Vice President of Engineering

The Company

Metropolis develops advanced computer vision and machine learning technology that make mobile commerce remarkable. Our platform is already deployed in hundreds of mobility facilities and industries with billions in opportunity. We’re building the digital pipes through which the future of mobile commerce will move.

The Role

We are looking for an exceptional leader to join our team as Vice President of Engineering to lead the next phase of growth for the company. You will provide day-to-day leadership over the software engineering teams – recruiting, mentoring, leading, and solidifying a high-performing engineering culture, while putting in place the structure and processes to drive product velocity.

To be successful in this role, you must establish yourself as an engineering leader first. While you likely won’t be writing much code, you should still be capable of leading code reviews, guiding architecture decisions, and influencing the broader technology strategy. You should also understand how to best balance speed versus quality.

Most importantly, you should be a strong engineering leader that knows how to scale teams and processes while maintaining schedule predictability. Metropolis is going to grow 3x over the coming months. We need a leader who can mentor teams, develop future leaders, and create a cohesive culture of execution and innovation during periods of hyper growth.

Responsibilities 

• Scope. Lead and own all aspects of Applications Development (Front-End, Back-End, Mobile) and Quality Assurance strategy and execution working in partnership with the CTO and broader executive teams.
• Leadership. Manage and continue to develop the engineering team, ensuring they are committed to developing innovative solutions aligned with the company’s business model, values and vision. Implement an effective organizational structure that balances process, accountability and scalability with product velocity and innovation as Metropolis continues to scale.
• SDLC. Oversee the management and continuous improvement of the Software Development Lifecycle. Aim for iterative, rapid release cycles that ensure strong product velocity and innovation. Ensure robust coding standards and processes, including functional requirements analysis, design specification, technical code review, project planning, and implementation of applications, and systems.
• Roadmap. Work with the product, operations and other key stakeholders to develop clear requirements, ascertain priorities, and report progress. You will have accountability for a technology roadmap that balances the need for innovation with an ability to deliver. Establish a clear technology roadmap and continually assess build vs. buy vs. partner options and tradeoffs.
• Process. Review and continue to evolve engineering processes for best practices and recognizing how different team work best as well as applying good management that includes clear and direct communication, transparency, holding people accountable, and looking for problems early.
• Management. Establish process metrics and KPIs, quantitative techniques and quality control; keeping “the trains running on time” is a function of good project management that includes transparency, holding people accountable, and seeking out problems early. Constantly weigh risk against investment parameters to ensure they meet or exceed business objectives and maximize long-term ROI.
• Debt. Simultaneously balance technical debt against new product features, ensuring old problems don’t prohibit future progress. Develop a fast-paced organizational culture to create, prototype, test and release continuously improving versions of the product.
• Manage External Relationships. Own and drive relationships with all offshore teams and software vendors. Ensure these partnerships are successful and drive the intended level of results for the costs associated with these services. Assist with technical due diligence as part of all current and future M&A plans.
• Industry. Be part of developing a corporate understanding of Metropolis’ business risks, competitive landscape, and industry-wide (or niche) opportunities. Monitor the industry landscape for new technology trends, quickly evaluating and championing new solutions to keep Metropolis in their leadership position. Be a visionary about what it takes to be the winner in an incredibly large and attractive market with complex technology needs.
• Learning and Development. Create a learning-based organization that will continue to develop the skills of the technology team. Develop and oversee team members’ career progression.
• Recruit. Help lead the recruiting process for the software engineering, software quality, data engineering, and tech ops teams. Provide input and help guide the interview processes to ensure maximum candidate quality, efficient decision making, and candidate experience. Ensure hiring goals are on target – 2x growth this year.
• Culture. Ensure the technology team is excited to go to work every day, ready to produce results and make a positive difference in the world. Architect, codify, and continue to improve the team member journey from recruiting to onboarding to thriving at Metropolis. Formally and informally solicit cultural input from across the organization. Develop company traditions and programs to deepen team member engagement

Requirements and Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience developing software for large-scale web and mobile applications, ideally with a mix of both consumer and business-to-business environments.
• 5+ years of experience managing and mentoring high-performing technology teams of at least 50 engineers with a strong upward career trajectory, including exposure to high-growth, innovative environments.
• Candidates must have experience developing modern, distributed software systems at scale that demonstrate a technical advantage within their industry, including familiarity with Scala, Java, or other languages that run on the JVM.
• Deep knowledge of full stack modern development practices (e.g. DevOps, APIs, Microservices, etc.). 
• Experience building consumer-facing secure and compliant applications (e.g. data privacy/PII, payments/PCI, SOC).
• Proven ability to set and execute against a clear technology vision, including the ability to set in place the systems-level thinking to get there; you must be exceptional at identifying and breaking down problems to find unique solutions.
• Metropolis is looking for an engineer, not just a manager; while we would not expect you to code, you need to be very technical and be able to run code reviews, hire all levels of developers and construct the team from the deepest foundation.
• Firm grasp on the interconnected relationship between product and engineering teams with strong thoughts on how best to manage projects / teams effectively.
• Exceptional leadership, management communication, and presentation skills with experience building/managing relationships with business customers at executive and senior management levels.
• Previous experience working inside innovative, high-growth company environments trying to disrupt the status quo - startup experience valuable but not required.
• Experience with a broad range of systems, API's, protocols, and standards.
• Experience working with industry standard testing and code quality frameworks.
• Experience with platforms/systems supporting high numbers of users and transactions.
• Experience with Lean and Agile product development methods.
• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or similar STEM field of study.

When you join Metropolis, you’ll join a team of world-class product leaders and engineers, building an ecosystem of technologies at the intersection of parking, mobility, and real estate. Our goal is to build an inclusive culture where everyone has a voice and the best idea wins. You will play a key role in building and maintaining this culture as our organization grows.