Position: Engineering Lead, Python
Company: Star
Experience required: 5y
Category: Python
English level: upper
Published: 2022-10-01T00:00:00+03:00

Our company Friday PM was born out of an R&D project in our parent company, Star.

At Star, we believe that all cool things, innovations and disruptions happen when people gather together, especially when people with different perspectives, backgrounds and ideas work on the same problem in one room.This belief was the inspiration for our spin-off project.
We focused our attention on physical locations and creating the right environment to support this vision.  We then applied AI to create a more efficient and engaging workspace, which brings the “Friday feeling” to the whole week - a feeling of being happy, free, more productive and satisfied
That’s why we’re called Friday PM.

Friday PM operates from Star’s primary location in Kyiv, so you will have 600+ colleagues and specialized teams to collaborate with on achieving your goals with Friday PM.

**The Opportunity**
We are looking for an Engineering Lead (Python) to push the limits of innovation, R&D, product development, and team scaling, along with partner and customer engagement. 

This role requires someone excellent in multitasking, who can execute on both strategic and tactical levels, who is a swift learner and can weather the storm and push our tech forward.  We want someone who will be a leader at the front line - an experienced full-stack engineer, evangelist, architect and team lead. 

While many programmers want to specialize in a specific technology, you must be a generalist with excellent interpersonal skills to attract tech employees, manage team growth and encourage qualified individuals to stay with the company as long as possible.

You will play a vital role in the entire product lifecycle and collaborate with the team, executive sponsors, clients and partners.

**You**
Friday PM has already signed clients representing worldwide enterprises. However, we remain a startup. Since early-stage companies aren’t the right fit for everyone, we focus on finding unique individuals with great entrepreneurial talent who will thrive in our startup environment.

**Qualifications and experience:**
- 7+ years of experience in technical leadership roles in SaaS product development;
- Full stack engineering experience with Python and Angular-based solutions;
- Experience in architecting scalable and reliable cloud and hybrid-based solutions;
- Excellent relationship management skills with the ability to engage, negotiate and manage key stakeholders and suppliers;
- Strong and confident negotiating abilities with the willingness to negotiate at all levels;
- Proven leadership and management skills, including the ability to optimize team performance and development;
- A start-up mindset and adherence to classic lean start-up principles;
- Advanced or higher level of spoken and written English.

**Would be a plus:**
- MS/BS degree in Computing Sciences or equivalent;
- Experience with all of UX, front-end, back-end and data layers;
- SQL and NoSQL databases;
- Basic understanding of data science.

**Nice to have:**
- Experience in computer vision is a strong plus;
- Experience with deep neural networks, specifically CNNs, is a strong plus;
- Experience with HW and IoT solutions is a strong plus.
- Feel free to apply to this position if you match all the below personality traits:

"Can do" attitude. You don't mind going above and beyond your job description; you roll up your sleeves and pitch in;
Preference for action. You do not wait to take action until you get all the details; you are comfortable acting with only 65% of the necessary knowledge and discover the rest on the go;
Technical mindset. You can rapidly explore every opportunity, break it down into digestible pieces, and work through them in an orderly process;
Adaptability. You can operate in the space of ambiguity, quickly process new information and use it to influence your actions, even if it's a U-turn;
Collaboration. You communicate clearly, actively listen to others, take responsibility for mistakes and respect the diversity of your colleagues;
Intellectual powerhouse. You have the drive to get smarter and better at what you do; you're fond of picking up new responsibilities and wearing multiple hats.

Responsibilities
As an Engineering Lead, you’ll be focused on:

**Technical Strategy**
Ensure that the engineering strategy and processes are in place to meet business objectives and operational needs regarding price, quality, and delivery target;
Evaluate the challenges faced by the business and take action to mitigate risks and develop opportunities;
Validate the feasibility of creating envisioned solutions considering the current state of technological progress;
Contribute to the overall business strategy;
Keep an eye out for emerging technologies (SW and HW) and drive Friday PM's technical vision and strategy;
Look for opportunities to improve the product and build a plan for new releases.

**Product Development**
Hands-on contributions to Friday PM codebases, including full-stack code development;
Drive R&D projects exploring the capabilities of computer vision, AI and neural networks;
Explore different IoT devices that we could incorporate into the platform;
Be responsible for the production of a minimum viable product (MVP);
Refine product architecture, select the technology stack, suggest third-party services and test solutions;
Own delivery of the development roadmap for Friday PM;
Ensure high availability and high reliability in the production environment;
Keep track of external tech providers' updates, changes to API, policy amendments and other information as needed.

**People Management**
Provide leadership, coordination and coaching to the team;
Hire engineers and ensure their retention; 
Act as part of the Friday PM leadership team.

**Relationship Management**
Collaborate with the Friday PM product management and marketing teams on a product roadmap and explain the product's benefits from a technological standpoint;
Collaborate with Friday PM commercial team, providing them with the required technical support to close new business and support existing customers;
Communicate with stakeholders regarding the impact of market and technology changes and their potential effects on engineering;
Keep direct communication with partners and customers;
Answer all customers' questions about security and compliance and address their complaints about the product's performance and tech vision;
Engage with hardware suppliers and create specs for required equipment.