Head of Engineering

Location: London, 1 day/week in office 

Start: ASAP 

Salary: £100-120k

Who are we? 

Kato is a fast-growing PropTech company, backed by top-tier VCs, investors, and industry experts. Our mission is to revolutionise commercial property through our all-in-one online platform and extensive industry data. We’re just getting started and are seeking dynamic, confident individuals to join our journey and help shape the future of commercial property.

Role overview

As Head of Engineering you will lead the engineering practice for 10 front end, back end and full-stack Software Engineers. You’ll bring a balance of strong hands on technical capability, excellent people leadership skills and deep experience in ways of working within exceptional engineering teams. You’ll continuously raise the bar for engineering culture at Kato and bring your team along with you.

Responsibilities & expectations 

• Responsible for the Engineering team’s business aligned strategy and performance against health indicators (including Cycle Time, Deployment Frequency, Change Failure Rate).
• Responsible for the Engineering team’s delivery, in partnership with Product, and quality.
• Responsible for the Engineering team’s operating model; standards, processes, ways of working.
• Responsible for close collaboration with the Product team as well as the Kato Senior Leadership Team (of which you will be a member).
• Responsible for managing stakeholder expectations of sustainable delivery without losing ambition for what we aim to achieve.
• Expected to role model product-engineering behaviours; understanding your customer, knowing when something is good enough and demonstrating a value & evidence based mindset.
• Expected to embrace AI assistance throughout you and the team's workflow, staying current with developments and experimenting with new technologies as they become available.
• Responsible for line management of up to 8 direct reports.

Experience & skills

We’re committed to building a diverse team with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. The following skills and experiences will help you succeed in this role:

• You have worked in a product led business where value is more important than output.
• You have worked on a B2B product / service before, ideally delivered via SaaS model.
• You have worked in a start up or scale up environment before and are used to identifying and removing ambiguity.
• You can work under pressure and multi-task alongside managing expectations of your work.
• You are an effective communicator and pro-actively share your knowledge and skills.

Qualities & traits

We want to ensure a great fit for both you and us, so we look for a few key qualities in all our team members:

• Excited for each step of the journey you are about to embark on
• Up for the challenge of a startup environment which is on a growth trajectory
• Strong work ethic and the ability to lead and work as part of a team
• Adaptable to new and different challenges and ways of working
• Pro-active, keen to take ownership of your work and responsibilities
• Bring a positive attitude and show empathy to your colleagues and customers
• A problem solver with a knack of picking things up and running with them
• Tech-forward; your instinct is to use technology to solve problems wherever you see them
• Keep it simple; right sizing your solutions to fit the business context

Compensation & benefits

We’re asking a lot of you, so it’s only fair that we give something back:

• A competitive salary and bonus
• Employee share option scheme
• 25 days annual leave plus extra “life” days; a duvet day, a life-event day, your birthday off
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave policy
• Healthcare package (including Dental & Optical care)
• Training & support provided
• Enrolment in our company pension plan
• Casual dress code
• Snazzy offices with free snacks and drinks
• Summer & Christmas parties, plus ad hoc social events
• Discounts at local businesses in Soho

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