Overview

We are dscout. At our core, we are People Nerds. We empower our customers to meet the people who matter to them in the moments that matter most. Customer-obsessed companies and agencies like Salesforce, Sonos, Groupon, and Best Buy use dscout to build better products and services because of people like you. We are building a smart and driven team, and we would love for you to join us.

our platform

Our web platform is built on ReactJS frontend and Elixir backend tied together by GraphQL APIs. We make heavy use of PostgreSQL for our storage needs and we host our platform on a mixture of Heroku and AWS. Another core part of our offering are two mobile apps – iOS and Android – written in Swift and Kotlin respectively and a Chrome Extension in React. We also employ WebRTC and WebSockets for live video streaming and use Python for NLP and media processing.

Over ten years and 57K commits later, we’ve maintained a tidy code base that is well documented and battle tested by tens of thousands of users.

you are

You are an Engineering Manager with 2+ years of management experience (and 6+ years of overall experience in software engineering) who is people oriented and is passionate about growing and scaling high performance teams. Your main focus is on your teams, but you’re still technical and can help guide your teams’ technical conversations and decisions. You love helping others grow, you’re comfortable with feedback, and feel at home in a goal-oriented environment.

Our Product & Engineering team is growing but we’re not a big company. We work collaboratively, move fast (we deploy to production many times a day), and we value product & technical quality. We’d be looking to you to lead our continued growth and evolution of our people, culture, and technology. If this sounds exciting, we’d love to hear from you!

what you will do

Our Product & Engineering department is split into Researcher and Scout Cores (think of them as sub-departments). Each Core is aimed at addressing the needs of its users. Researchers are the ones who use our platform to create, run, and analyze research. And Scouts are crowd sources users (all you need to do is download our app) who are paid research participants.

You will be managing two of our Researcher Core teams. As an Engineering Manager, you will be working closely with Product Managers of your teams and the Engineering Director of Researcher Core to brainstorm, plan, and execute new features and improvements for researchers. You will also support the growth and career development of your reports, as well as foster a supportive, inclusive, and collaborative environment in which people do their best work. You will be responsible for the technical execution and delivery of business value. Beyond just your teams, you will collaborate across the department and the org, and apply the continuous improvement mindset to help grow, improve, and evolve our people, culture, process, and tech.

responsibilities

    • Manage two Researcher Core teams (roughly 4-5 people per team).
    • Work closely with Product Managers and Engineering Director of Researcher Core to brainstorm, plan, and execute new features and improvements.
    • Create an inclusive environment where people can do their best work.
    • Be a coach and mentor people you manage to help them grow their talent and advance in their careers.
    • Conduct regular 1-on-1’s, share feedback with your reports and with others you work with across the organization.
    • Bring the continuous improvement mindset to your work, and own your teams’ growth and delivery, making sure they are productive in both short and long terms.
    • Build a deep understanding of how our products work and are built. Though you will not be expected to code, you will need to firmly grasp code and architecture concerns.
    • Help guide your teams’ technical decision making.
    • Clear the road for your team by identifying and removing obstacles.
    • Keep a constant pulse across the engineering department to ensure team satisfaction / health, continuous growth and learning, and overall alignment around goals.
    • Work with Engineering Directors & VP of Engineering to create hiring plans, improve and evolve our hiring process, and be an active interview team member.

what you need to have

    • 6+ years in software development and web technologies with at least 2 years of management experience.
    • Experience building & growing high performance teams and individuals.
    • A track record of working through ambiguity, goal setting, and delivering business value.
    • Solid understanding and experience with agile methodologies.
    • Experience with conflict resolution.
    • Experience in architecting and designing web applications using the latest technologies.
    • Strong verbal and written communication skills with both technical and non-technical audiences.

We do our best to write realistic, accurate job descriptions, but we also recognize that great talent comes in many forms and from many backgrounds. Not sure if you meet all of the above bullets? Please apply anyway!

dscout is committed to providing our employees with the flexibility to work in a location that works for you. If you like working in an office, this role may be based in our Chicago HQ. If you prefer to work from home, we can accommodate that for many locations across the United States. We are not set up in all states, so let us know where you’re located, and we’ll let you know if we can accommodate that location.

About dscout

dscout is a team full of passionate research, sales, technical, marketing, design, success, and operations professionals. We are driven by the power of research—how in-context insights from real people can build products and services that are more people-centric. We value learning, sharing, and building. We deeply value being a diverse and inclusive team and company, and we look for team members who align with that belief. We are proud of what dscout is today, and we are excited to build our future with you.

It doesn’t just stop there. When you join the dscout team, you will get:

* A strong and competitive compensation package with a built-in bonus and equity program.

* An incredible and progressive benefits package to support work/life balance includes flexible PTO, 11 company holidays, 12 weeks of paid parental leave, and much more.

* A company that is open and transparent with our team. You will know what is happening and why it matters.

* An education stipend to support your growth & development. As you grow, we grow.

dscout is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity. We do not discriminate based on identity- race, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, sex, gender identity and expression, age, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, veteran or military status, unfavorable discharge from military service, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, order of protection status, citizenship status, arrest record or expunged or sealed convictions, or any other legally-recognized protected basis under federal, state, or local law.

If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us by email at accommodations@dscout.com and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. We’ll do all we can to ensure you’re set up for success during our interview process while upholding your privacy, including accommodation requests. Please note that only inquiries concerning a request for reasonable accommodation will be responded to from this email address.

When you apply at dscout, we will process your job applicant data, including your employment and education history, transcript, writing samples, and references, as necessary to consider your job application for open positions. For more information about our privacy practices, please visit our Privacy Policy.

dscout participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law.

NOTE: DSCOUT NEVER CONTACTS JOB APPLICANTS VIA TEXT, MESSENGER, OR OTHER SIMILAR APPLICATIONS. BE AWARE OF PHISHING AND SPOOFING SCAMS, BOTH VIA TEXT AND EMAIL. ONLY RESPOND TO EMAILS FROM DSCOUT.COM

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