Director of Engineering

We're looking for an experienced Director of Engineering to serve as a technical lead for a project team with a focus on implementing code, creating solutions at a systems level, and mentoring other engineers.

Directors of Engineering at Coforma are project-level leaders, and also the first level of engineering management, serving as a contributing senior member of the Engineering organization and Coforma at large with a focus on agile execution, program delivery, and team education. As a Director of Engineering, you'll tackle complex problems while working with other members of our cross-disciplinary teams to deliver elegant solutions across a full, modern technology stack. You are an expert at understanding the idiosyncrasies of various front-end and back-end frameworks, with an understanding of modern DevSecOps that allows you to advise and deliver solutions across multiple platforms and environments.

You will have exceptional insight into building scalable web applications, and the ability to project influence across both the project and the company, coupled with a hands-on attitude and willingness to drive projects from inception to completion. You provide clear, strong, and visible leadership, principally within projects, while also producing work that inspires engineers both inside and outside of the company. Additionally, you will provide mentorship for engineers both inside and outside of your area of focus. You will also serve as a leading subject-matter expert for the Engineering organization at Coforma, helping us establish engineering best practices across projects, and serve as a technical point of contact for our partners (some of whom may require technical matters broken down into plain language).

In addition to contributions to project deliverables, leading and coding, you'll manage a set of engineers. directly coaching and mentoring them, supporting their career path and development, and helping ensure their safety and happiness at Coforma.

A full description of the role’s responsibilities is listed in more detail below but key things to know include: this role will serve as a technical leader on a project; this role will will lead and mentor the engineers on your project, working with their managers to drive development and growth; this role will work in coordination with product management, delivery, and design to create a successful and safe environment for the team; and this role will manage other engineers both on and off project.

$164,000—$180,000 Base Salary + Benefits + Growth Potential

Exact compensation may vary based on skills and experience.

This is a U.S.-based remote position open to candidates in select states* and some travel will be required.

*Note: to ensure we remain compliant with all state, county, and local tax regulations, applicants must reside in one of the following states to be considered for employment with Coforma. This list will be updated periodically as our PeopleOps team works to open up hiring in additional states.

-Arizona

-California

-District of Columbia

-Florida

-Georgia

-Idaho

-Illinois

-Maine

-Maryland

-Massachusetts

-Montana

-Nevada

-New Mexico

-New York

-North Carolina

-Oregon

-Tennessee

-Texas

-Vermont

-Washington

-Wisconsin

What You'll Do — Team & Leadership

• Representing 25% of your time, you’ll manage a team of engineers who work across multiple projects. You’ll also collaborate with engineering leadership to support team growth, health, and evolution 
• Manage up to 6 engineers and guide them in their professional development through regular 1:1s and ad hoc support
• Guide and educate teams on engineering best practices
• Demonstrate a passion for learning, ability to create and adapt systems, and ability to collaborate with creative, technical, and business stakeholder team members
• Model and promote a highly collaborative, responsible, and ethical culture
• Direct and guide engineering teams, particularly with a focus on aligning our engineering efforts with our human-centered design (HCD) principles
• Contribute to the ongoing formation and maintenance of Coforma’s engineering processes
• Participate in business development efforts (proposals, presentations, etc.), when needed, providing expertise on product development and the delivery of engineering services
• Serve as a member of the engineering leadership team, discussing overall engineering strategy and helping to lead cross-vertical initiatives and projects

What You'll Do — Projects & Programs

• Representing 75% of your time, you’ll provide clear, strong, and visible leadership within projects, often acting as the engineering lead
• Lead engineering teams, in partnership with other disciplines, through both discovery and solution articulation, with a focus on integration and reducing burden
• Collaborate with researchers, designers, government/client stakeholders, product managers, delivery leads, and other engineers to understand and articulate requirements and constraints
• Communicate strategy to stakeholders through influence and presence
• Communicate and share often in written, verbal, and visual forms to create alignment and move the work towards implementation
• Identify weaknesses or risks and make recommendations to mitigate
• Analyze problems and determine appropriate course correction measures as necessary
• Step outside of your comfort zone to deliver on clients needs and contribute to Coforma’s success
• Act in a calm and steadfast way through both new development and when diving into legacy codebases
• Articulate the benefits and risks associated with different technical approaches in different functional environments

What You’ve Done

• 8+ years professional experience developing software in a team environment
• 5+ years experience with JavaScript and/or TypeScript
• 5+ years experience building applications using modern technologies such as React, Angular, or Vue on the front end and Node or Ruby+Rails on the back end 
• 5+ years experience working with APIs
• 5+ years experience with cloud infrastructures
• 5+ years experience with code-first approaches or database-first approaches to development
• 4+ years of experience managing teams in a complex product ecosystem with many sets of stakeholders

What You Know

• Comfortable communicating complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences effectively
• Familiarity with several modern front-end and back-end development frameworks
• Comfortable with back-end services: APIs, caching, auth, async, logging, client server integrations, and data persistence
• Capable of delivering application architectures and code that are highly scalable, available, and performant
• Operational knowledge of the software development lifecycle, virtual machine environments, and modern DevSecOps

Who You Are

• Analytical – analytical skills and an ability to create systems
• Planner – will anticipate what could go wrong when planning and coordinating, thoughtfully mitigating risks 
• Organized – will prioritize projects, complete tasks on time, and both document and share processes with others as needed
• Cooperative – will work collaboratively with peers, top executives, and high-level contacts; cooperate with staff across different teams, departments, and expertise
• Communicative – will communicate ideas and create personal relationships through writing and in-person exchange, customizing the delivery to the audience
• Travel flexibility – will attend in-person meetings, workshops, trainings, and more on request and with advance notice as assigned to projects that require it (up to 10-15%, with health and safety precautions being paramount)
• Calm and nimble – will navigate a fast-paced environment and ambiguity, changing priorities, and unexpected project challenges
• Autonomy – will to get work done fairly self-directed, requiring minimal supervision or direction from others
• Continual learner – is committed to ongoing learning and knowledge sharing
• Delegation and time management – will oversee multiple engineers on a project at once, keeping projects on schedule and engineers working within established deadlines and budget
• Brand representative – will represent Coforma professionally and sincerely, modeling the company values to be and help others be collaborative, accessible, empowered, informed, ethical and responsible, values-driven, and transparent for the sake of accountability and community

Other

• Internet – will prioritize and maintain access to strong, reliable internet for the remote nature of our work (except when on vacation/holiday)
• Security – will keep the highest security practices to ensure privacy and security of Coforma and client information given the nature of our work (even when on vacation)
• Full-time U.S. resident and citizen of the United States (must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. now and in the future without sponsorship)

We Don't Care About

• Whether or not you have a degree of any kind
• Whether your educational major, if you had one, is related to this role
• Whether or not you have GitHub contributions
• Whether or not you have worked at a well-recognized company
• Whether you’re sure that you check every single box perfectly

We Do Care About

• Your passions, professional or otherwise
• Your well-informed opinions about technology, teams, and process
• You

We participate in E-Verify. Upon hire, we will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the US.

Due to the nature of our work with the federal government, this role is required to work from the contiguous United States.

We're Coforma

The stress of job searching can make you wonder if you’re enough. Studies have even shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs when they don’t meet every qualification. We believe that you ARE enough, and that it’s okay not to meet every requirement. We’re building a culture that’s authentic, inclusive, and diverse. If you’re excited to work with us but not sure you check every box, apply anyway! You may be just right for this role or another one.

About Us

We use creativity to get results for clients and the communities they serve.

We’ve honed a modern, agile, user-centered approach that elevates human needs through thoughtfully-designed systems and products.

From connecting families in crisis at the US border to improving the way governments consume COVID-19 mobility data through a more accessible and user-friendly tool, we’re dedicated to improving people’s lives through thoughtful technology products and services. Together. Our cross-functional team works closely with each other and with our government, nonprofit, and commercial partners to research, design, and build better products and services.

Coforma employs over 100 talented creators. Our leadership has decades of experience in improving government digital services from a civic service mindset, and a strong record of developing innovative technology solutions for government, enterprise, and nonprofits.

We thoughtfully integrate design into product development. We are experts in leading the design and development of products to meet business goals, build alignment, and deliver value through technically feasible and iterative design activities.

Business objectives and human beings are at the center of our work. We work very closely and collaboratively with our partners, from solicitation through to delivery, to ensure that the solution provides a high level of value to the business. Accessibility is never overlooked in our work, and our iterative approach validates the utility and delight of the final product.

Equal Opportunity & Inclusive Workplace

Coforma is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, age, pregnancy, disability, work-related injury, covered veteran status, political ideology, marital status, or any other factor that the law protects from employment discrimination. Background checks and other security clearances may be required for some roles as it relates to the nature of our client work.

Our team and our office aims to be an accessible and hospitable place to work. We welcome applicants, contractors, and employees who are committed to improving our culture and practices.