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
TopAcademy is an initiative within Toptal for the training and development of our interns and inexperienced talents.
We’re looking for a Software Engineering Manager to join our rapidly growing team and make an immediate impact by building teams, internal and public-facing tools and products. This role will be perfect for a less experienced Engineering Manager, or someone with a technical background who wants to transition to lead an amazing team of Coaches/Mentors and Interns, looking to rapidly grow their skills within our TopAcademy.
We need someone to lead and guide a new interns TopAcademy team. The interns will learn design panthers, development best practices, they will improve and create new products, collaborate to make challenging decisions, prioritize the right things, creatively solve problems, and you will ensure they are shipping high-quality products. Your team will be working on several Toptal products throughout the product lifecycle to support the organization’s hyper-growth.
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 as coaches and interns. They will create and maintain world-class products used by our users externally and internally.
Among other responsibilities:
- Set goals for your team and team members using the OKRs framework.
- Understand the big picture of what your team is doing and why.
- Inspire and motivate your team.
- Communicate with stakeholders regularly and proactively.
- Communicate proactively with your team and the Product Manager.
- Create a productive and enjoyable work environment for the team.
- Own process of ticket creation and ticket quality, as well as effective grooming and planning, all the way to delivery.
- Establish feedback loops and give your team members immediate feedback.
- Lead the recruiting and hiring process of the team.
- Participate in regular performance reviews.
- Facilitate, and when necessary resolve technical and interpersonal discussions.
- Ensure the overall output quality of the team and frequently engage in code reviews.
- Mentor team members and collaborate with them on personal and career growth.
- Bring up difficult and/or systemic challenges and impediments to the attention of your manager.
- Actively discuss strategic topics with peers and Directors to help shape engineering’s environment at Toptal.
- Break down complex problems and efficiently use data and analytics layered against high-quality user research to steer the direction of the product.
- Track progress, assess risks, and actively communicate contingency and mitigation plans for the team.
- Ensure that the products and services are built to provide a valuable learning experience for TopAcademy trainees.
In the first week, expect to:
- Start at the team by being introduced to Toptal and its culture, meeting colleagues, and get access to documentation and repositories.
In the first month, expect to:
- Complete onboarding, understand the team’s immediate roadmap and become acquainted with your team and processes.
In the first three months, expect to:
- Ship impactful initiatives that significantly changes the way in which clients interact with us.
- Be working with your team and understand its mission and domain.
- Conduct regular 1:1s with your teammates, and begin to understand their strengths and aspirations.
- Be leading your team’s efforts from planning to delivery.
In the first six months, expect to:
- Have set and followed 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:
- Have led the shipping of at least one major feature in your team having company-wide impact.
- Organize at least one team gathering.
- Have defined yearly OKRs with and for your team.
Requirements:
- Be first and foremost a leader, not a developer. However, you stay up to date with programming-related topics and work shoulder-to-shoulder with your team when required.
- Have 5+ years of web development experience.
- Have previous experience leading an engineering team.
- Have a solid understanding of development and quality assurance methodologies and concepts. Have a track record of delivering successful products as an engineer and as an engineering manager.
- Have experience guiding the continuous improvement of process and technology.
- Thrive on providing and receiving honest but always constructive feedback.
- You must be a world-class individual contributor to thrive at Toptal. You will lead by example and not simply be here just to tell other people what to do.
