Kablamo Looking for Technical Director at Greater Toronto Area, Canada Full Time

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Reports to: Co-CEO

Location: Toronto (hybrid)

Role Type: Full-time, permanent

Level: Senior Manager

Introduction

Kablamo is a fast-growing cloud digital product development company. Founded in 2017 in Australia, the business has grown quickly over the last 7 years, including the expansion of the team to Canada in 2021. We are proud to have assembled an amazing list of customers, including some of the best known enterprise and government organizations, in Australia and Canada. We’re looking to further accelerate our growth in both markets, and we’re seeking a Technical Director to help us along the way.

Kablamo is proud to be an Advanced AWS Consulting partner, and we have recently been recognised as a global leader in designing and building cloud-based data and AI/ML solutions. Recently, Kablamo won AWS’s Global Public Sector Award for “Most Innovative AI/ML Solution” for our work building bushfire prediction data platforms in Australia – we were selected from more than 1,800 AWS global partners.

The Role

Our Technical Director will lead Kablamo Canada’s team of engineers to accomplish their goals; you’ll bring the technical experience to understand how to solve engineering problems, the interpersonal skills to motivate the team, and coordination abilities to get the team working together. You’ll oversee the day-to-day operations of various teams including Back End, Front End, DevOps and QA. You’ll be a thought leader, implement best practices and improve Kablamo’s ways of working so that we can build faster and more cohesively as a unit. You’ll build teams, mentor, train and cultivate the next crop of engineering leaders at Kablamo. You have a good breadth of knowledge and understanding across all areas of the SDLC and will set the standard for technical excellence at Kablamo. Importantly, you will have strong communication skills to interact with customers, especially our customers’ technical stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage a cross functional team of Engineers across Front End, Back End, DevOps and QA disciplines. (The starting team size is around 10-12 engineers, and this is expected to grow.)
• Provide technical direction and leadership to our Canadian engineering teams with a focus on quality, system reliability, performance and user experience
• Incrementally implement engineering best practices and standards to improve Kablamo’s ways of working to improve efficiency, quality, cost and performance.
• Consult with external clients to understand their technical requirements, and build a shared understanding of these requirements with the Kablamo engineering team
• Build a strong engineering culture centred around Kablamo’s values
• Guide teams through complex technical challenges. Roll up your sleeves when necessary to unblock team members
• Delegate tasks and manage workloads across teams to avoid burnout and ensure overall health of team
• Improve our Agile workflow and manage sprint schedules including meeting/ceremony cadences.
• Strengthen collaboration and set appropriate communication protocols
• Improve workflows and automate wherever possible
• Work with People and Culture, to hire and retain top level technical talent per Kablamo’s standard of excellence
• Contribute to career development and navigate team members through both technical and people leadership paths
• Set goals on an individual and team level and be accountable for the overall team’s performance
• Document and manage performance of your team members
• Identify and manage technical risks and trade-offs, and communicate these to stakeholders clearly and concisely
• Provide thought leadership and represent Kablamo at community events
• Live, breathe and demonstrate Kablamo’s values of Make with Heart and Mind

Required Skills and Experience:

• 5+ years’ experience in a Technical Leadership role
• 10+ years of previous experience as a Software Engineer, ideally with knowledge of back end development and devops.
• Process oriented- you have a clear vision of how teams can work with synergy and unity
• Experience leading cross functional teams (QA, DevOps, FE, BE, Product)
• Experience managing remote teams and working across varying time zones
• Excellent written and oral communication, with the ability to influence stakeholders
• Strong people skills (EQ, social awareness) and experience with conflict resolution and employee relations.
• Experience with performance management, including goal setting, PIP, skills/gap analysis, training and feedback.
• Experience scaling teams and hiring for various technical roles
• Strong track record of retention. People stay because they want to work with you.
• Solid understanding of Agile methodologies and practices
• Deep understanding of system architecture and design principles
• The ability to program with one or more high level languages, such as Python, Go, Java, C/C++ and JavaScript

Bonus Points for:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or other similar technical qualification
• AWS Associate and/or Professional Level Certifications
• Hands-on technical acumen. You still write code in your spare time and can contribute meaningfully to technical discussions.

Career Progression:

• VP, Engineering
• C-level leadership roles

Hiring Process:

1. 30 min intro chat with our TA team
2. 1 hr First Round Interview interview
3. 1 hr Technical Interview
4. 1.5 hr Final interview
5. References
6. Offer!

Why Work at Kablamo?

Our Culture

We acknowledge a workplace that is diverse and inclusive, enables for greater innovation and produces benefits including improved performance, improved employee happiness and wellbeing, and superior outcomes for our customers. We attribute our success to all our unique and charismatic Kablamites. Through our fortnightly back to base and our debate Thunderdomes, we enable our Kablamites to provide feedback, share ideas, challenge the status quo and technically challenge each other constructively.

The PERKS!!!

• Kablamo bonus scheme
• Remote first with a downtown Toronto office available
• Work abroad for up to 3 weeks per year (some restrictions apply)
• Career growth (we really do promote from within!)
• Individual training budget
• Online rewards platform
• Regular social events
• Blogging rewards
• Paid birthday leave
• Anniversary bonus
• Referral bonus
• Parental Leave top up
• Employee Assistance Program
• Swag

Kablamo is a proud equal opportunity employer. We make our hiring decisions solely based on your skills and experience, as well as the perspectives and value you can bring to our team. Kablamo believes that diversity is vital to provide the best service to our clients and we are committed to fostering a varied and inclusive work environment. Every effort to accommodate candidates for accessibility will be made upon request. Information received related to accommodations will be addressed confidentially.

Kablamo would like to thank all candidates for their interest however only qualified applicants will be shortlisted.