Software Engineering Manager

Job Description

OVERVIEW

Across our organization, we're building a workplace where collaboration is essential, diverse voices are heard, and inclusion is the key to our success.

Want to play a major role in the future of public radio today? Have a passion for technology, particularly open source? Care deeply about informing and serving the public? Have a knack for keeping the trains running on time and the know-how to make them run faster and more efficiently?

As a Software Engineering Manager on our Digital Media team, you'll be managing an established and growing team of best-in-breed software engineers, as we build, test, and deliver award winning products for NPR.org, our many public and internal APIs, mobile applications, and the systems that make it all run. You will partner closely with our Product, Design, and Editorial teams to identify priorities, build new features, and improve and maintain existing applications. You will nurture, teach, and keep the team focused.

Responsibilities:
• Manage, mentor, and coach a team of 3 to 5 Software Engineers, investing in their career growth and professional development
• Partner with design, product, editorial, and other subject matter experts in all stages of the product development cycle
• Lead the planning and scoping of future software projects
• Participate in daily stand-ups and other Scrum activities (e.g. backlog refinement, sprint planning, demos and retrospectives), occasionally leading such ceremonies as needed
• Provide consistent and substantive feedback on software designs and code written by engineers in the same focus area
• Suggest process improvements to improve the speed and quality of technical work
• Write code to automate away common blockers and pain points for the team
• Join the engineering on-call rotation after approximately 3 months
• Identify and respond appropriately to production problems
• Recommend new standards and best practices
• Hire for software engineering vacancies on your team and occasionally interview prospective employment candidates for other roles
• Lead the training and onboarding of staff new to the team and/or project

Qualifications:
• 2+ years experience in managing Software Engineers
• Prior experience crafting and shipping well-tested, well-documented and architecturally structured code for at least one large software project as an individual contributor
• A history of directing process improvements that enhance software quality and delivery
• Experience working in cross-functional Agile / Scrum team settings, collaborating closely with designers and product managers
• Fluency with functional JavaScript code (TypeScript preferred)
• Knowledge of cloud technologies such as AWS or GCP
• Experience working with a version control system (Git preferred)
• Ability to create and communicate practical technical designs and project plans
• Creativity, initiative, thirst for innovation and acute attention to detail
• Understanding of all stages of the product development cycle
• Empathy for users and passion for crafting great user experiences
• Ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical audiences

Bonus Points
• Training in coaching and other modern management techniques
• Any other Agile modality (other than Scrum) that you have experience working with
• Exposure to various types of databases, such as MySQL, DynamoDB and Elasticsearch
• Extensive familiarity with integrating with external APIs / services
• Experience building consumer-facing skills/actions for the Amazon Alexa and/or Google Assistant platforms
• Any other programming language(s) that you know
• A passion for NPR's content and/or familiarity with our digital products

Special Note about this Position
• Due to COVID-19, all of the employees in the Digital Media division (which this position is a part of) are working remotely until at least September 2021. We've implemented a virtual hiring process and continue to interview candidates via video conference. We are onboarding and supporting new hires remotely at this time as well. NPR has not made any long-term decisions at this time about working remotely full-time. Therefore candidates not in the Washington, DC area should plan on relocating to that area in late 2021.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gx7zxj-18-116-42-208-42 in your application.