Director of Platform Engineering - WorkStep

WorkStep is the leading employee engagement platform for the frontline. Our comprehensive solution brings HR and Operations teams together to help reduce turnover, increase productivity, and engage the hourly workforce. With WorkStep, leaders gather the feedback they need to take action and drive their business forward.

Our mission is simple: to make the supply chain a better place to work. WorkStep’s holistic employee engagement solution ties feedback to business outcomes and empowers leaders to drive meaningful, organizational change. By bringing comprehensive listening, predictive analytics and workforce communication together in one solution, WorkStep gives companies within e-commerce, manufacturing, retail, CPG, transportation, and logistics the tools they need to take action and transform their business.

We are seeking an experienced software leader to join our growing team as Director of Platform Engineering. This role will work closely with and report directly to the CTO, and will play a crucial role in ensuring the scalability, security, and reliability of our systems. This role will manage an existing team of 3 senior software engineers, and will be expected to recruit, onboard, and manage more high-performing teammates. The team currently owns and maintains many internal and external systems, including testing, CI/CD, infrastructure, monitoring, IaC, and many shared services.

This position requires a strategic thinker who can collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams as well as build and navigate a roadmap for long-term scalability and flexibility. This person will be expected to set the architectural direction of our software and make effective trade-offs to meet the business requirements of a quickly growing enterprise SaaS startup. The ideal candidate won't be afraid to roll up their sleeves and occasionally commit changes in support of getting things done.

WorkStep is built primarily on Google Cloud. The application uses a MySQL database and is written in Python on the backend and React for the UI. We use Ansible for configuration management, Terraform for IaC, and New Relic for monitoring.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the design, development, and maintenance of our platform infrastructure, ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Manage and optimize our cloud infrastructure, leveraging best practices to enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
• Implement and maintain robust security measures to protect our platform and data against potential threats. Stay current with industry standards and best practices in cybersecurity.
• Drive the development and maintenance of shared services and tools that enhance the productivity of our development teams.
• Develop and execute a strategic roadmap for platform engineering, identifying opportunities for innovation and improvement.
• Implement monitoring and alerting solutions to proactively identify and address performance issues.

Requirements

• 5+ years experience in a people leadership role within software engineering or related field
• 10+ years experience in software development
• Strong technical expertise in cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or GCP), DevOps practices, and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Experience with security best practices and tools, including identity and access management, encryption, and vulnerability management.
• Demonstrated ability to recruit, build, and lead high-performing engineering teams.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across departments and levels of the organization.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Passion for the WorkStep mission
  

Preferred Experience

• Experience building enterprise SaaS is highly desired
• Experience with early stage startups is preferred
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks and privacy regulations
• Post-secondary degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field

Benefits

WorkStep is a fully remote company, meaning our team can work from where it suits them—whether that's East Coast or West Coast, in the mountains, or at the beach. We're a collaborative bunch who are focused on helping our customers succeed and deliver results, FAST. But we also know how to have fun and enjoy each other's company. Our benefits include:

• Remote working environment
• Flexible PTO
• Top-notch technology
• Annual team building on-sites
• Workspace, wellness, and professional development stipends
• Internet and phone reimbursement
• Competitive company-sponsored health, vision, and dental benefits package
• Opportunity to join a passionate, motivated, and fun team at an early stage to help shape and execute on our mission