Ontela is seeking a VP Engineering to build and deploy our product, from 1.0 onward. You will be reporting directly to the CEO and working closely with other members of the team, including our CTO, Business Development, and Marketing teams. Bottom line: your team will make or break our Company.
ABOUT ONTELA
Ontela makes camera phones ridiculously easy to use by automatically uploading every picture the user takes to his or our server, and from there to a PC or photo sharing service. Ontela is located at the southernmost tip of Seattle’s Pioneer Square. We frequently haunt the fantastic restaurants, coffee shops, and gallerias that are just a few blocks away. We have cool art on our walls (“auxiliary storage” for a local gallery), whiteboards outnumber people, and we provide the finest snacks that Trader Joe’s has to offer. Our compensation (salary, equity, and benefits) are first rate. You will work in a fast-paced, small, team-based environment, and play a pivotal role in developing and shipping our service. No matter what the position, we look for people who:-
Delight in solving problems
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Respect and empathize with consumers
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Demonstrate initiative in solving challenges, while balancing priorities
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Facilitate discussions, not arguments
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Avoid becoming blocked and actively look for solutions/alternatives for success
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Understand business tradeoffs in the development process
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Deliver and receive positive criticism
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Are willing to teach as well as learn
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Emphasize progress, respect process.
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
We need a VP Engineering who will manage the development team and deployment process to ensure that the product gets built, gets built to spec, and is shipped on time. The role requires a software veteran whose strength is management and leadership. You will be a complement to our CTO who will focus on architecture and technical infrastructure. We are also looking for… RESPONSIBILITIES:
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Rapidly assimilate and comprehend the company’s current software engineering processes and core IP.
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Own and manage the release schedule and dates.
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Implement disciplined development strategies, processes, and tools.
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Employ effective project management methodologies for administering development schedules, quality processes and documentation.
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Plan and control the technology budget, delivering value for money while simultaneously ensuring optimal performance
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Build, nurture, and lead a world-class development team, including hiring, firing, mentoring, training, applying feedback up and down the management chain, balancing egos, providing a career path for employees, and generally making a great team even better.
REQUIREMENTS:
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Experience leading at least one team through a full product cycle, from inception to release
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Ability to recruit and retain a team of unparalleled engineering expertise
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Sound business and communication skills, including Board and executive interactions
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Proven track record of creating and meeting aggressive release schedules for new products – ideally a consumer-focused online service
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Demonstrated ability to balance multiple priorities, such as prototype development, new product development, and maintenance of an existing service
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Outstanding software process experience including the ability to accurately estimate resources needed for software projects
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Proven ability to build and lead a high performance software development organization.
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BS in Computer Science or similar engineering degree
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A minimum of 10 years experience in software development
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A minimum of 5 years experience directly managing a software development organization
GOOD INDICATORS:
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A stable of interesting and innovative patents with your name on them
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Prior success in a similar role at a start-up
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A crew of top notch talent from past jobs that would follow you across platforms, burning coals, and design methodologies
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Past history as a rock star individual contributor in dev, test, or PM
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Experience in at least two of the following: MFC/Win32 API; Mobile technologies (e.g. J2ME, BREW, Symbian), SQL (SQL Server, Oracle, or MySQL),Linux and/or J2SE. We’re not a LAMP shop, but we’re not just a Wintel shop - we want to provide the best application service, bar none.
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Thoughtful opinions on a variety of development methodologies, bug tracking databases, and the like.
This job description is also available in convenient PDF form here. If this sounds like you, send your resume and a cover letter to jobs@ontela.com!
Contact: Shannon Anderson
425.246.1185 sa@andersonsearchpartners.com
Industry Knowledge. Relationships. Reach. Disciplined Execution.
Ontela is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.