Job Opening - Engineering Workstream Leader

Engineering Workstream Leader

About The Role The ShapeShift DAO is looking to backfill the position of Engineering Workstream Leader. This document outlines the role and responsibilities of the position.

Context ShapeShift DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization. It does not exist as a company or a legal entity in any jurisdiction, it entirely exists on chain https://forum.shapeshift.com/thread/dao-treasuries-and-multisigs-43646 DAO governance can be considered the board of directors, and workstreams can be thought of as individual departments with associated budgets. Workstreams have a single leader, that is responsible for managing that budget, hiring, and firing within that team. Workstream leaders could be considered the C suite in a traditional organization, however there is no CEO role - all workstream leaders report directly to governance. Organizational decisions, such as creation and renewal of workstream budgets, and appointment of workstream leaders, happen by a DAO governance vote. The current workstream budget was approved through to the end of March 2024 here https://snapshot.org/#/shapeshiftdao.eth/proposal/0x306dd79215c8463a59db06d3d2fd25cb3111b1305a62fe0bc16eda8a515c84ee

Working in a DAO has some differences from traditional companies. The main differences can be outlined as:

● Contributors are paid in crypto, typically USDC. ● Contributors do not receive a W2, 1099 or equivalent. Accounting is the responsibility of the contributors. ● No benefits are included with the role. Many US based contributors choose to use https://opolis.co/ which provides group healthcare, conversion of crypto to USD, and can provide a W2 and do tax withholding.

Role The role reports directly to ShapeShift DAO governance - it does not have a line manager. It can be thought of as a mix of VP of Engineering (people) and CTO (tech). The role requires up-to-date abilities in architecting, managing, and contributing to the codebase.

The role is responsible for publicly preparing, requesting, and managing a budget via ShapeShift DAO governance. An example of doing such is here https://snapshot.org/#/shapeshiftdao.eth/proposal/0x306dd79215c8463a59db06d3d2fd25cb3111b1305a62fe0bc16eda8a515c84ee The role interacts most closely with the other Workstream Leaders, namely Product, Marketing, Operations (QA).

The role is responsible for the development, maintenance, and uptime of the platform. A QA team (operations) assists with quality assurance of releases, triaging reporting of bugs, and user support.

The candidate should possess 8+ years experience at a Senior Software Engineer or above level, and should possess several years experience in a leadership role, e.g. managing people, budgets, cross-cutting concerns, and competing priorities. The candidate must possess a strong strategic and commercial focus in addition to technical skills, as the lack of a CEO role means these functions are absorbed by and amongst workstream leaders.

Team The role currently has 4 direct reports - all Senior Software Engineers, fully remote, and globally distributed. Two engineers are on AEDT (Sydney), one CEST (Europe), and one MST (US Mountain Time). The team can loosely be thought of as 3 frontend and 1 backend, though all engineers should be considered full stack. The team also works closely with 1 designer/developer on the product team. The role requires availability in the US time zone where most active contributors reside, with some flexibility, and communication is required with contributors in European and Australian time zones.

Stack Common The stack is heavy on crypto/web3 and API integrations. Experience or at least strong familiarity with crypto concepts is a must.

Frontend The frontend application is a large React + Redux responsive web application, that’s wrapped in a thin React Native app for deployment on iOS and Android platforms. https://github.com/shapeshift/web

Backend https://github.com/shapeshift/unchained/ The backend is relatively thin on business logic and heavy on devops, and mainly consists of deploying and maintaining various blockchain nodes, currently Ethereum, THORChain, Dogecoin, Optimism, Avalanche C-Chain, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin, Cosmos, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Gnosis, Arbitrum One, and Litecoin nodes. There is an indexing layer that sits in front of the node infrastructure that serves as the application. The application layer is roughly a 70/30 split of TypeScript/Golang. All backend infrastructure is managed in a Kubernetes cluster hosted on AWS.

Fit The engineers work with a high degree of autonomy so the role is a great fit for a “servant leader.” You might be a great fit if: ● You thrive in ambiguous situations, approach work with an inquisitive open mind, and are quick to adjust your assumptions if proven wrong. ● You’re technical enough to challenge engineers' assumptions with good questions about architecture and product decisions. ● You’re clear and persuasive in writing and in person ● You can pivot to new opportunities quickly. Crypto is constantly evolving. What you worked on last month may not be what you work on today, and that excites you. You’re not looking for a boring job. ● You like rolling up your sleeves and shipping on the front lines.

Requirements ● 2+ years of Engineering Management experience ● 8 years of experience in a Software Engineering role ● Founding experience or BS or MS in Computer Science or equivalent technical field ● Experience managing and hiring top talent, building diverse and inclusive teams from scratch.