- Why did you apply for this position?
I applied for this position because I could feel the passion of the organisation through the job positing. I am open for new roles, but am preferable to ethical and tech4good roles. The job posting highlighted Matomo’s ethical mission, and the teams passion to achieve this through describing the role as “purpose-driven”, and “not a role for passive leadership”. I am more and more aware of the data tracking happening worldwide, and as a father, it does concern me. While I use Proton, which I’m sure helps, there’s a lot more to do. The majority of people are completely unaware of the knowledge that organisation take from their online lives and articles like this BBC one really highlight what is happening. During my research, I noticed Matomo’s codebase is open-source, which a value I agree with. In my current role at Oak, we are also open source.
I also noticed your mobile SDKs. I have a background in mobile engineering and leading mobile-centric teams which means I understand the importance of reliable, well-designed SDKs and developer experience. The roles describes a scaling organisation. I’ve built teams to over 20 people, scaled departments, hired proactively and introduced processes and policies that have enabled organisations to grow organically and sustainably. I have experience with setting organisational structures and Agile methodologies to improve efficiency and effectiveness of engineering teams.
- What would you say is your biggest work related achievement in the past and why?
When I joined Oak National Academy, I was the first engineering manager in an organisation with two product teams. Over time, we scaled to five product teams and three platform teams.
In that time, I’ve hired Principal, Senior, mid and Junior engineers. I’ve led the change on the hiring processes and onbarding processes. We’ve grown from a handful for permanent software engineers to a team of over 25 permanent staff. I also manage our contract engineers regarding procurement, contract negotiation, invoicing, etc.
While I am proud of our growth, I am very proud that I lead the effort to put the right foundations in place while scaling: incident management processes, an engineering career ladder, onboarding and offboarding processes, a probation process. I coached the teams on Agile methods, while giving the teams autonomy. And I’m proud to say that I’ve driven the culture to embrace self-organising teams.
The reason I consider this my biggest achievement is that it moved the organisation from reactive to intentional. Delivery became more predictable, managers were better supported, and engineering became a stronger strategic partner to the business.
- What motivates you, and what demotivates you at work?
I am motivated by a mission in the organisation. By my own potential career growth and the opportunity to enable others career growth. I really enjoy enabling career growth and giving people the structures they need to grow their career, such as an Engineering career ladder. I am also motivated by autonomy to do the work I see as the priority for teams or department. I am demotivated by micro-management, a lack of trust, and organisation that are constantly shifting priorities based on little information. That’s not to say I don’t embrace change, I do, it’s all part of the Agile mindset. But change based on data and intention is preferable.
- What makes you a great fit for this position?
- How long have you been in a leadership/management role?
- Where do you intend to work from?
- What are your salary expectations (please specify currency)?