Systems Engineering Manager

At NationBuilder we create software for leaders. We work with advocacy groups, nonprofit organizations, political candidates and parties, community organizers, and anyone else trying to make something happen in the world. Our customers come in all shapes and sizes, from small town organizers trying to win their school board election, to the largest political parties, candidates, and NGOs around the world. To learn more about NationBuilder, read about our mission, beliefs and values.

As an Systems Engineering Manager you will lead the team responsible for reliability, availability, security, and performance across the NationBuilder platform. You will strive to perpetually evolve the technology stack and work closely with the Systems team and Software Engineering Team Managers to create alignment between operations, software development, and strategic company initiatives. You will work with leadership to develop technical vision, manage costs, harden security and maintain compliance standards. Your individual contributions to daily operations will add capacity to the team and provide the insight necessary for you to foster professional development with each engineer and the team as a whole.

Using data to guide your decisions, you will be expected to cultivate a culture of learning and growth within the team, across engineering, and throughout the company. A successful leader will be hands-on and focused on continuously improving the way that we all work together while solving both technical and people challenges as they arise. You will be expected to challenge conventions, pushing back on the “way it’s always done,” to deliver exceptional results. 

Our platform is primarily built using Ruby on Rails with auxiliary Ruby services. We leverage React on the front-end and several database technologies including PostgreSQL, MongoDB and Redis. We operate AWS cloud services -- ECS, EC2, RDS, S3, VPC, IAM, Lambda -- all managed as Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform.  Parts of our stack are written in C# and hosted in Microsoft Azure.  An ideal candidate has extensive experience managing these technologies. They would be excited to learn and lead a team responsible for a complex technology stack. Proficiency with Ruby and Python are both beneficial. A commitment to learning and growth is an imperative.

You can expect to:

• Lead, manage, and grow a team of talented systems, security and site reliability engineers 
• Set a strong example of accountability, collaboration and service
• Contribute directly to the capacity of the team
• Assume responsibility for the security, availability, and performance of the platform
• Take ownership of all cloud infrastructure – Amazon Web Services (AWS) expertise required; Microsoft Azure familiarity desired
• Manage technical vendor relationships and optimize spending that contributes to the costs of goods sold (COGS)
• Play a key role in defining, maintaining, and communicating security and compliance standards and practices
• Lead and actively participate in operational tasks including on-call rotations for incident response and resolution
• Execute, refine, and improve operational processes

We are looking for someone who:

• Has a strong growth mindset, is eager to learn, and can lead by example
• Has a track record of leading productive and innovative systems and site reliability teams
• Is committed to developing engineers both personally and professionally
• Is a clear communicator with excellent time and project management skills
• Is highly collaborative with a strong commitment to customer service
• Thrives in a dynamic environment and takes changes in stride
• Has a strong command of AWS infrastructure, related services and industry best practices 
• Has extensive knowledge of the web application stack, server side, and database technologies
• Is proficient in formulating, designing, and implementing operational architecture to meet technical, business, and financial requirements
• Has familiarity with Microsoft Azure infrastructure

We believe the best products are built by teams rich in diversity and aligned in mission and values. That means creating an authentic culture where diversity thrives everyday. It means building a team where different perspectives are valued through real listening, and assumptions are challenged through healthy and necessary conflict. It means building a team diverse across race and gender. It means constantly striving to build the best and to be the best. If you are someone who is in search of a place to thrive and grow, we really want to hear from you!

NationBuilder is an equal opportunity employer and we value inclusion. We are committed to finding talent that is not determined on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

CCPA disclosure notice here.