501-1000 employees
Job no longer available
$200-220k
+Equity in the form of Stock Options
More information about location
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To create opportunity for all through mobility.
Role
Who you are
- You should be obsessed with creating high-functioning, engaged and motivated organizations
- You are also an excellent communicator and can simplify technical concepts in a way to explain them to non-technical partners, and take business direction and explain it to the technology team in a way that inspires and guides them
- Director level (or higher) experience at technology focused start-ups. Additional leadership experience with established, larger companies is a plus
- 5+ years experience as a professional software engineer (IC)
- 3+ years of professional Ruby on Rails
- 2+ years experience managing software engineers
- 2+ years in a senior leadership role, specifically managing/leading other managers and organizations
- A mindset of Continuous Improvement
- Excellent oral and written communication skills with technical and non-technical teammates and show a high level of emotional and professional maturity
- A high level of craftsmanship about your work, the end experience of the user, and impact on overall product
- Expertise with Agile Software Development practices and able to adopt the appropriate process to fit the needs of a team
- Successful track record of directing multiple teams delivering high-impact projects in a fast-paced environment
- Experience leading a diversity-focused hiring process for individual contributors and managers
- Above all, you want to build something that fundamentally improves the lives of families
What the job involves
- As the first Director of Engineering at HopSkipDrive, you will lead a significant area of our engineering organization, focusing on developing products, systems, and processes for ensuring the operational excellence of all HopSkipDrive rides
- This group will include several cross-functional teams focused on Ruby on Rails, ReactJS, and mobile application development
- Your direct reports will be the engineering managers for those teams.You will report to the VP of Engineering
- One of your primary concerns will be ensuring smooth execution of complex deliverables. To that end, you will focus on ensuring that we continually evaluate and refine our development/infrastructure standards and processes to create technology that will deliver sustained value to the business
- You are responsible for maintaining a high performance, high velocity organization, measuring and iterating on processes as we grow and evolve as a business
- You will be the leader for recruiting, headcount management and planning, career growth, and training for your part of the organization. As necessary, you will manage vendor relationships and participate in the budgeting process
- As an engineering director you are responsible for the organization’s overall technical competence, guiding and growing that competence in the whole team as necessary via training and hiring
- You will not be generally expected to write code on a day-to-day basis; however, you should have a strong technical background and spend some of your time researching new technologies and staying abreast of trends in the tech industry
- You will be expected to help debug and triage critical systems, and should understand the systems you oversee well enough to perform code reviews and help research problems as needed
- You should contribute to the architecture and design efforts primarily by working with staff engineers to guide our technical design process and serving as the technically-savvy voice that asks business and product questions of the engineers on your teams, ensuring that the code we are writing matches the product and business needs and can scale appropriately as those needs grow
- Your impact will reach across multiple areas of the technology organization. You are responsible for creating and growing the next generation of leadership and management talent in the organization, helping that talent learn how to balance technical and people leadership and management
- You are expected to own retention goals in your organization. Additionally you are responsible for strategically balancing immediate and long-term product/business focused work with technical debt and strategic technical development
- As an Engineering Director you are a strong leader, and set the example for cross-functional collaboration both between technology and other areas of the company, and across divisions of technology
- The goal of this collaboration is to create both a strategic and tactical tech roadmap that tackles both business needs, efficiencies and revenue as well as fundamental technology innovation
- You will help to create a positive public presence for HopSkipDrive tech and are capable of selling the company and their area to potential candidates
- Due to your breadth of exposure to both technology and the business drivers, you are responsible for guiding the quarterly planning process for all of the teams in your organization, helping these teams articulate goals that support both business initiatives and technology and organizational quality
- Oversee 3-6 engineering teams, with the managers of those teams reporting to you
- Own the operational excellence of your teams. Empower their managers to build self-organizing teams with support from you
- Lead the hiring process for individual contributors and managers on your teams. Exhibit high standards when interviewing and evaluating prospective candidates
- Run Quarterly planning meetings, weekly managers meetings, and other meetings as appropriate
- Identify areas of strategic technical debt, do the cost/benefit analysis for resolving this debt and communicate suggested timelines for prioritizing this to your team’s managers
- Work with the Staff engineers to manage a “technical review” process for changes that impact multiple teams
- Lead teams through critical architectural decisions with a clear understanding of trade-offs
- Drive engineering teams to use best practices (i.e. documentation, technical reviews, etc) and incorporate standardized HopSkipDrive engineering practices and principles
- Manage the on-call process and schedule for your teams
- Foster professional development efforts
- Develop new management talent within the teams. Coach new managers in weekly 1:1s. Conduct performance reviews
- Drive a performance-based culture within your teams, ensuring consistent achievement of business and team health KPIs
- Collaborate with VP of Engineering on technical roadmap
Our take
Across the US, school transportation is under pressure as driver shortages, budget cuts, and rigid bus routes are making it harder for students to get to school safely and on time. This has opened the door for smaller vehicles and ride-hailing services to step in and support those students who don't fit neatly into traditional routes. HopSkipDrive has grown within this space, offering a flexible alternative that helps schools fill these gaps.
HopSkipDrive connects children with carefully vetted caregivers (often grandparents, nurses or childcare processionals) who then provide reliable rides when buses or public transport falls short. Operating in 17 states and supporting over 10,000 schools, the services has certainly eased commutes for many families.
And now the company is focsued on strenghtening its impact with technology and innovation. With its RouteWise AI platform it helps districts cut costs, improve efficiency and manage driver shortages, all while new safety modules and AI-driven planning tools continue to raise industry standards. With these advancements and a growing network of partners, the company is ready to keep shaping a more flexible futur for school transportation.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
23% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
Sep 2022
$37m
SERIES D
Aug 2021
$25m
SERIES C
Total funding: $107m
Company benefits
- Medical, Dental & Vision
- Health Spending Account
- Mental Health Resources
- Employee Assistance Program
- Short- & Long-Term Disability Insurance
- Paid Parental Leave
- 401K Plan
- Company Ownership/Equity
- Medical & Dependent Care FSA
- Travel Insurance
- Supplemental Legal
- Fully Remote Work Option
- Flexible Time Off
- 11 Annual Paid Holidays
- Week Closure at End of Year
- Sick Time Off for You and Family
- Home Internet Reimbursement
- Professional Development & Learning Stipend
- Remote & In-Person Quarterly Team Events
- Internal Rewards & Recognition Program
- Employee Referral Bonuses
Company HQ
Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA
Leadership
Joanna McFarland
(Co-Founder & CEO)Former Board Member at the Marketplace Industry Association and LA Tech.org.
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