Vice President of Engineering

We’re looking for a passionate and driven Vice President of Engineering to guide our engineering teams, provide mentoring and leadership, and oversee the growth of our Engineering practices and personnel.

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, you will serve as both a leader and trusted advisor as we continue building an engineering organization that differentiates itself through empathy and partnership with our counterparts in Research, Design, and Product. As VP of Engineering, you will support and guide a team of over 35 talented, mission-driven engineers—across several technology stacks—to do things like improve healthcare and patient services, increase access to equity for underserved communities, and other high-visibility and high-impact work. You will inspire and champion a strong and consistent engineering practice, advocate for and craft the conditions that enable practitioners’ success, and work in partnership with leaders across Coforma and our clientele to create more opportunities for values-driven work across existing and emerging technology capabilities.
 
As the senior leader of the Engineering organization within Coforma, you will establish thoughtful and disciplined operations. You will provide mentorship, direction, and guidance for your team’s craft by modeling engineering processes and standards. You will guide the evolution of the career development of the Engineering organization, creating a space where engineers can regularly make a positive impact, accomplish their best work, and still be able to live balanced and fulfilled lives outside of work. You will also advise and lead efforts to expand our engineering capabilities, as well as explore new technology areas to ensure our team is ready to meet the next phase of Coforma’s growth.


$192,000–$204,000 Base Salary + Benefits

This posting has been extended and is now set to close by 4 pm EST on April 28, 2023.
The desired start date for this role is at the end of June 2023.
This is a US-based, remote position; some travel will be required.


Responsibilities: Engineering Team Development

 
Help frame and plan new projects with Coforma leadership, the business development team, and (where possible) potential clients
 
Serve as a senior member of the Engineering leadership team, discussing overall engineering  strategy, helping to lead cross-vertical initiatives and projects and advocating for your project teams’ needs
 
Create an environment of high standards and strategies for engineering excellence, and elevate work to meet those standards; ensure all solutions are modern, aesthetically pleasing, and improve engagement, usability, and accessibility
 
Play both a consulting and a governance role in ensuring that all structure and roles in Engineering are aligned with the company’s values and goals
 
Develop and cultivate engineering management practices at Coforma through direct mentorship of reports, giving clear and usable engineering feedback where needed, elevating work through coaching and deep dives, and sharing your insights and experience in 1:1 and team sessions
 
Collaborate with and lead the Engineering leadership team in the establishment and healthy development of practice-area guilds that enable individual development and cross-team socialization
 
In collaboration with Coforma’s PeopleOps teams, work towards the creation of a healthy engineering internship program; specifically with an eye towards providing opportunities to Veterans
 
Provide the necessary support to help ensure that directors, principals, senior directors, and senior principals are able to maintain allotted time and commitments for their non-project leadership work
 
Coordinate partnered teams on any given product to bring alignment, build understanding, and ensure successful outcomes through economies of scale and shared knowledge
 
Co-establish departmental goals and strategies for evolving Coforma’s engineering practices, including advocating for key internal projects being prioritized and leading development of professional development programs


Responsibilities: Project Quality and Standards

 
Lead and support engineering projects throughout the organization, from scoping to delivery; this includes contracting, scoping, assessing the organization’s engineering needs, developing options and recommendations, and providing implementation support as required
 
Scale quality by collaboratively establishing engineering standards across the engineering practices and company
 
Ensure that we are delivering inclusive and accessible products and services in alignment with our values and beyond the status quo
 
Continuously improve the overall quality of engineering output and its contribution to business objectives


Responsibilities: Engineering Resourcing and Operations

 
Co-craft and manage the Engineering budget to generate a budget that works for engineering and the business
 
Manage and develop talent, working with Engineering leaders to assign the right talent profile to the right project/program, or even future business unit
 
Hire, grow, and lead a team of engineers and engineering managers across engineering practice areas, helping create clear paths for their future success and impact by providing insight, guidance, inspirations, and mentorship to the team
 
Proactively assess technological risks across Coforma projects and resolve issues before they become bigger problems, raising flags where more support is needed
 
Work closely with PeopleOps and other leadership to ensure equity in promotions, recognition, celebration, and in the provisioning of new opportunities, as well as across Engineering process changes over time
 
Collaborate with IT to ensure the Engineering team has project-appropriate, secure, collaborative, and modern tools to develop within our overall budget
 
Planning, scoping and staffing for new opportunities and services


Responsibilities: Cross-Practice Leadership

 
Build strong working relationships with Engineering leads, and other practice leads to create connections and environments in which world-class user experiences can be crafted, thoughtfully iterated on, and successfully delivered
 
Regularly connect with the VP of Design, VP of Research and Insights, VP of Delivery, and other leaders across levels to ensure ways of working and concepts are aligned with strategies to deliver on goals


Responsibilities: Representation and Presentation

 
Participate in business strategy and development conversations and advocate for technological solutions that drive value
 
Thoughtfully present our approach in meetings with clients, partners, and other stakeholders
 
Provide visibility and accountability for the work of the Engineering team; present to stakeholders, clients, and potential clients as useful, explaining the software development life cycle and how concepts align with business goals and customer needs
 
Evangelize Coforma’s engineering team and approach through thought leadership content, presence and presentation at conferences, as well as other networking events
 
Educate clients, potential clients, other disciplines, and so forth on value of both engineering and design, across practices areas, skill sets, project types, phases of work, and elsewhere as appropriate


Requirements

 
The ideal candidate has developed a deep bench of personal connections and resources to enable a wide range of types of delivery
 
15 or more years of professional work experience
 
12 or more years working as a technologist
 
5 or more years managing and developing a team/group (5+ engineers)
 
5 or more years leading engineers (or others) on technical projects 
 
3 or more years working with or for government (federal, state, local, and/or tribal) agencies,  preferably one aligned with Coforma’s focus on community improvement and net positive impact
 
2 or more years of experience working on a remote team or remote freelancing at a senior or higher level
 
2 or more years of successful experience managing managers
 
Prior, recent professional services or consulting experience
 
Experienced working across highly matrixed organizations
 
Experience with and appreciation for human-centered research and design and its vital role in delivering impactful solutions
 
Highly skilled in advising and leading clients, modeling stakeholder relationship building, and growing and maturing the consulting and leadership skills in managers, emerging leaders, and individual contributors
 
Digital connection — will prioritize and maintain access to strong, reliable internet for the remote nature of our work (except when on vacation/holiday/leave)
 
Travel flexibility — will attend in-person meetings, workshops, trainings, events, and more (with health and safety precautions being paramount)


Preferred Qualifications

 
Experience leading and managing teams that drive high-visibility, high-impact engineering projects
 
Experience coaching skilled individuals/groups from varied of backgrounds
 
Experience managing managers


Skills

 
Industry competence — has a general understanding of engineering and product industry trends, emerging technologies, and the constantly shifting business and cultural landscape to speak to and help achieve our business vision
 
Systems — will apply systems thinking, problem-solving abilities, and critical thinking skills daily
 
Calm and nimble — will navigate a fast-paced environment and ambiguity, changing priorities, and unexpected project challenges without adding unnecessary stress or pressure
 
Interpersonal — will foster excellent relationships across levels, and take genuine enjoyment in creating them
 
Continual learner — is committed to ongoing learning and knowledge sharing with an interest in integrating into a culture of feedback; will apply to our industry, our businesses, evolving standards, technologies and practices and most importantly about our clients and their users’ needs and pain points
 
Authentic leader — will show up as themself, build an environment where everyone belongs, and create teams that are engaged and galvanized around common goals (whether helping set those or not)
 
Cooperative — able to manage up and work with top executives and high-level contacts; cooperate with staff across different teams
 
Communicative — will communicate strategies, themes, and trends, as well as create personal relationships through writing and in-person exchange, customizing the delivery to each audience
 
Presentation skills — will, as an avid evangelist of engineering and digital services, speak at conferences and events with passion, clarity, grace, and effectiveness 
 
Delegation and time management — will oversee multiple experienced employees at once; as needed, helping keep projects on schedule and staff working within established deadlines and budgets
 
Brand representative — will represent Coforma professionally and sincerely, modeling the company values to be and help others be collaborative, accessible, empowered, informed, ethical and responsible, values-driven, and transparent for the sake of accountability and community


Compensation

 
Yearly base salary: VP roles at Coforma earn within the $192–204K yearly compensation range, within our equitable pay scale for the 2023 year
 
Professional membership: Engineering team members are provided with O’Reilly Learning memberships, in addition to access to other learning platforms such as A Cloud Guru and Frontend Masters, if desired. These are meant to support with training and upskilling, certifications, resources, and inspiration
 
Unlimited paid time off: Available after the first 90 days of employment, you can enjoy unlimited paid time off, plus the last week of the year off every year
 
Paid holidays: Coforma offers generous paid holiday time off—including Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Juneteenth, Indigenous Peoples Day, and US national election day
 
Leave coverage: We provide other kinds of leave which include paid sick leave, paid family leave, military leave, and bereavement leave—all available after 90 days of employment
 
Medical coverage: We offer multiple medical insurance plans for employees, paying 100% of the premium. Spouse and qualifying dependent care premium coverage is offered at 50% of the premium.
 
Dental and vision coverage: We cover 100% of the premium on dental and vision insurance for employees. We also offer dental and vision insurance for your spouse, domestic partner, and child(ren), with family premium offered at 50% of the premium
 
401K plan with match: We match up to 4% of the employee's salary in a Safe Harbor 401k Plan, allow immediate vesting, and also provide both Roth options—all available after 90 days of employment
 
Pre-tax spending accounts: Pre-tax Health Spending Account (HSA), FSA, and Dependent FSA account options are available for employees, spouses, domestic partners, child(ren) and qualifying elderly dependents
 
Internet and phone stipend: Coforma provides an internet and phone stipend to help  full-time employees maintain a stable and professional remote work environment. This stipend is automatically added to paychecks after the first 90 days of employment
 
Home office stipend: We provide a home office stipend to full-time employees after their first 90 days, to help each individual build and sustain a healthy remote work environment that allows them to do their best work
 
Professional development: We provide a $2,000 professional development fund each calendar year and our internal professional development resource archive includes lessons, books, specialized talks, and more


We Don’t Care About

 
Whether or not you have a degree of any kind
 
Whether your educational major, if you had one, is related to this role
 
Whether or not you have GitHub contributions
 
Whether or not you have worked at a well-recognized company
 
Whether you’re sure that you check every box


We Do Care About

 
Your passions — professional or otherwise
 
Your well-informed opinions about technology, teams, and process
 
You



We're Coforma

The stress of job searching can make you wonder if you’re enough. Studies have even shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs when they don’t meet every qualification. We believe that you ARE enough, and that it’s okay not to meet every requirement. We’re building a culture that’s authentic, inclusive, and diverse. If you’re excited to work with us but not sure you check every box, apply anyway! You may be just right for this or another role.

About Us
We use creativity to get results for clients and the communities they serve.

We’ve honed a modern, agile, user-centered approach that elevates human needs through thoughtfully-designed systems and products.

From connecting families in crisis at the US border to improving the way governments consume COVID-19 mobility data through a more accessible and user-friendly tool, we’re dedicated to improving people’s lives through thoughtful technology products and services. Together. Our cross-functional team works closely with each other and with our government, nonprofit, and commercial partners to research, design, and build better products and services.

Coforma employs over 100 talented creators. Our leadership has decades of experience in improving government digital services from a civic service mindset, and a strong record of developing innovative technology solutions for government, enterprise, and nonprofits.

We thoughtfully integrate design into product development. We are experts in leading the design and development of products to meet business goals, build alignment, and deliver value through technically feasible and iterative design activities.

Business objectives and human beings are at the center of our work. We work very closely and collaboratively with our partners, from solicitation through to delivery, to ensure that the solution provides a high level of value to the business. Accessibility is never overlooked in our work, and our iterative approach validates the utility and delight of the final product.

Equal Opportunity & Inclusive Workplace
Coforma is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, age, pregnancy, disability, work-related injury, covered veteran status, political ideology, marital status, or any other factor that the law protects from employment discrimination. As a federal government contractor, all employees of Coforma are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by January 4, 2022. Background checks and other security clearances may be required for some roles as it relates to the nature of our client work.

Our team and our office aims to be an accessible and hospitable place to work. We welcome applicants, contractors, and employees who are committed to improving our culture and practices.