First, see this.

See detailed description of the Prerequisites, Technical Skills & Team Expectations, Professionalism, Continuous Improvement, and People Management expectations for this role in our comprehensive Zoobean Engineering Manager Role description.

The Big Picture

Do you enjoy applying your creative and technical skills to technology that impacts peoples’ lives for good? Are you interested in helping motivate students and communities to read? As part of Zoobean’s product team, you will have the opportunity to help shape products that build lifelong reading habits for readers all around the world.

We are looking for an Engineering Manager that is able to build and strengthen relationships, as one of your primary focuses will be on the health and culture of the team. You will ensure team members are motivated and have the knowledge, context, and processes necessary to work efficiently and effectively. You will work closely with the CTO, Product Manager, and other team members to develop an expert understanding of our domain and then translate that into features and solutions that contribute to the evolution of our product.

You will join a kind, generous, and entrepreneurial crew of thirty full-time teammates, including eight product team members. The best part is that you get a unique opportunity to use your strengths and skills to influence others to read more. After all, reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of engineers of various experience levels
• Work closely with the CTO and Product Manager in the agile planning process
• Ensure no work is started by team members without adequate articulation of scope, context, and high-level goals
• Actively monitor initiatives for technical risks and roadblocks and intervene when necessary to avoid and resolve
• Track performance metrics of operational efficiency for the engineering team
• Attend daily product standups, periodic product planning sessions, and team meetings
• Advise on short and long-term roadmap opportunities and efforts
• Foster a culture that creates an environment where team members share knowledge on areas of subject matter expertise via pairing, lunch and learns, and presentations
• Support professional development plans for team members and discuss regularly on a one-to-one basis
• Ensure team members consistently adhere to team-agreed best practices surrounding coding standards, code reviews, and QA efforts
• Play a key role in enhancing our product’s overall quality and performance

Skills and Experience

• 5+ years of experience in Engineering and Product roles
• 1+ year in an engineering leadership role managing software engineers
• Expert knowledge of Ruby on Rails
• Solid understanding of engineering best practices
• Analytical thinker with exceptional problem-solving skills
• Ability to communicate effectively, clearly, and concisely in written and verbal form
• A strong sense of customer empathy and desire to influence product direction
• History of getting the best out of people by creating collaborative, high performing team environments

A Big Plus

• Experience working in a startup environment
• Experience working with an all-remote team
• Experience building user-facing features that impact engagement
• Knowledge of AngularJS, React and/or React Native

Salary and Benefits

• $130K to $190K plus equity in line with data on industry benchmarks from Carta’s Total Compensation tool
• Participation in company’s stock incentive plan
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401K Plan with company match
• Participation in company's quarterly bonus plan for employees
• Work from home with the option to have the company lease co-working space on your behalf
• $500 home office setup stipend
• Optionally participate in our annual team “break” where we kick back together at a resort
• At least 15 vacation days annually + a one week winter break from Xmas Eve to New Year's Day
• Office closed for all federal holidays
• $1,200 annual professional development stipend

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Zoobean’s flagship products help people achieve reading goals by tracking reading and participating in reading challenges. We serve more than 10,000 public library and school clients in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Over ten million readers currently use our platform, Beanstack, to track their reading, earn incentives, and stay motivated to read.

Our Shark Tank appearance brought us Mark Cuban as an investor. We have since picked up Kapor Capital, Militello Capital, AlphaLab Gear, RevUp Capital, and the AT&T Aspire Accelerator as believers and backers to our wonderful cause. Our customers range from big to small and include the Los Angeles Public Library, the Hawaii Department of Education, and the Department of Defense.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We believe diversity breeds innovation. We're building a product that helps librarians, educators, and families everywhere, and to do that well, we need a workforce that’s representative of the population we serve. We are actively looking to add members to our team who will bring diverse backgrounds, new perspectives, and a willingness to challenge us to improve the work we do every day.

From the Heart

At Zoobean, we live out three core values that are represented in our logo:

• Love: We are passionate about the work we do and give everything we can to our customers, investors, and each other.
• Inclusion: Our company grew out of a calling to help children and families see themselves in the books they read. That same commitment to diversity runs through all we do and gives each of us an opportunity to express our full selves while feeling a sense of belonging to a larger community.
• Awesomeness: This one speaks for itself.

If this hits you in the heart and mind, then come work with us.