Software Development Manager

Product International Enviroment Career Development Management

At SMART Technologies, they’re pioneers in technologies that help millions of teachers and students to make learning more fun.

With COVIDgeddon, the demand for better educational tools has grown and SMART Technologies need the nimble fingers and the structured mind of a Software Development Manager for their digital learning platform, Lumio . Are you up for it?

You’ll help their Data Platform team tasked with developing new functionality, as well as maintaining and supporting the existing, publicly available product. This team builds and maintains a high-performance data analytics pipeline in AWS. You must be self-directed and a fast learner, flexible enough to work on new technologies as well as legacy components.

If you haven’t had the chance to use their products, you might not know that they were pioneers in the concept of Smart Boards and Interactive Whiteboards.

Quality software has always been a part of their DNA, uploaded at the outset to their hardware. It then evolved, so they could create interactive learning experiences and materials that could be used by anybody. As well as the software that’s needed for a finger to be able to write on a whiteboard, or for a board to be connected to the Internet, they’ve spent years working on software solutions such as Notebook for desktops and Lumio which is the virtual learning environment on which your team is focused.

With classrooms moving to a blended at home and in person model around, the concept of taking learning to people’s homes (parents included) and companies being forced to work remotely (and in fact, anywhere) from one day to the next, has rapidly evolved. At SMART, after the anticipated return to classroom learning, they want millions of people to get the best out of online tools and face-to-face contact in classrooms.

At SMART, you’ll work in a team of people who are truly dedicated to their work, making the necessary architectural and technical decisions in order to create new features. You’ll work with the Product, Marketing, Education and Systems teams, as well as the rest of the company, to improve the way in which teachers teach worldwide and the way in which families learn.

You will have already met the team, and your manager peers, you will have caught up on the architecture and how it works internally. In order to start giving value to the team, you will have your work environment prepared and all the necessary permits. With all this, you can start taking some actions focused on which team metrics you’ll like to focus for the next few months.

Be an active actor supporting the growth of our Data Platform Team, leading, managing and mentoring them.

Organizing and planning the sprint work items and deliverables.

Designing and building web services that support our products in classrooms around the world.

Working closely with other Development managers to manage technical dependencies and coordinate implementation of new features and process improvements.

Working closely with the Product Analysts to build reports and help find insight that drives action.

Working closely with the Product Management team to plan and scope releases.

Working with developers to architect and design the technical structure of our products and services.

Evaluating and choosing new technologies and libraries to incorporate into our products and services.

Supporting our products and services once they have been released to the field.

Working closely with our test team to ensure automated testing has appropriate coverage.

As a company that was conceived in Canada, their HQ is based in Calgary (Alberta state) and a significant part of their team are in Seattle (Washington state). They also have teams spread across the world, so you’ll do it:

• 100% remotely.
• With autonomy, day to day, but coordinating ideas and efforts with the team.
• With great pros from different countries (in their corresponding time zones) and cultures who communicate with each other in English.

Within SMART, every team has its own delivery deadline, but they use the same development process. They work in Scrum on sprints of 2-4 weeks, depending on the team. Data Platform will be your team, which works in sprints of 2 weeks.

They have a flexible schedule, which helps to reconcile. Suitable for early risers and sleepyheads. You will have to bear in mind the team you work with, but you will have autonomy and flexibility to adapt your working day to your personal life.

They work in an async way, but they have an overlap hour with the Canadian teams, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., which they occasionally use for synchronization meetings.

Jornada laboral Flexible

100%

This position is 100% remote, so as long as you are sure you have a good connection, it doesn't matter where you are working from

From time to time they meet up (at least two times a year), so they will invite you to celebrate a party or feast.

SMART Technologies may sound like a huge multinational firm, and they are in terms of their products and influence, but they’re not a gigantic company where you could feel lost. The “core” team is in Calgary, a lovely city in Canada, and Seattle, in Washington.

They’re growing in Spain (in case you hadn’t already worked that out after reading this offer). There’s currently 10 employees, and they’re counting on your experience in the team. Here’s a little intro to them:

• Juan Daniel Hidalgo (Senior Backend Developer) started at SMART amid the pandemic in September of 2020 and was a part of the Data Platform team from the start. One of the first members of the Spanish team and his passions are technology, cars and the long winding roads of the Axarquía in Málaga.
• Jesse Henn is a Backend Principal Developer that has contributed to a wide range of projects—desktop, mobile and web development—during his 14 years with SMART. He cares deeply for people; always looking for how to help others be the best they can be. He is determined to enable Product Development’s Data Platform to meet its targets with a special focus on performance and scalability needs.
• Mugdha Jain (Senior Software Development Manager) started at SMART 7 years and a half ago, working in improving our development process and releasing multiple core functionalities of our products.

This is not so much about experience in terms of the number of years, but experience in distributed services, where you’ve had to turn systems and the architecture upside down to optimize performance by designing data structures, etc. Here are some of the requirements that you should meet:

• Building scalable web services with clearly defined APIs.
• Understanding test-driven development practices, including writing and maintaining unit tests.
• Experience with developing software using Agile software development.
• Building and deploying applications to Amazon Web Services.
• Experience releasing software using a continuous deployment pipeline.
• Experience with team management and budgeting.

It would be great if you also have:

• Worked with Amazon Glue and Amazon RDS
• Data analytics systems come in your backpack
• You have designed always-on architectures

At SMART they work to improve the way millions of people learn and collaborate, so technologies will change, but they trust that you, as a senior, will contribute to that change.

- €150/month to compensate for remote working.

- By default, the team works with 16 GB RAM MacBook Pro 16-inch laptops, but you may also choose Linux.

️ - 25 days of holidays. Normally, Christmas week is classed as holidays. It’s not written into the contract, but if the year has gone well, the execs send out an email to tell everyone that holidays will be from 24th to 31st and they close the offices and headquarters.

️ - There’s no established career path. The managers are responsible for helping members in their team to grow into the positions that they’d like.

- At SMART, they host corporate “Hackathons” (2 or 3 times a year) during which the development teamis freed up from their normal duties so you can take full advantage of them.