Tech Lead/Staff Engineer

Space Inch is a mid-sized design and development agency based in the US and Europe. Our priorities are doing great work and supporting the professional and personal growth of our team.

As Staff Engineer, you provide technical expertise to 3-4 ongoing projects. You will work closely with your teams to provide technical coaching, provide strategic technical direction, and assist in execution.

You are responsible for:

• Providing estimates and architecture for new projects or features
• Reviewing plans and estimates from other team members during Sprint GroomingCode review
• Getting engineers unstuck if they get stuck
• Actual coding if we get in a bind

Ultimately, as Staff Engineer you are responsible for ensuring that our teams follow best practices in software development, minimize errors, and continuously improve.

Our stack is mostly React/Node but for this role you will need experience with Python as well. If you are in addition capable of jumping in for some other stack when needed, it’s a great plus. In general, we like people who know how to figure things out and who enjoy figuring them out.

About Working at Space Inch

• We started as a game company, and still do a bit of that, but we focus mostly on healthcare, fintech and startups.
• Our team is primarily based in Croatia, but we recently started growing in Serbia too and plan to expand - nevertheless it is a fully remote work environment so wherever you come from you are welcome.
• Projects sometimes involve a hybrid of staff augmentation and end-to-end development.
• We prioritize the delivery of exceptionally high-quality work in everything we do.
• We place a strong emphasis on the personal and professional growth and development of our team members.

Requirements

• You’re the sort of person who gets the jobs done. You understand problems and you will get your hands dirty to solve them.
• You get challenging projects back on-track and get engineers unstuck.
• You’re excited about new technologies but you don’t overbuild. You never let that excitement get in the way of creating the right technical choice for the clients business needs.
• You have systems, guidelines, and rubrics to guide your approach to problems.

Key Aspects that Make this Position Unique Include

• Vision from Experience: Our rich history of successes and challenges has shaped a clear, strong vision for the role.
• Startup Energy and Freedom: You can embrace the vibrant, energetic environment of a startup, free from the typical pressures of rapid growth and fundraising.
• Entrepreneurial Learning: Though we work with clients big and small, our projects usually involve creating new products. You’ll engage in hands-on entrepreneurial experiences, receiving guidance to sharpen your business acumen and entrepreneurial skills.
• Diversity of Projects: You get to do hands-on technical work with a variety of projects. This job never gets old.

Key Responsibilities

Project Work 75%

• Technical Excellence: Ensure the projects maintain a high standard of technical excellence while being completed on time, within scope and budget and with few bugs.
• Hands-On Approach: Dive into the details by reviewing code, engaging in discussions with team members during sprint meetings, and validating plans.
• First In: Be the first person on a new project. Establish the right architecture and approach on the project. Demonstrate to the team they can rely on you and on your experience and knowledge. Sometimes you will choose different technology than the team is used to. Build trust with the team by discussing pros and cons of your choices, explaining the steps necessary for success, and demonstrating that you can reliably help when the team is unsure of next steps.
• Estimate Accuracy: Assist with producing the first draft of estimates with nuance based on the discovery session. Verify that project estimates are accurate and align with the scope of work.
• Proactive Problem Solving: Identify and address challenges promptly, especially when teams or individuals encounter difficulties.
• Collaborative Engagement: Foster open communication with team members, encouraging a collaborative environment.
• Support for Struggling Teams: Be proactive in assisting and resolving issues when teams or individuals face challenges, ensuring project success without alienating team members..
• Client Needs. Understand business needs of the clients and be able to articulate those needs to engineers.
• Project Plan and Sprint work. Review project plans and align the team on sprints while monitoring milestones and timelines. When issues arise, have the ability to dive into the sprint, diagnose the problem, recommend a solution and dig into the work as needed.
• Code Work. Remain familiar with the codebase for each project. Resolve major issues or critical bugs when a team member is stuck. Maintain an ability to work in any stack our team is using so that you can actually code to help the team if we are in danger of failing to deliver on time, on budget, within scope, and with high quality for any reason (requirements change, an engineer gets sick etc etc).
• Staff Aug v End to End Projects. Maintain the ability to help an engineer even if they are working in a staff augmentation capacity.

Process Work 10%

• Understand company processes and recommend improvements for processes in the technical domain.

Mentoring and Coaching 15%

• Accurately assess performance of engineers
• Provide good clear reports
• Communicate succinctly
• Help team members to become better at their craft

Benefits

• Competitive Salary of 4.5-7.5kUSD gross that commensurate with experience and qualifications, plus performance-based bonuses
• A healthy work-life balance thorugh remote work with flexible work schedules
• Opportunity to gain unique insights into the inner workings of diverse companies of varying sizes and industries
• Experience international project engagements
• Enjoy the freedom to contribute to shaping the culture and processes within your sphere
• Work directly with Space Inch CEO and the best in class Space Inch CTO, and with a strong team of engineers and designers from Europe
• Access to an executive coach and the opportunity to acquire the skills outlined in this job description