Engineering Manager

About the role

We’re looking for a hands-on Engineering Manager to join a newly formed squad with the goal of developing a new sustainability reporting platform that meets the needs of what we call ‘private companies’. This is very much a ‘startup within a startup’ squad, hence you’d be a key driver in helping the organization expand into a new market segment. There is still a lot of uncertainty around what the real customer and user value is, so you’ll need to have an experimental, iterative mindset where through rapid delivery you’ll work to uncover what our customers really need.

The squad is still forming and for now, is composed of a Product Manager and another Engineer, but success dependent could grow quickly in the future. You’ll need to orient yourself quickly with this new business domain, work collaboratively with various stakeholders, and bring to bear your problem-solving skills to deliver an MVP that will help Novata establish a foothold in this emerging market.

This role is ideal for an engineering manager who likes to get hands-on with products in their infancy. You’ll get to work across the full stack, building frontend components, creating API endpoints, and stitching together cloud services to deliver real end-user value, fast. In addition, you’ll also be responsible for managing the workstream and backlog to ensure things flow effectively and efficiently through the squad, alongside some people management duties helping guide and coach your reports to unlock their potential.

You will spend your time

• Applying your skills, knowledge, and experience to develop and maintain a new sustainability reporting platform targeting individual companies.
• Leading the members of your squad, supporting them in breaking problems down into value-focused deliverables.
• Ensuring the squad maintains a high level of performance, whilst fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
• Contributing to our guilds, sharing what you’ve learned, and ensuring that knowledge and best practices are socialized throughout the collective.
• Line managing your reports, setting clear goals and objectives, and managing individuals' performance through coaching and continuous feedback.
• Fulfill additional duties as requested.

We use and teach

• TypeScript, React and Node.js for our platform
• Postgres, Metabase and Snowflake for data storage
• GitHub for source control and Jira for change management
• Docker to package our services into containers
• Harness, GitHub and Argo CD for CI/CD
• DataDog for monitoring and observability
• AWS for infrastructure, specifically EKS, RDS and S3
• Terragrunt and Terraform for infrastructure orchestration

Requirements

You should apply if

• 8 or more years of demonstrable experience developing testable, modular, and extensible code that covers that entire web application stack using TypeScript/JavaScript, React, and Node.js.
• 1-3 years of experience building and leading high-performance engineering squads.
• You are interested in (or have recently moved into) an eng management role.
• You have experience leading teams in the successful delivery of high-impact initiatives.
• You have a product mindset, are passionate about customer outcomes, and want to make data-informed decisions.
• You have a start-up mentality and are responsible, energetic, ambitious, and adaptable.
• You are hands-on and able to jump in on technical challenges to support your team.
• You aren’t afraid to make decisions, have good judgment, and act with purpose and intention to progress our mission.
• You like to approach problem-solving pragmatically and appreciate the importance of building the right thing vs building the thing right.
• You have a keen attention to detail, you care about the operational aspects of software delivery.

About Novata

Novata is a public benefit corporation created and funded by a unique consortium of foundations and private sector companies including the Ford Foundation, the Omidyar Network, S&P Global, and Hamilton Lane. We are a for-profit, mission-driven company with the goal of empowering the private markets to build a more inclusive and sustainable form of capitalism. By bringing together the brightest minds in financial data, private equity, social justice, and inclusive capitalism, we aim to build the best technology and tools for the private markets to better collect, analyze, benchmark, and report ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) data. We have an experienced and diverse team who are as ambitious about growing a successful company as we are about making an impact.

About the Product and Engineering team

We’re a team of around 55 mixed-discipline individuals, split into 6 cross-functional squads. We focus on outcomes, not output, hence we like to be quite experimental and study the data to uncover where the real value is for our customers. Squads have the autonomy to decide how they want to work best, but it just so happens that all squads currently work in 2-week sprints, with the goal of delivering a thin vertical slice of value every iteration.

Benefits

What’s in it for you

• Anticipated salary up to £115-130k per annum depending on your experience plus stock options
• Hybrid approach to working, with regular coworking days in our London office as well as access to offices in New York
• 30 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays
• A non-contributory pension scheme of 9% of your base salary from us
• Comprehensive private medical insurance for you and your dependents.
• Life Assurance and Income Protection

Be aware that

• This is a hybrid role, applicants are expected to spend at least 1 day per week in a Novata office although if that doesn’t work for you we do have some flexibility on allowing more remote work.
• Applicants must be located in and eligible to work in the UK. Sorry, but we can’t currently support or sponsor visa applications.