Couchsurfing is the world’s premier social travel platform, with over 20 million members in nearly every country in the world. Couchsurfing changes people’s lives. Hearing the stories of Couchsurfers whose lives have been transformed by travel is the greatest reward for doing what we do. Join us and every day thousands of people from every country in the world will meet in person and embark on new adventures as a direct result of your work.

We are looking for an Engineering Team Lead that can help us continue to improve on our world-renowned app that allows travelers to connect all around the world.

About this role

As the Engineering Team Lead, you will own delivery of Couchsurfing's web team roadmap including: development and management of the engineering team members, collaboration and coordination with product and design, creation  and improvement of the team process, and ensuring execution quality and on time delivery. You will manage a three-person frontend team based out of Brazil and also be responsible for any future web-engineering hires in the Denver area.  We are looking for someone that has built software as an individual contributor and managed engineering teams at various levels of the stack.

You will interact on a daily basis with product teams both in Denver and San Francisco and will report directly to the VP of Engineering.  

If you are an experienced Engineering Manager that is looking for a challenge where the sharing economy / travel space, please apply below.  

Experience and skills we're interested in

• At least five years working on consumer websites using Rails in a team environment

• At least two years as a team lead and manager

• Experience building and integrating with REST APIs

• Strong understanding of relational and/or non-relational databases

• An understanding and passion for using proven testing practices to improve software quality and reduce risk

• Experience with Scrum or other agile software development methodologies

• Ability to clearly communicate technical matters to engineers and non-engineers alike

• Ability to motivate people and instill ownership, reliability, teamwork and commitment

• Experience with high-load applications is a plus

• Experience with AWS services and containers is a plus

• Believer in data driven decision making, problem-solving skills

• English fluency is a must

The responsibilities you’ll take on

• Lead and manage a development team to build, ship and maintain new product features

• Lead technical planning meetings

• Work closely with product management to manage priorities

• Manage resource allocation

• Manage and communicate trade-offs in technical solutions

• Communicate timelines and status updates to key stakeholders

• Work with stakeholders from across the company to roll out features and resolve customer issues

• Continuously identify and implement process improvements

• Train, mentor and grow engineers on the team

• Write code on a daily basis

A bit about you

• A track record for learning new skills and being able to contribute with them quickly

• Strong communication and collaboration skills, and the ability to take constructive feedback well

• Able to empathize with users and champion for their experience

• Excellent interpersonal communication skills

• Excellent organizational and time management skills

• Creative, entrepreneurial, organized and resourceful

• A talent for simplifying, and passion for great design

• Experience building a high performing team a plus!

• Passion for travel is a plus!

Culture and perks

• Awesome co-workers who care about building a great service and each other

• Best in-class tools for developing software and communicating with the team

• We work hard and play hard - you have freedom to get the job done, but must deliver results

• Business trips to the San Francisco Headquarters for product planning and team-building

• Unlimited paid time off

• Health insurance

• Gym benefits

• Lunch stipend

Compensation:

• Salary:  $130k - $160k

• Equity:  0.5% - 1.5%