VP Technology

What you’ll tell your friends you are doing

You make sure that the Software Engineering teams perform outstandingly and that they stay focused and select the best technologies for their tasks.

What you’ll really be doing

As our VP Technology, you will be part of a small passionate leadership team responsible for the performance and focus of our self-organizing Agile teams and for creating a high performing and innovative environment that attracts top digital talent.

You will build, lead and coach engineering teams that are highly passionate about delivering business value through innovative, high quality products and support them to maximize the impact they will have.

This position is based in Warsaw, Poland, with regular travels to Germany.

How you’ll get the job done

The scaling of the unit and department is just beginning to accelerate; so your responsibilities will evolve as the digital unit grows. For now we can say that your performance will focus on 3 main areas:

Envisage, Evangelize & Ensure Technical Excellence

• Create a culture and reputation for crafting high quality engineered solutions to complex problems using the best technology available with teams that take pride and accept accountability for the SDLC of their products as part of their role
• Lead and scale a team of top engineering talent, involving working with sourcing partners & direct hire recruiters
• Constantly research & experiment with new technologies and tools that can be used within the organization to deliver impact from engineering through to digitizing everyday internal processes
• Work across multiple teams to solve technical problems and provide thought leadership
• Oversee design & implement modern SDLC processes (DevOps and Continuous Delivery) to suit engineering ambitions, including continuous deployment pipelines, quality controls and automated testing
• Seek to ensure adherence to strict regulatory requirements regarding Security & Data Privacy without compromising on ambitious speed targets
• Manage key stakeholder relationships with senior management throughout group companies

Digital Product Delivery

• Create and foster an environment for high performance and innovation through self- organizing teams, visual management, subtle control and organizational transfer of knowledge and learnings
• Facilitate regular sessions for cross-functional exchange of learnings and knowledge as well as demoing products built
• Encourage and promote team contribution to open-source projects, creation of innovative products within the ins-tech ecosystem and participation in relevant technology conferences/meetups

Tracking Key Metrics and Empowering Team Performance

• Ensure product dashboards measuring success metrics are operational and visible to the team and key stakeholders
• Ensure teams balance speed and quality of product releases that are in line with company values (e.g., speed over perfection), product vision and business value
• Empower teams to work agile and self-organized, while ensuring that company values and standards are adhered to (e.g., procurement guidelines)
• Support the teams in removing delivery impediments
• Continuously provide valuable feedback and coaching to teams that will improve performance and team health
• Facilitate cross-team synchronization in case of product interdependencies to ensure transparency across teams, joint resolution of impediments and alignment on overarching priorities

​What we need from you for the role

• Our values are hugely important and we are looking for someone who believes in these combined with an appetite to continue to shape the priorities for the role with the leadership team
• At least 10 years of software development experience incl. working in agile teams and leadership positions in fast-paced digital technology environments
• Excellent team player, respected leader, and change agent that always challenges status quo
• Strong communication skills with the ability to get things done, “does not drop the ball” while also collaborating with team
• High accountability and responsibility: self-starting, self-motivated, self-directed, and self-sufficient
• Exceptional organizational and administrative skills, at ease with abundance of details and complexity, yet mindful of the big picture, the ability to handle multiple tasks, prioritize them, and carry them out independently
• A Bachelor’s degree is required, an advanced degree a plus
• Flexibility to travel and work outside of standard office hours
• Fluent English and Polish with excellent written and spoken proficiency, German a strong asset

Task-related skills and experience

• Excellent programming skills in at least 2 modern programming languages/ frameworks, such as Node.JS, Go Lang, Elixir, Java, C#, Ruby on Rails, C, C++, Python, or others
• Excellent working knowledge of HTML/ CSS, and a modern frontend Javascript framework, such as ReactJS, AngularJS, EmberJS, Vue.js
• Excellent knowledge of SQL and one common database technology, such as Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, CouchDB, HBase, Neo4J;
• Infrastructure knowledge including RESTful APIs, Single Sign On, LDAP, Search Technologies
• Experiences with code refactoring, design patterns, design-driven development, continuous deployment, highly scalable applications, application security
• Working knowledge and experience in designing distributed applications
• Working knowledge of DevOps, Docker, Kubernetes and infrastructure as code
• Good knowledge in the concepts of Functional Programming and Microservices
• Real passion for development and a demonstrated appetite for continual learning
• Knowledge of pair programming, continuous integration and test-driven development
• Experience with at least one unit testing framework, such as MochaJS, RSpec, Enzyme

Our path ahead and our core values

We are made up by a number of product teams, which are small, flexible and use agile and lean methods to design and deliver digital products and solutions. We are in the midst of a rapid growth phase with plenty of opportunities to help shape the path forward.

We work in a fast-paced environment driven by our five core values that we measure ourselves against every day. We put our users first by using experimentation, data and testing to understand their ‘true’ needs. We choose speed over perfection and understand the value of failing fast. We act like an owner by trusting ourselves and the team to make decisions and by taking responsibility individually and as a team. We stay curious and hungry and will constantly challenge ourselves to do better and more. Finally, we help shape the instech eco- system by leveraging and contributing to open source.

What we have to offer

• A fast-paced, dynamic environment where you can make a difference
• A start-up environment, backed-up by an established market leader
• A very competitive salary and the ability to grow
• A cool office space with perks and the newest ability to grow

What to do next

As we are currently setting up and branding the company, we ask for your understanding that we do not yet have a fancy website to show off. However, we have used all our IT savviness and set up a great and simple recruiting channel you can use to convince us that you are our new VP Technology. If you want to join our highly motivated and growing team, we are looking forward to receiving your application.