Head of Backend

Head of Backend

Remote

Engineering

Full time

At Doist, we’re building the future of work.

We’re a multidisciplinary, fully-remote, team that’s passionate about creating products, like Todoist and Twist, that improve people’s lives. We thrive on innovating new solutions to old productivity challenges and we seek to rethink how productivity tools are made.

Our Core Values

They are few, but they are mighty. From creating processes to decision-making and recruiting, we build our five core values into nearly every single thing we do.

• Ambition. You aspire to put a dent in the universe. You set high standards for yourself and those around you. You solve issues that have a high impact on our customers and our company.
• Mastery. You care deeply about the quality of your work. You’re continuously learning and pushing yourself to the limits of your ability. As a champion of your craft, you are also a champion of your well-being – you work intensely, then disconnect completely.
• Independence. Others can trust that you’ll deliver on time. You keep your word and trust your teammates to do the same. You are proactive, take ownership, and remain accountable with little or no direction.
• Communication. Your communication is clear, concise, and engaging. You keep others in the loop and never go radio silent. You speak respectfully and foster warm relationships through your interactions. You’re culturally and socially aware and can appropriately navigate social situations.

We invite you to visit our blog to learn more about us, our values, and how we work.

About the role

We are looking for a leader for our Backend team who is highly technical and passionate about creating and maintaining high-quality software that powers long-lasting products, namely Todoist and Twist.

Both are monolithic Python applications, built using a homegrown framework similar to Flask and in the beginnings of a transition to FastAPI. We use AWS extensively, including Aurora, SQS, and ECS Fargate.

You will:

• Grow, support, and empower a world-class team of 11 Backend Engineers (including 3 Leads) who are autonomous, productive, and fulfilled. You will be responsible for setting the team up for success while coaching and providing guidance along the way.
• Foster continuous improvement while reorganizing the team’s workflows and processes as context changes. You will ensure that tooling and workflows are appropriate, and facilitate team brainstorms while driving and documenting high-level ideas, goals, and best practices. You will foster knowledge sharing.
• Drive the vision, technical strategy, and technical roadmap for the team and its technology stack. You will do this in an egalitarian way, often facilitating discussions and delegating decision-making. You will do this at scale, serving tens of millions of users and billions of data items.
• Plan and prioritize company-wide initiatives, coordinating and communicating with various technical and non-technical stakeholders, such as other Engineering teams, Product, or Customer Experience.
• Plan and prioritize internal initiatives that pay back debt and modernize our systems, contributing to each work cycle by reviewing priorities, availability, and optimal matching of people to projects. You will periodically share updates so that everyone is aware of what’s going on behind the scenes.
• Contribute to shared values, standards, and processes with other Engineering leaders, ultimately shaping up Engineering at Doist as a whole. You will report to the CTO.

About you

It’s important to us that the person we hire will thrive in this role. Here are some core things we believe will set you up for success:

• Having ambition, drive, and experience in building long-lasting codebases and APIs that serve millions of real customers and are continuously improved and modernized.
• Being technical and hands-on. You understand that engineering management is a technical discipline that requires engaging in technical decision-making. You realize that strong technical instincts and continuously honing them is vital for thriving in that process.
• Building teams primarily based on trust, autonomy, and transparency. You provide high-level vision in a way that’s inspiring to pursue and easy to understand, while carefully incorporating input from the team and spreading ownership over its execution.
• Supporting and mentoring a resilient team while investing in each person’s individual growth. You realize that leadership comes with responsibility and restraint and that your topmost priority is the motivation and well-being of your team.
• Focusing on the long-term and uncompromising in your and Doist’s values. You want to join a remote-first company that’s multicultural and distributed worldwide, and you’re looking to commit to this challenge for many years.

Requirements

Not sure the role is a good fit for you? That’s okay! We’d still be happy to consider you. Here’s what the process looks like:

1. Submit your complete application by October 30 at 2PM UTC. This includes a resume (or manually entered experience) and thoughtful responses to all the application questions. No cover letter needed!
2. Application screening. We read every application to understand your motivation, skills, and experience. Once your application has been reviewed, you’ll receive a response regarding the status of your application.
3. Value alignment interview with Gonçalo Silva, our CTO & interim Head of Backend.
4. Take-home test project. This will be your opportunity to showcase your role-specific skills.
5. Role-specific interview with Andrew Mleczko, a member of our Backend team.
6. Culture contribution interview with Amir Salihefendic, our Founder & CEO.

We estimate that we’ll complete the whole process by the end of November.

Benefits

Our perks and benefits are designed to provide the freedom and support you need to grow personally and professionally. Here’s what that looks like:

The basics

• Work from anywhere in the world. We never place restrictions on locations.
• Design your own schedule. Work no more than 40 hours/week.
• Competitive pay. Our formula-based salary calculation provides a highly competitive rate based on your skills and location.

Expand your professional skills

• Pursue personal projects. All Doisters get one month per year to spend on a work-related project they’re passionate about
• Attend conferences. You’ll have a recurring budget to spend on attending conferences that grow your professional knowledge, skills, and network.
• Company retreats. Our annual company-wide retreats are unforgettable.

Craft your ideal work environment

• Cozy up at a coworking space. Find a coworking space that’s right for you and Doist will cover the expense.
• Apps and services budget. You’ll have a monthly budget to spend on services that help you do your job.
• Hardware budget. You’ll have access to a recurring budget to spend on work-related equipment.

Focus on your well-being

• Generous time off. Doisters get 8 weeks (40 days) of PTO/year to use as they wish on vacations and national holidays.
• Parental leave. New parents receive 5 weeks of paid parental leave in addition to 13 weeks of paid pregnancy-related medical leave.
• Invest in your health and wellness. You’ll have a monthly budget to spend on things like gym membership, healthy snacks, massages, health insurance, etc.