We’re OtakuToons and we make family friendly manga! We’re looking for a CTO to provide leadership, owning and developing our technology vision and strategy for our application (which will host our manga!).
You will:
You will:
- Lead the development and delivery of our complex mobile application, ensuring that the architecture is scalable, robust, secure, and delivers the best possible experience for our customers
- Ensure that best-fit technology is leveraged in line with our business objectives
- Lead and develop our engineering team (already hired, 5 members)
The CTO is accountable for:
- Developing the business’s technology strategy and roadmaps that will enable the business to achieve its objectives
- Owning and developing the technology architecture for OtakuToons
- Delivering against the technology roadmaps, building and maintaining the confidence and trust of key stakeholders including the Owners, CEO, and C-suite executives, whom you will be working closely with
- To provide overall technology leadership as a member of the c-level team
- Ensure our mobile applications are architected to be resilient, flexible, scalable, and secure in order to meet the requirements of our customers today and in the future as the business grows
- To drive a culture of innovation, ensuring that new technologies are adopted at the right point in their maturity cycle and deliver a competitive advantage
- Accountable for technology service levels
- Leadership of a global technology team
- Managing an annual technology budget
You must:
- Have experience as a hands-on engineer and architect with a proven track-record of delivering complex, high volume data-centric iOS and/or Android apps (preferably both)
- Have at least one app live on the App Store or Play store for us to evaluate
- Experience managing a remote team
- Be mindful of the business level value behind the tech
- Have strong knowledge and experience of Cloud-native technologies
- Possess a good mix of strategic and hands-on practical technical knowledge with an awareness of the latest technical enablers and trends
- Have perfectly fluent spoken and written English and be able to copywrite (all of our C-level staff can copywrite, no matter what their primary role!)
- Experience with ‘big data’, AI/machine learning, data visualization/modeling, and/or similar
- Think far beyond just the app, but also what the app could do
Bonus points:
- Experience in the anime or manga industry
- Being a fan of anime or manga
Salary:
- $90-125k USD/yr
Time is the one resource we absolutely can’t get any more of it, therefore it’s also the most valuable. We maximize our efficiency and push our mission forward the fastest by keeping interruptions, ‘work about work’, bloat, meetings, and real-time chat to an absolute minimum. Here’s some of the ways we do that:
First, here’s some required reading:
First, here’s some required reading:
- How We Communicate, by Basecamp
- Group Chat, Group Stress, by Basecamp
- The Presence Prison, by Basecamp
- Hill Charts, by Basecamp
- Why We Like Distractions by iA
We all have a lot of skills, and wear a lot of hats. While we each have our own specialization(s), we don’t pigeonhole ourselves into a certain area, and we’re always learning. Without the following, we don’t earn revenue and we don’t move our mission forward:
- We all think about the product, because without the product, we have nothing to sell
- Everyone can write long and short form copy, because without it, we can’t communicate to each other or to our customers
- We all think about marketing, because without marketing, we don’t have anyone to sell it to
- We all think about the user interface, user experience and customer service, because without happy customers, we don’t earn our paycheck
- We all think about automation because without it, we’d be overloaded, overstressed, and underperform
- We all think about process efficiency, because that way we can get more done in the same amount of time, furthering our mission faster
- We all come up with new ideas, we don’t wait for someone else to do it for us
- We continuously improve on the evergreen aspects (customer experience and content offerings) because those things don’t ‘go out of style’
- We’re all managers of one
It’s not just the Holy Trinity, it’s also the maximum effective size for getting things done. It prevents the need for ‘managers’, ‘coordinators’, and the communication complexities that happen in larger groups. Work to be done should always be broken down into component pieces that require a maximum of three people to complete.
MeetingsMeetings and real-time chat should both be used sparingly. Asynchronous communication is most efficient and least interrupting. Meetings are limited to 3 people, excluding
Make a project for itIf you’re working on something and need to discuss it efficiently, make a project for it, with a membership count of 3, excluding the COP (who must be added to every project). Then, everything for that project can live inside of that project, without interrupting anyone else, or adding to their mental load.
You’re a manager of one (at least)For the full details, see the doc by the same name, but as a team member at OtakuToons, you’re very nearly your own manager, if not also the manager of others, such as gig workers. Other team members may assign work to you, but most of the work you do will be self directed. Everyone will expect you to work effectively and efficiently at moving our mission forward, 40 hours per week, without being told what to do, and without excuse.
We communicate in long form copy, written as short as possible. To get an idea of what this looks like, just read this and the other docs in the ‘Working at OtakuToons’ folder. We also communicate asynchronously rather than synchronously whenever possible.
Here are some communication don’ts:
Here are some communication don’ts:
- Don’t post asynchronous communication and then follow it up with synchronous unless it’s an emergency (ie. Major outage)
- Don’t have projects or meetings with more than 3 people
- Don’t allow yourself to be interrupted when you’re concentrating on work
No matter what your role, if you’re a team member at OtakuToons, you’ll spend at least three days per month answering customer service tickets. Take what you learn from customer service back to your regular work, viewed through the lens of the Four Work Principles!
Mission Statement👨👩👧👦 Produce manga that is appropriate for ages 4-16 but that can be enjoyed by anyone of any age
📱Make our manga available in digital and printed forms, in multiple languages
⛪️ Ensure our manga is family friendly, so much so that it can be used in churches, synagogues, and similar
❤️ Donate 10% of gross revenue to humanitarian aid (and even more via donation matching)
❤️ Donate 10% of gross revenue to humanitarian aid (and even more via donation matching)
🥰 Provide an opportunity for anyone, from anywhere, regardless of nationality, race, age, gender, orientation, or belief to help us in our mission
Company pays a minimum salary of $60,000/yr, typically more, plus profit sharing.
🔨 Hardware
If you need something, buy it. Just make sure you need it and will use it for work. Examples include computers (and similar devices, such as an iPad Pro), an office chair or air filter, or fixing the hole in the wall. Just keep it within reason and for work, please!
👩💻 Coworking Space
Don’t want to work alone? You don’t have to. Use your plastic to cover the cost of a coworking spot of up to $200/month.
😵💫 Mental Health
There are very few things as important as your peace. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” -Philippians 4:7. You can use your plastic to cover a faithfulcounseling.com membership, or an alternative mental health service/therapist at the same rate. We highly encourage you to make use of this!
💪 Gym Membership and/or Equipment
Physical health is important. Use your plastic to get yourself a gym membership, personal trainer, and/or equipment to the tune of $200/month. Anything that gets you active counts, whether it’s skates, a racquet club, a rock gym, etc.
🤯 Continuing Education
Want to take a course, get a certification, buy a book, or attend a conference? Make a post about it and pitch it. If you state your case well, it’s likely to be approved.
🙏 Giving
If you’re giving your time to a humanitarian or witnessing cause, you may take a paid day off each month to do so. If you’re giving of your money to such a cause, let’s discuss matching that donation.
👩💻 Coworking Space
Don’t want to work alone? You don’t have to. Use your plastic to cover the cost of a coworking spot of up to $200/month.
😵💫 Mental Health
There are very few things as important as your peace. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” -Philippians 4:7. You can use your plastic to cover a faithfulcounseling.com membership, or an alternative mental health service/therapist at the same rate. We highly encourage you to make use of this!
💪 Gym Membership and/or Equipment
Physical health is important. Use your plastic to get yourself a gym membership, personal trainer, and/or equipment to the tune of $200/month. Anything that gets you active counts, whether it’s skates, a racquet club, a rock gym, etc.
🤯 Continuing Education
Want to take a course, get a certification, buy a book, or attend a conference? Make a post about it and pitch it. If you state your case well, it’s likely to be approved.
🙏 Giving
If you’re giving your time to a humanitarian or witnessing cause, you may take a paid day off each month to do so. If you’re giving of your money to such a cause, let’s discuss matching that donation.