Engineering Leader, Core Product Engineering

ClassDojo's goal is to give every child on Earth an education they love.We started by building a communication network that connects teachers, children, and families. Today, ClassDojo is used in the vast majority of U.S. schools and reaches tens of millions of children and families globally. We’re now expanding beyond communication into building the best possible learning experiences for kids everywhere.We’re a small, high-talent-density team with experience from leading technology companies. We value ownership, speed, and thoughtful decision-making, and we aim to create an environment where people can do the best work of their careers.We're hiring an Engineering Leader to own one of ClassDojo's product engineering areas end-to-end.As the Engineering Lead for one of our core product strategy areas, you'll manage the engineering managers in your area, co-own outcomes with PM and Design counterparts, set engineering practices and quality across teams, and act as a demanding internal customer to our peer Platform org.This is a manager-of-managers role with real architectural and strategic ownership. You'll have 2 to 4 engineering managers reporting in and influence over 15 to 30 engineers indirectly. You will be expected to set direction, not just execute on it.What You’ll DoLead a multi-team product areaOwn the product area's company-level objectives and the engineering plan that delivers themTranslate company priorities into product area plans and team plans, in a way that flows both up and downBe responsible for architecture-level trade-offs across the area's teams; own the technical roadmap and how it balances against product commitmentsRepresent the product area in s-team forums and engineering-wide leadership conversationsDevelop the engineering managers reporting to youCoach EMs to a higher bar with clear feedback, growth plans, and direct supportHold the line on engineering practices: flow-based delivery, vertical slicing (nothing >5 days, no project >4 weeks), WIP discipline, Definition of Done, observability, AI-native developmentAddress performance issues early and clearly; develop managers out of "fine" performance into great performanceBe directive when our values, quality bar, or ways of working are at stakeDrive technical excellence across the product areaSupport and drive architecture and systems design decisions across the area; ensure systems are reliable, maintainable, and operationally readyTake accountability for SLAs and incident response across the areaMake tech-debt and reliability trade-offs on purpose, not by accidentPartner cross-functionallyCo-own outcomes with PM and Design leads (roadmap, quarterly goals, quality bar)Partner with Revenue, Ops, CX, and other functions as the product area requiresFormalize the interface with the Platform org: planning, committed deliverables, escalation pathsBuild pragmatic interim solutions that work today and migrate cleanly to Platform services as they matureYou Will Be a Match If2+ years managing managers, with direct reports who were themselves people managers7+ years total in technical roles, with a strong individual-contributor era you can still draw onHave owned a product area, pillar, or equivalent multi-team scope and delivered a measurable business outcomeHave built or evolved engineering practices across multiple teams, not just within oneHave hired, developed, and (where necessary) parted ways with engineering managersOperate with a reproducible structural playbook for changing org topology and developing managers, not just experienceComfortable making and defending architecture-level trade-offs; can still reason about code with tasteOperate by Candor > Harmony: give the hard message early, comfortable with disagreementUse LLM-based tools daily and push the org to adopt themAre an excellent written communicator; can articulate strategy and trade-offs clearly in writingNice To HaveExperience in a multi-product or multi-persona consumer and enterprise businessExperience leading a remote-first, distributed engineering teamHas used AI-native workflows to materially change how a team designs, ships, and operates (not just personal use)Brings a network of high-quality engineering talent[1] Some more context:(If you are on LinkedIn, you will not be able to access the hyperlinks below. Once you click apply, you will be directed to our career website (if you are not on there already) and will be able to access the hyperlinks)How ClassDojo Connects Parents, Students, and Teachers “Whats New on ClassDojo 2023”TechCrunch Article: Second Act comes with First ProfitsClick here if you're interested in learning more about what we've been up to.We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. In accordance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. We are happy to accommodate any disabilities or special needs. We are a distributed company, so we hire regardless of location, as long as you are willing to have significant hours overlap with one of the Americas time zones.ClassDojo takes a number of factors into consideration when determining compensation, including geographic location, experience, and skillset. Salary ranges (United States):CA, WA, NY, NJ, CT states: $240,000 - $280,000 (USD)All other states in the US: $204,000 - $238,000 (USD)