Our client is a leader in predictive analytics. The company’s software platform analyzes organizations’ customer data in order to better predict their preferences and churn. This in turn enables businesses to maximize revenue growth by targeting and customizing marketing campaigns and optimizing their lead lists.
Headquartered in Toronto, our client boasts a validated, affordable, plug-and-play solution that any customer-facing business can use by simply uploading their data to the company’s website. The company’s platform is quickly gaining traction in industries including professional sports, daily deals and online retail.

Scope of Position

Broadly, the objective of the role of the VP Engineering is to cultivate an environment that attracts, deploys and retains the human and other resources required to effectively develop, deliver and support the company’s platform and applications providing value to the company’s customers, while meeting the business strategy and goals for profitable growth.

Reporting to the CEO, the VP Engineering will be responsible for providing leadership in the development and delivery of the company’s offerings ensuring throughout that they scale with the company’s growth. The company is growing quickly and boasts a team that is loyal, creative and committed to the company’s innovative products and the satisfaction of their customers.

Functional Tasks

• Lead a team of software developers (development, QA and support).
• Develop strategic planning for and direction/control of product development activities.
• Hire, train and manage direct reports, along with their goal setting, performance management and development feedback.
• Estimate and schedule completion of goals.
• Aid in architecting solutions that enable successful product delivery using the latest distributed IT systems (e.g., Apache Spark, Cassandra, NoSQL, etc.)
• Anticipate future growth and complexity and balance the need for predictability and creative license.
• Help determine and eventually manage the overall engineering budget.
• Develop reliable, robust software on-time, within cost targets, using accepted state-of-the-art Agile methodologies balancing the demands of release content, quality and desired release dates.
• Ensure the optimal application of technology and engineering resources to meet the product development and/or customer requirements and deadlines.
• Maintain keen awareness of the trends and conditions in technology, products and development tools relative to the needs of the company’s customers and businesses.
• Work with executive management to shape the future direction of the company.
• Establish key indicators for competitive performance in completion of development projects and for rapid, realistic decisions on strategies, plans and projects.
• Maintain awareness of applicable public support for development activities and for human resource development.

Key Performance Deliverables

In light of the identified responsibilities, the following are specific deliverables that the position is designed to achieve.

• Cycle time excellence and on-time product delivery to market.
• Quality of service and customer satisfaction.
• Retention and recruiting.
• Employee satisfaction and motivation.
• Development of staff e.g., goals completed, performance reviews completed, etc.
• Functionality and performance.
• Budget management as well as product cost.
• Product reliability.
• Innovation as measured by benchmarking against competitive products.
• Productivity e.g., developers/revenue ratio.
• Responsiveness e.g., to market changes, customers.
• Achievement of overall corporate goals.

Competency Profile

The following competencies listed below define the role of VP Engineering :

Role Expertise
Demonstrates critical technical or professional knowledge/skills related to the role. Has thorough knowledge of relevant products, services and methods. Expands technical knowledge/skills and keeps up-to-date in own area of expertise.

Planning & Objective Setting
Systematic in approach to work. Produces action plans in which objectives are defined and steps for achieving them are clearly specified. Plans by breaking down large tasks into subtasks. Develops plans that anticipate obstacles. Is realistic about time-scales and builds in appropriate checkpoints, milestones and controls in order to ensure that desired results are realized.

People Management
Establishes and communicates clear priorities and sense of direction. Clarifies roles and responsibilities. Adapts management style to achieve optimum results.

Team Skills
Helps to create a sense of team spirit and harmonious relations through cooperation and support. Balances personal goals with those of the team. Fosters collaboration among team members.

Results Orientation
Focuses strongly on achieving agreed upon outcomes and ensures that key objectives are met. Conveys a sense of urgency and drives issues to closure. Aims to improve upon past performance. Establishes aggressive personal targets and strives to achieve them.

Problem Solving
Draws parallels across situations and contexts. Divides problems into their individual elements. Develops several explanations or alternatives. Separates the core of a problem from its symptoms and can identify cause and effect.

Quality Orientation
Strives for excellence in products, processes and/or services through continued evaluation, enhancement and redefinition of quality standards.

Commercial Acumen
Applies appropriate commercial and financial principles. Understands situations in terms of costs, profits, added-value and return on investment. Appreciates the commercial impact of own work on the organization’s total expenses and revenues.

Preferred Experience / Education

The following indicates specific industry, academic and functional experience/qualifications that are important to the successful achievement of the identified responsibilities and performance deliverables.

• 3+ years software engineering management background.
• Experience with different software development methodologies including Agile.
• Ability to motivate people, instill accountability, and achieve results in a young and growing company.
• Excellent communication and people management skills.
• The successful candidate will have worked outside of large, bureaucratic, process-heavy organizations. Early stage familiarity and adeptness required.
• The successful candidate will have been successful scaling development organizations.
• The successful candidate will be hands-on, detail-oriented and able to anticipate problems and head off projects that are headed astray and have the ability to get products back on track.
• 10+ years software development experience.
• Competitive compensation and equity package structured for the successful candidate.