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Head of Product Engineering

Gather

Gather

Product
Remote
Posted on Jun 6, 2024

About us

In the last few years, remote and hybrid work has had an explosion in popularity, giving workers an unprecedented level of access to opportunity and an increase in quality of life. However, our existing tools were not set up to do remote work well. Work can be isolating, transactional, and void of the camaraderie that makes everyone feel like they’re in it together.

To solve this, Gather builds virtual offices that bring the best of in-person work to remote. We’ve already seen success with our approach, with over 10,000 remote-first companies using our spaces every day.

And yet it’s still the early days for our broader vision of the Metaverse. We’re excited about how the Metaverse can break down physical constraints that exist today, not just in where you can work, but which friends/family you can see, or what educational opportunities you can have access to.

Join us in this mission!

Role overview:

As the Head of Product Engineering, you will lead one of the crucial teams that ultimately determines our success or failure. Our product's innovativeness and quality, as well as our engineering execution, play a big part in whether we become the indisputably best way to work remotely.

There are several challenges that make product engineering at Gather uniquely tough yet rewarding. For example, the design challenge of “how do you replicate a real-life office in a virtual world” requires engineers to prototype extremely quickly and draw on the best ideas from game design to social apps to VR, if not invent new UX paradigms altogether.

On the other hand, using virtual worlds for work for 8 hours a day is a foreign concept to our users, so shipping with a high degree of quality is important to make users feel delighted and understood, not confused. Often, we need to go the extra mile on polish (or game feel) to make the experience work.

As the leader of the team, you will be responsible for hiring outstanding talent and managing the team against a high bar for craft, quality, and pace. We are looking for leaders with a high degree of craft in product engineering themselves and are unafraid—in fact, eager—to get into the details.

Where you will make an impact:

  • Hire outlier talent, whether high-potential engineers at the start of their careers or seasoned engineers at the top of their craft
  • Manage and mentor an extremely hungry and talent-dense engineering team and inspire them to do their best work
  • Guide your team to make high-quality technical decisions
  • Work with our largest engineering team to develop the core user-facing experience of Gather
  • Work closely with product and design to shape large parts of the company’s strategy and direction
  • Hold a high bar on the urgency and pace of the team, the polish in the product experience, and the quality of our software
  • Identify opportunities in the development process or technical bottlenecks to make the team more efficient
  • Build a culture with high agency, accountability, and camaraderie

What you bring:

  • 3+ years of management experience
  • High technical proficiency in front-end, back-end, or full-stack engineering
  • Willingness to get into the details, including coding yourself
  • A keen intuition for well-designed software and beautiful, usable interfaces
  • Strong product sense and ability to ruthlessly prioritize in a chaotic and ambiguous environment
  • Ability to manage and prioritize across multiple projects and timelines
  • A strong belief in high engineering agency, responsibility, and accountability
  • A compassionate but clear and focused approach to leadership and management
  • Intrinsic motivation and the drive to solve difficult problems without guidance
  • An open and growth mindset when giving and receiving feedback
  • You are resourceful, have a bias towards action, and love moving fast
  • You enjoy spending time understanding customers and are adept at getting to the root problems that your product is uniquely positioned to solve

US Salary Range

At Gather, compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $215,000 - $265,000 annually and we encourage candidates outside of this salary range to apply.

Base pay is one part of the total package provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role will be eligible for a stock reward reflective of an early-stage startup.

Benefits
  • Work remotely out of a state-of-the-art virtual office!
  • Competitive compensation, benefits, and meaningful equity
  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their dependents
  • 401k and matching program
  • Generous PTO policy and mental health days to recharge
  • Meal stipend twice a week to keep you nourished
  • Remote work, education, and health & wellness stipend
  • Support for family planning & gender-affirmation
  • The opportunity to join a passionate team in building something that actually makes peoples' lives better, every single day

Gather is committed to building an inclusive and equitable workplace for individuals of all backgrounds. We strive to build a workplace where employees feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work, everyday. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, pregnancy or parental status, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Additionally, we're committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please notify the recruiter you are working with. We also ask that all applicants consider answering the voluntary demographic questions on our job application to help us track the inclusivity of our recruiting efforts and programs. Answering these questions is entirely voluntary and your answers will not be shared with the hiring team and will not impact the hiring decision.