Instructure, the maker of The Canvas Learning Platform, used by 50M users around the globe is growing its presence in Budapest. As a result, we are looking for a VP of Engineering to lead the local Engineering team, be a key member of the Global Technology Leadership as well as being the site lead for the location.
The Canvas Product Platform is expanding beyond the core Learning Management System (LMS) integrating with recent acquisitions that enable Assessment Management, Assessment Analytics and Learning Analytics. Additional adjacencies will be added in the future. This is not just a business strategy. This integration is imperative if technology is going to have an increasingly positive impact on educational outcomes.
The engineering organization in Budapest will continue to grow and be responsible for key aspects of Canvas, Data & Analytics and other key Platforms central to our strategic success. Successful delivery and integration of our products and services will enable Instructure and our partners to deliver much more valuable solutions for the benefit of students, teachers, parents and administrators around the world.
Who you will be working with:
You will report to the CTO and support International VP’s/Head of Engineering. You will be a key member of the engineering leadership team. You will work closely with the product strategists and product management leaders to understand and influence the product strategy and roadmap. You will lead a team of Engineering Directors and Managers to plan, build, maintain and operate the products and services.
The Responsibilities:
The person selected for this position will be a strong all around leader with responsibility for driving efficacy across the following areas and beyond:
Team
- Build and lead a world-class Engineering team that is familiar with modern Product Development techniques (Agile, Lean, User Centered Design etc.).
- Provide both the guard rails for teams to be empowered and successful as well as the tools to hold people accountable.
- Understand team strengths, weaknesses and partner with the people team to develop team growth and development plans.
- Be a positive agent connecting the Budapest and International teams to do their best work collectively.
- Have experience leading a 100+ person team
Technology:
- Possess a deep understanding of modern Technologies and how to utilize those Technologies to drive efficiency for the customer and impact for the business.
- Provide strong architectural guidance for the team and the organization. Balancing with the need to have empowered teams, have a willingness to get into the weeds as needed to help teams be successful.
- Build world-class software as a service that meets the highest standards of operational excellence. Specific responsibilities include shared services used by all products; Data & Analytics products; Products and offerings to support a vibrant partner ecosystem.
- Have a strong passion for learning about new Technologies and innovation. As emerging technologies such as AI become more mainstream, help your teams identify opportunities to learn and use them for delivering everyday value.
Strategic Planning and Deliver
- Deliver a compelling vision for the team in partnership with your Technology team peers, Product Management, Architects and other stakeholders.
- Be a key player in taking concepts through to delivery, adopting and improving our processes as you do so.
- Be data informed and use data to make decisions. Instrument platforms to make the data readily available to make better decisions.
Engineering Excellence
- Advocate for strong Engineering principles including Automation, CI/CD, Quality, etc.
- As we adopt modern Technologies, set a high bar around Engineering Excellence, evangelizing and cultivating your team's skills.
- Be passionate about Developer Productivity, balancing purist concepts with what truly drives efficacy.
Process
- Embrace lightweight processes that help teams discover and deliver as effectively as possible.
- Support the team's use of daily practices such as Agile, Lean, Product Discovery, Design Thinking etc.
- Facilitate a learn fast/fail fast mentality, encouraging teams to build prototypes and measure impact before investing in large scale initiatives.
- Ensure teams understand the ROI of initiatives and how to effectively measure impact.
Culture
- As a key member of the Technology Leadership team, be a strong communicator capable of developing and supporting business and technology strategies.
- Be a strong partner for Product and Design as we focus on building solutions that meet the needs of our customers.
- Be a strong voice of the customer. Understanding the need to connect Engineering work to Impact, solving customer or business needs is critical.
- Demonstrate and exemplify Instructure Engineering values, standards and practices.
- Listen, consult, research. Help teams make the best decision for the betterment of the org.
- Think beyond your scope and help your peers be successful.
Skills Needed
- Track record of leading Senior Managers and Directors across multiple product lines.
- Passion for identifying, hiring, developing, and retaining exceptional talent around the world.
- Experience in SaaS/PaaS development that delivered value to partners and developers.
- Maintain a large 24/7 SaaS product with amazing uptime.
- Experience working with International teams.
- Strong moral compass that aligns to department and company values.
- Experience with a diverse set of modern Technologies and concepts like AWS, MKS/Kafka, Identity, API definition, Data and Analytics, AI etc.
- Willingness to make the complex trade offs between standards and team agility to achieve effectiveness and efficiency.
- Have launched multiple products and learned some stuff.
- Place team above ego.
- Enough humility to admit when you’re wrong and learn from both your mistakes and your successes.
- Experience and expertise in the Lean-Agile principles and development methodologies.
- Be the kind of leader that people seek out for guidance.
- Displaying initiative and an ability to lead others.
- Ability to work creatively and analytically.
- Business acumen that can interpret and translate business goals into technical specifications, engineering plans & processes and working code.
- Business knowledge, a command of your craft and interpersonal skills to build, maintain and influence relationships with senior leaders.
Get in on all the awesome at Instructure
- Competitive salary, equity and 401k.
- Medical, dental, disability, and life insurance.
- HSA program, vision, voluntary life, and AD&D.
- Tuition reimbursement.
- Paid time off, 11 paid holidays, and flexible work schedules.
- LifeStyle Spending Account.
We’ve always believed in hiring the most awesome people and treating them right. We know that the more diverse we are, the more diverse our ideas will be and when we openly welcome those ideas, our environment is better and our business is stronger.
At Instructure we participate in E-Verify and yes, in case you didn't catch it from the above, we are an Equal Opportunity Employer.
All Instructure employees are required to successfully pass a background check upon being hired.
