Head of Engineering 

Equilibria (“EQ”) is a high-growth, omni-channel premium CBD platform for women. We are dedicated to restoring balance to our community — physically and mentally — through our high quality CBD products and personalized dosage & delivery support. We are growing our team with proven, passionate, positive leaders and look forward to hearing from qualified candidates. Corporate Headquarters: River North, Chicago; Bioscience and Farm Operations: Longmont, CO. 

Summary

At Equilibria, “product” is defined as any physical or digital representation of the brand. It marries technology and design with customer & business/team needs, solving problems that increase company value and improve efficiency. As a company where physical goods are sold in tandem with a service (consultations with a Dosage Specialist are included with purchase), “product” touches deep into the human element of respectfully “holding space” for our customers, while simultaneously keeping this service offering efficient and supported by technology + automation. We may offer paid Dosage appointments and/or telemedicine services in the future, as well, which will add further technical complexity to our offerings but additional data points to better serve our fiercely loyal customer base!

“Product” also involves innovation, specifically targeting customer problems/desires that will further drive company growth and (when applicable) add proprietary intellectual property to the EQ portfolio. We innovate with the cannabis plant/process itself as well as delivery methods/modalities, and we have a lot up our sleeve for 2020!

Product touches every aspect of EQ’s ability to succeed, and a Head of Engineering is needed to properly scale what we’ve built, grow + evolve it, and implement security protocols commensurate with the increasing sensitivity of our datasets! The right candidate for us has at least a decade of experience building software at scale, but is also excited about cross-functional knowledge sharing and collaboration… and physical product (IoT, consumer goods, etc.) experience is a plus. This is a fast-paced environment in an industry (cannabis) zeitgeist, so thinking on your feet while being a team player is an absolute must. In 2019 we grew at least 50% month-over-month, and in 2020 our 20% goal MoM is aggressive but wholly achievable with the right technical footing.
 

Expectations

This position reports to and collaborates very closely with our Chief Innovation Officer (CIO), who is also a co-founder and overseeing all product development/R&D, engineering/technology, and design. As the organization grows, this position can grow into a CTO role.

The Equilibria primary** tech stack currently consists of WordPress+Woocommerce + many careful customizations (30-50hrs of design+dev work a week on new features, bug fixes, and improvements) to not only create a constantly-improving customer experience but also serve internal automation (workflows, reporting, etc.). Everyone who sees what we’ve done with a stereotypically simple stack is always surprised that a) it’s WordPress b) we’ve pulled off so much within so many constraints.

Within Q1 and Q2, the goal is to split use of WP/Woo to transactional + static content essentials, while moving all internal + external tools to a proprietary web stack (open-minded as to what!) — warehousing our large quantities of user data, implementing architectural standards and upgrading security protocols, and transforming the lean tools ported into this stack into scalable drivers of insight and efficiency. We are also performing a massive overhaul of our frontend UX to address upgrades to the business model (hint: this is about a lot more than just CBD!) and usability improvements given we have many customers over the age of 60.   **As an aside, we’ve also built a POS in React (Android tablet is primary use case) which though currently siloed, needs to be merged into the greater whole once appropriate.

This position has both managerial and execution requirements; the product (amalgamated talents) team is currently small (and extremely collaborative) but expects to double or triple in 2020 and beyond, which means you will be extremely hands on in building software, not just managing people. 

Currently, we use Miro, Asana, Slack, Gsuite, and Beanstalk App to manage both product and project progress, with a focus on being iterative when at all possible. We are just as open to overhauling web services/tools and processes used as we are the stack necessary to achieve our (aggressive!) growth goals.

Compensation will be commensurate with experience. Equilibria will contribute toward medical insurance, for which we offer multiple options of coverage and premium. We also give every employee a monthly CBD allowance, along with other perks. Additional benefits coming in 2020!

Responsibilities

• Participate in product planning meetings (Mondays) and product stands (Wednesdays) to not only have a say in what’s built (exclusive to the EQ leadership team, in which this position would be a participant) but to make sure cross-functional needs are synthesized and acted upon.
• Scope engineering needs based on initiatives prioritized by CIO. Scoping is currently the #1 bottleneck at our company re: progress of desired engineering/product deliverables.
• Make critical, foundational decisions surrounding stack, data architecture, scaling + devops, and best practices for quality software (both execution and team protocol - code style, code reviews, PRs, testing suite, QA criteria, etc.) 
• Scope and implement an MVP of a basic data science toolkit, once data architecture is restructured for easier analysis.
• Maintain vigilance in defending prioritization of internal engineering needs (security, technical debt, etc.) vs internal team tools, services, and customer needs. 
• Restructure version control, staging/dev environments, and deployment protocols.
• Push back with clear logic, when scope creep, priority creep, or resource double-booking rears its head. 
• Manage engagements/employment of engineers — currently we have 2 delightful remote contract developers (FE + BE) dedicated to WP/Woo, but would hire for the webapp team after you’ve prepared for stack expansion. Budget management is imperative.
• Work closely with the Engineering Project Lead (EPL), who in addition to being a well-rounded engineer, will manage user stories you’ve greenlit and assemble a sprint. Together you’ll both ensure deliverables ship on time.
• Collaborate with the Head of Design on achieving best in class UX that is also practical within technical constraints.
• Participate in (and lead when CIO unable to) specific stands/status meetings across engineering + design/production, eventually helping to integrate a proper postmortem/retro culture once appropriate. Implement your own stands and 1:1s where needed.
• Work with CIO and EPL to document all technology built to date and its customizations (and inherent tech debt) so as to roll back debt, and prevent irresponsible customizations of our own platform — then keep documentation up to date as we grow. Single source of truth!
• Prepare for and assist with technical due diligence for investors where needed.

Qualifications

• 10+ years experience in software engineering, preferably using modern, open-source stacks
• Positive attitude, even if deadlines looming
• Great communication skills with ability to defend points of contention and constructively criticize initiatives that go against company vision
• Patience for startup lifestyle
• Passion for women’s healthcare/wellbeing/our mission, and excitement about Getting Things Done
• CS/SE degree a plus
• Cross-functional experience a plus
• Physical goods and/or IoT experience a plus