Head of Engineering

OpenMined; Remote; CAD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A mission-driven technology organization based in Toronto, is looking for an Engineering Lead to guide the team towards building an open information network. You will be responsible for managing a fully remote team, mentoring tech leads, and ensuring alignment with the organization's mission. The ideal candidate will have experience in managing engineering teams in a remote setting, a proven track record in software development, and the ability to balance rapid innovation with production development. This role offers the opportunity to make a meaningful impact in the world.

Benefits

Mission-driven work

Open source contribution

Collaborative global team

Flexible work hours

Fully remote work

Results-driven culture

Flexible paid time off

Competitive compensation

Qualifications

• 2+ years experience managing multiple layers of engineers in a remote setting.
• 5+ years as a software developer with empathy towards the team.
• Experience in organizations of 25-50 people is preferred.
• Willingness to travel for off-site meetings 5+ times a year.
• Comfortable balancing rapid prototyping with production development.

Responsibilities

• Grow engineering team from 10 to 15-20 within the next year.
• Mentor tech leads and cultivate engineering vision.
• Ensure team alignment with the engineering strategy.
• Oversee software robustness and security.

Skills

Managing remote teams

Experience with Python

Leadership in a fully remote organization

Finding product market fit

Management of engineers

B2B and C2C software knowledge

Rapid prototyping and production development

Job description

Overview

About The Role

If we are successful, you will lead the engineering team to build the public internet for the world's non-public information — unlocking 1,000,000x more data in every scientific field and industry, and ensuring it is offered to the world as a part of an open, public information network. If the world avoids entrapping its private data in a walled garden, it will avoid this failure because you led an ambitious engineering team to open and de-silo the world's information. And on the heels of 1,000,000x more data hitting every scientific field and industry, a world-wide innovation boom will owe a debt of gratitude to you, and to the people you led through a challenging technological transition.

Responsibilities

• Growing our engineering team from 10 to 15-20 within the next year
• Fostering the culture of the engineering team (special challenges : fully remote, distributed, non-profit, open-source, ambitious, mission-driven organization which is pre-product market fit... 1000 ways to not make a lightbulb type culture)
• Mentoring tech leads
• Working with the engineering team to cultivate an engineering vision and strategy which can deliver on the Chief Product Officer's product roadmap and OpenMined's overall mission (special challenges : tech transfer, integration science, cross-disciplinary across distributed systems, cryptography, and deep learning; pre-product market fit, many rapid pivots while also gaining progress over time — constantly calibrating software stability and speed of innovation)
• Final signoff on timeline estimates for features and for cultivating a team which can meet timelines (and manage expectations when timelines need adjusting)
• Ensure that each member of the engineering team is aligned to the engineering strategy — and to OpenMined's mission overall (special challenges : our vision doesn't have widely recognized buzz words, we're still discovering how to describe different facets, balancing short-term vision with long-term vision focus, translating across technical and non-technical stakeholders, translating for both internal and external audiences)
• Own the long term robustness and security of the software built by OpenMined
• Manage the tradeoff between the forward advancement of the codebase and the accumulation of technical debt along the way
• Managing uncertainty and people experiencing uncertainty (special challenges : tech transfer, pre-product-market fit, ambitious goal, many pivots)
• Collaborating with the leadership team (fellow department leads and the executive director) to create the organization's strategic plan, including long-term, annual, and quarterly goals
• At the end of the day, you are responsible for the quality of the codebase which gets delivered to users — as a function of the culture, tradeoffs, and architecture you steward. This will probably be hard to do if you don't write some code — but also it's a management role

Qualifications

• 2+ years experience managing 2+ layers of engineers in a fully remote org — we're looking for experience managing managers
• 5+ years as a professional software developer (or similar) — we're looking for people who can empathize and guide software engineers
• 3+ years experience in an org of 25 - 50 people (can be cumulative across multiple orgs) — we're looking for a member of our leadership team with experience in orgs our size
• 2+ years of senior leadership experience in a remote capacity (i.e. reporting to the CEO / ED) — we're looking for a member of our leadership team with experience managing remote teams
• 3+ years experience with Python, AI — it would be difficult to up-skill on AI and Python while on the job
• Comfortable with both B2B and C2C software — our tech roadmap includes both dynamics
• Comfortable balancing rapid prototyping AND production development — this is one of the most persistent core challenges our engineering team faces on a day-to-day basis
• Experience finding product market fit and then scaling — this is the current chapter of our organization
• Willingness to travel to off-sites 5+ times a year (we have quarterly leadership team meetings in person — most frequently in NYC)
• Willingness to take meetings outside of standard hours — our team is remote and our customer base is global

Benefits

• Mission-Driven Work : Be part of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, focused on social impact rather than profit, offering the chance to make a meaningful difference in the world
• Open Source Contribution : Make a real impact by contributing to an Open Source project that benefits a broad community
• Collaborative Global Team : Join a dynamic, international team that values collaboration and diversity
• Flexible Work Hours : Enjoy the autonomy to structure your work hours around what best fits your life and productivity
• Fully Remote Work : Work from anywhere in the world—no office or commute required
• Results-Driven Culture : Thrive in an environment that values efficiency and results over bureaucracy
• Flexible Paid Time Off : Take the time you need with flexible vacation days, alongside recognition of local national holidays
• Competitive Compensation : Receive competitive pay, with equity in salary across different regions