VP Engineering

About Safe:

Safe is the account abstraction leader on Ethereum and the EVM with the most secure smart wallet infrastructure and platform. Our mission is to accelerate the transition to smart accounts. For more information about Safe, check out our website. 

You’ll be joining a growing team that currently includes 70+ people overall. This role is based in Berlin 🇩🇪. Most of our team is based in Berlin but we also have awesome teammates in Switzerland 🇨🇭, Spain 🇪🇸, Portugal 🇵🇹, and other countries.

💻 About the role:

As the VP of Engineering at Safe, you will be the overall project-wide lead that coordinates all the technical leads in each of Safe’s sub-teams (across both {Wallet} and {Core}). This is a strategically critical role as we continue to scale our tech operations - we have a highly motivated team with a huge amount of potential. This role will be pivotal in tapping into that.

Many high-value Safes are managed via Safe{Wallet}, giving you the opportunity to work on a project that is actually used by teams and individuals managing digital assets that have real value. As VP of Engineering for Safe{Wallet}, you will significantly influence the future of the entire Safe project.

The Safe{Core} Protocol introduces an open-source interoperability protocol for modular smart contract-based accounts (“smart accounts”). It addresses challenges in the smart account ecosystem such as fragmentation, vendor lock-in, and security risks. 

🤖 Our tech stack: 

• Smart contracts: Written in Solidity

• Backend services: Written in TypeScript and Python, hosted at AWS, orchestrated via Kubernetes

• Ethereum Nodes (Nethermind and Erigon for tracing, external providers for Event indexing)

• Web Application (written in Typescript) and Mobile Applications (Kotlin, Swift)

• SDKs (written in Typescript)

🗃️ What you will be doing: 

• Lead engineering managers and technical leads

  • {Wallet} Engineering Manager and {Core} Engineering Manager

  • Protocol Lead, Network Abstraction Lead, Data Lead, DevEx Lead, Backend Lead

• Advise and lead in case we create new teams (eg. mobile or another web or protocol team)

• Ensure quality, scalability, security of what we build

  • Accountable for crisis response management on tech side

  • Evaluate with the team how to scale up

• Provide in-depth feedback on strategy, roadmap and other project-wide topics

  • Offer ideas wherever suitable

  • Feedback on the “what”, own/drive the “how”

  • Work together with our COO to ensure that the engineering teams are effective

• Optimize coordination between different internal teams

  • Ensure knowledge sharing between different engineering teams

  • Coordinate budget ownership between finance and tech leads

• Coordinate with technical external partners where necessary.

• Ensure that proper processes are established (Boards, issues, requirements, plans, tools, estimations)

  • Ensure that people are held accountable inside the team and also towards people outside the team. And vice-versa.

• Ensure pragmatic and up-to-date documentation (as much as necessary, as little as possible)

🎒 What you will bring: 

TECHNICAL SKILLS

• At least 5 years of experience leading technical projects and agile engineering teams

• Experience architecting scalable systems

  • Can transition systems through the different life cycles (simple low throughput service to complex highly scalable system)

• Excellent software engineering skills overall.

• Experience in continuous development processes (CI/CD) across multiple teams

• Expert knowledge in one relevant tech area

  • DevOps

  • Backend Development with Python/ Django or Typescript

  • Client development with Typescript, Kotlin or Swift

  • SDK development

• [Strong knowledge of other tech stacks not mentioned above will also be favourable]

• Has the ability to apply existing knowledge to new challenges

  • Can understand proposed solutions in a programming language they are not familiar with based on past knowledge of other programming languages

ESSENTIAL TRAITS

• Strong coordinator with internal and external teams

• Makes sure that all required information is communicated to the right people

• Doesn’t wait for others to find a solution to problems

• Clarifies purpose and importance, listens to feedback and knows what work to delegate

• Can identify where employees can develop

• Evaluates when to do a quick fix (with a proper follow-up) and when to allocate more time

• Speaks up in case they are missing any information to get the job done

• Independently increases knowledge of different programming language/service technologies

• Identifies and directs the team towards areas for improvement: 

  • This includes both technical aspects as well as topics related to processes, collaboration and team structure

• Can prepare and run internal workshops and other meetings related to bigger internal initiatives

• Can define reasonable deadlines and structure/ organize own work + work of dev team.

• Can independently analyse and fix problems and implement features

• Use an incremental/ iterative approach and proactively find errors/propose fixes

• Co-operate with others on developing their own ideas

• Provides feedback in a respectful way to other members of the team

LEADERSHIP SKILLS

• Must have experience leading and coordinating multiple engineering teams

• Experience holding leadership/mentoring responsibilities within a startup or bigger organization

• Empowers the team and doesn’t present themselves as a bottleneck

• Has interviewed and hired a team: knows how to evaluate others

• Knowledge of Agile, Lean and Scrum across Agile Release Trains

  • Familiarity with SAFE (the framework) to help foster communication and collaboration across tech and non-Tech Teams

• Has experience with performance evaluation and goal-setting process

  • Must be able to outline how to use OKRs or similar frameworks

• Can identify where employees can develop (e.g. identify shortcomings)

• Deep understanding of product development processes

➕ Nice to have:

• Familiarity with Solidity, EVM, EIPs, blockchain projects and smart contract concepts

• Helped scale a startup to a bigger organization

👀 Who would do well in this role?

• A leader who can delegate; knowing what to take on themselves and what to pass forward

• Someone comfortable challenging the decisions of everyone (leadership and other devs)

• An individual not afraid to speak up and not afraid to be wrong

• A leader who identifies and directs the team towards areas for improvement (both technical aspects as well as topics related to processes, collaboration and team structure)

• Someone who finds reasonable trade-offs between perfectionism and robustness and does not wait for others to find solutions to problems

🎁 What we can offer you:

💻 Home Working Budget: Personalize your home office with a dedicated budget! Choose from a sleek desk, top-notch headphones, a comfy chair, and more. We're committed to creating a workspace that inspires you.

🔥 State-of-the-Art Hardware: Enjoy the latest laptop of your choice! We understand the importance of having the right tools and we provide you with the best-in-class hardware for seamless productivity.

📚 Continuous Learning: Invest in yourself with our personal education and conference budgets. Stay ahead of the curve by attending conferences, workshops, and courses that align with your professional growth.

🎨 Innovative Fridays: Unleash your creativity! Spend Friday afternoons diving into research or working on a side project within our exciting ecosystem. It's the perfect opportunity to explore new ideas and contribute to innovative endeavours.

⌛ Flexible Work Schedules: Embrace work-life balance with our flexible working schedules. We understand that everyone has unique needs, and our hybrid work policies empower you to choose a working style that suits you best.

Please apply with your English resume.

Variety is the spice of life and a celebrated component of our culture. At Safe, we strive to create an inclusive environment that empowers our employees. We believe that our products and services benefit from our diverse backgrounds and experiences and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer: all qualified applicants are considered for positions regardless of race, ethnic origin, age, religion or belief, marital status, gender identification, sexual orientation, or physical ability.

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