Tech Lead - remote

Ukufu Pty Ltd
Posted 4 years ago
We Work Remotely
  • Flexible/remote work friendly environment
  • Greenfield project
  • Technology first company
  • Work with exciting AI &mobile tech
  • Join an experienced tech &product team
     
Please note, this role requires at least a 4 hour crossover with Sydney Australia 9am - 5pm workday.

There is a proliferation of high quality content on the internet.  As the volume of this content increases, finding, organising, and managing this content is becoming more difficult.

We feel that it is time for a fresh new solution to the above problem.

Ukufu* (pronounced oo - koo - foo) is a new AI powered content aggregation and content organisation mobile application for professionals. 
 
Ukufu version 1.0 has recently been launched for Android and iOS! 

We recently closed a round of seed funding from a couple of smart and supportive investors, and we are excited for the next stage of our journey!

Watch a short video message from the CEO about this role.

Our mission is bold: Build an intelligence layer around the 10 000 English news-related content pieces that get published every day.  Then use this layer to power an easy-to-use category based content aggregation app, that helps professionals efficiently consume, and organise their content across multiple content sources.
 
We want to enable a content consumption experience that is simple to use, yet comprehensive in depth and breadth of content. 

We are already nearly one year into our journey. You can view a video walkthrough of the current version of our mobile application (we are iterating fast) here. Or you can download the app at http://ukufu.com.
 
Over the next 6 - 12 months, we will be focussed on stage 1, working closely with users to build something amazing that we can then scale up in stage 2.

Our headquarters are in the Sydney CBD but we have team members around the world.  Even before Covid-19, our team was distributed across Australia and the world.  Thus, post Covid-19, this role can be on-site, remote or a mix of both. This role does require at least a 4 hour crossover with the Sydney time-zone.  
 
Our remote-friendly work culture and processes have been in place for a couple of years (some of our team used to work together on a product that reached over 4 million users) and our distributed team structure is working well. 

We work hard at fostering a focused and friendly workplace, where team members are able to do their best work.

We are looking for someone with outstanding technical experience, a mature attitude and a preference for working with a small smart team, to join us in the role of Technical Lead at Ukufu.

This role includes hands-on development work as well as mentoring, building out the team when applicable, code reviews and systems architectural design. You will work directly with the CEO as well as the development and product team.

Our team of 8 currently consists of 2 engineers (excluding the Tech Lead). 

Our non-engineering team members include a UX/Design Lead and Product Manager.   Our current stack includes Python, ReactJS, Flutter, Containerisation (ECS/Fargate) and Serverless (Lambda). 


The role:
  • Strategise with the business and product teams to determine priorities and goals.
  • Lead technical discussions and decisions.
  • Advocate best practice software engineering principles within the team.
  • Drive process in an agile environment.
  • Fill the role of a Scrum master, directing various ceremonies, e.g. Planning sessions, retrospectives, Sprint showcases, etc.
  • Ensure a constant operational awareness of the platform health and team effectiveness.
  • Identify gaps in team capabilities and be involved in the hiring process.
  • Analyse data in order to help identify areas for improvement in the product, process and team.
  • Mentor the team in both engineering and process-related areas.
  • Assist with actively developing the application.
     
 Requirements:
  • At least 10 years of relevant experience in a software development role.
  • Experience designing and building complex software solutions and related infrastructure.
  • Strong understanding of data pipelines in distributed computing settings.
  • Experience with Web scraping, preferably in Python.
  • Experience in handling large datasets.
  • Experience building, configuring and maintaining a mobile-related application stack.
  • Strong background in OO development with a proficient understanding of fundamental principles such as TDD.
  • Familiarity working with Amazon AWS services (e.g.ECS/Fargate, EKS, Serveless, RDS, Elastic Cache and Kinesis, etc).
  • DevOps experience.
  • Working experience with Linux.
  • Mature attitude.
  • Experience leading and managing a technical team.
  • Excellent written and verbal skills.
  • Exceptional attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple high priority projects and tasks.
  • Passion for solving complex technical problems.
  • Enjoy working in a fast-moving environment.
     
Bonus Skills:
  • Working knowledge of the latest Machine Learning/NLP techniques and technologies.
  • Experience with Dart and Flutter.
  • Has contributed to open source projects (provide examples if available).
  • Experience managing distributed technical teams.
  • Comprehensive understanding and experience with system security.
  • Relevant University degree.

Our application process usually includes an initial chat with the CEO, one technical task, then a chat with 2-3 additional team members. 




* Ukufu comes from the Zulu word Ukufunda, which means “to learn”.