Director of Engineering

Lead a dynamic technology team working to improve millions of lives.

Overview

Simprints builds innovative technology aimed to help some of the world's most vulnerable and marginalised populations access essential services. We work to radically increase transparency and effectiveness in global development, making sure that every vaccine, every dollar, every public good reaches the people who need them most. We design and develop both hardware and software by applying modern tools and pioneering technology in new, challenging contexts where there is little to no internet connectivity. Simprints is currently on track to help over 1.4 million people access critical services by 2021.

We are looking for a Director of Engineering who is passionate about delivering great technology and building a high-performing engineering team. Since Simprints has multiple engineering disciplines covering mobile, cloud, firmware, and hardware, we are seeking someone comfortable working with engineers of many stripes to deliver technology at scale. The ideal candidate will bring a mix of technical and managerial skills to build and support their team of 10-15 staff, using people management, hiring, and culture as primary levers for enabling team success. If building technology for global health sounds exciting, we want to meet you!

Our headquarters is located in Cambridge, UK. We like collaboration and speak to each other several times a day - between 10am and 3pm UK time. To keep the collaborative team spirit we are looking for colleagues in GMT -2/+3 - or colleagues who are able to relocate to the UK. UK visa sponsorship support will be considered on a case by case basis. At the time being, we will only be considering applicants within these parameters.

Responsibilities

• Deliver a high-quality product to our clients by leading and working closely with the product owners and engineers across the organization
• Build and lead a team of technical leaders, including engineering managers and technical leads, cultivating an environment of psychological safety and continuous learning
• Optimise engineering processes and resourcing across the core platform and project delivery engineering teams to deliver a sustainable and seamless flow of value
• Optimise engineering hiring processes to ensure Simprints attracts top talent
• Contribute to company-wide strategy and decision making as part of the leadership team

• Foundational knowledge of software development processes and testing. You believe in shipping quality products and care about having the right processes and testing to make it happen. Although you're no stranger to pivots, you like it when the trains run well and on time.
• Experience working in a team with a focus on code quality. You're happy in environments where design documents, testing, code reviews, and continuous integration are the norm.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.You've learned that crafting good technology requires great communication, and you can do that effectively on multiple levels: with engineers deep in day-to-day development and with teammates from across the company needing to see the bigger picture
• Track record of great management. You're an experienced manager who can bring the best of direct reports through feedback, coaching, and aligned goal-setting. You're confident managing those who are already capable contributors as well as those who need more hands-on guidance

• Former engineer with familiarity in Android, Backend (go lang), Embedded development and/or hardware design and manufacturing
• Familiarity with designing hiring processes to optimise for candidate quality, a positive applicant experience, and manageable burden on the team
• Organisational leadership skills to design structures to get the most out of each personality on the team
• Direct experience working as a mobile, backend, or other flavours of engineer

7 reasons to join Simprints

Life is short. We believe work should be awesome, meaningful, and fun. At Simprints we're taking on global development's biggest challenges, powered by incredible people and great partners. Some reasons to join this adventure:

• Genuine impact. This is the opportunity to spearhead our engineering team and develop technology whose impact will reach millions of beneficiaries.
• Work with great engineers using cutting edge tools. Work with engineers committed to writing high-quality code and the latest technologies, including:

Languages: Kotlin, Go, Typescript

Android libraries: Jetpack, Coroutines, Koin

Cloud infrastructure: Firebase, BigQuery, Cloud Functions, lots of other GCP tools

Other tools: Bitbucket Pipelines, Jira

• Flexible hours. More efficient late at night? Better before the sun rises? That's fine by us. We are looking for people who get the job done, not for people who work between 9am and 5pm.
• Unlimited paid time off. We set high quarterly goals, but give people the freedom to choose when and how to recharge. Join a team that trusts you with the job. And unlike some teams, we really mean it. Last year, the average Simprints employee took a total of 31 days off (annual leave plus UK bank holidays), an increase from 26 days two years ago.
• Fieldwork around the world. We make sure that every role—from software engineer to strategic partnerships lead—gets a chance to travel with the team and see our impact in person if they want to. 100% optional.
• Development and wellbeing. A generous Eduprints budget to spend on individual learning. In the past, Simprints engineers have spent this on attending tech conferences, enrolling in a Udacity nanodegree, and all the books you could possibly read.
• Quarterly free hacking. Two 'LEGO Days' each quarter where you can work on any project you want. Past projects have ranged from exploring image processing techniques to building a LEGO train to deliver beer around the office.