About Toptal
Toptal is a global network of top freelance talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on-demand. With $200+ million in annual revenue and over 40% year-over-year growth, Toptal is the world’s largest fully remote company.
We take the best elements of virtual teams and combine them with a support structure that encourages innovation, social interaction, and fun. We see no borders, move at a fast pace, and are never afraid to break the mold.
Position Description
As a leader of the Desktop App team, you will be working on one of the recently introduced channels in our business. As Engineering Manager, you’ll have an opportunity to build the best team, lead the work and make a significant impact on the project itself.
The Desktop App team is a very fresh team, with just a few Engineers working on the Proof of Concept. For the first few months expect some hiring and team building challenges plus a lot of brainstorming that will show the direction that the product is going to take.
The unique nature of the team means you’ll have creative freedom to shape the processes and the culture of the team to meet the demands and the challenges. This is a rewarding position for an Engineering Manager with a desire to fit the processes and tools to the needs, not the other way around.
This is a remote position that can be done from anywhere. Due to the remote nature of this role, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship. Resumes and communication must be submitted in English.
Responsibilities:
You will be leading a team of highly skilled professionals to create and maintain world-class products used by our network.
Among other responsibilities:
- Set goals for your team based on the OKR framework.
- Understand the big picture of what your team is doing and why.
- Inspire and motivate your team.
- Identify your stakeholders and communicate with them regularly and proactively.
- Communicate proactively with your team and the Product Manager.
- Maximize team engagement.
- Give their team members immediate feedback if necessary.
- Establish proper feedback loops in their team.
- Participate in regular performance reviews: for your team members and everybody you are regularly interacting with (Product Manager, Product Designers, etc.).
- Be aware of engineering-wide technical and people initiatives and be open to help if necessary.
- Facilitate technical discussions.
- Resolve both technical and social conflicts when you feel you need to step in.
- Push for high code quality by frequent code reviews.
- Ensure the overall output quality e.g. whether delivered features are what was actually agreed, the quality of the source code, and so on. As a leader, you are responsible for the overall output.
- Mentor team members when you feel they could be better programmers or team players in general.
- Bring up difficult and/or systemic challenges and impediments to the attention of their Director of Engineering or other engineering management.
- As an Engineering Manager, you are first and foremost a leader, not a developer. This doesn’t mean though that you don’t stay up to date with programming-related topics and make sure that you get their hands dirty on a regular basis.
- Initiate discussions about personal and career growth with your direct reports.
- Own process of ticket creation and ticket quality, as well as effective grooming and planning. You make sure these parts are taken care of in a timely manner and at the most suitable depth for a performant team.
- Lead the recruiting and hiring process of the team.
In the first expect to:
- Get introduced to Toptal and its culture, meet colleagues, and receive access to documentation and repositories.
In the first month expect to:
- Conduct regular 1:1s with your teammates, and begin to understand their strengths and aspirations.
- Work with your team and understand its mission and roadmap.
In the first three months expect to:
- Lead your team’s efforts from planning to delivery.
- Set new processes in the team.
In the first six months expect to:
- Set and follow through at least one full quarter of OKRs.
- Build a deep understanding of the mission, constraints, and capabilities of your team and squad.
- Develop relationships with engineers, team leads, and other colleagues to maximize cross-collaboration whenever beneficial.
- Contribute improvement suggestions at an Engineering-wide and even Company-wide level.
In the first year expect to:
- Make a big impact on the product.
- Organize at least one team gathering.
- Define yearly OKRs with and for your team.
Requirements:
- Have 2+ years of engineering experience with JavaScript.
- Have 1+ years of previous experience leading a product development or a growth team.
- Have a solid understanding of development and quality assurance methodologies and concepts.
- Have a track record of making an impact as an engineer and as an engineering manager.
- Have experience guiding the continuous improvement of processes and technology.
- Thrive on providing and receiving honest but always constructive feedback.
