Responsibilities
- Scale the engineering organization from 40 to 80+ people while protecting the velocity, code quality, and culture that makes Socket work. Own two intertwined responsibilities: be the operational leader who keeps the organization unblocked and coordinated, AND be the technical leader who shapes architecture decisions and keeps the team executing with urgency.
- Design an operating system that actually works. Build planning cadence, sprint structure, and decision-making processes that are lightweight enough to stay fast and rigorous enough to catch risks early. Document how Socket makes decisions so new engineers understand the culture, not just the rules. The best operating systems don't feel like bureaucracy. They feel like clarity.
- Build technical leadership across the organization. Create weekly coordination rhythms so teams sync proactively. Define clear growth paths so engineers know how to advance.
- Eliminate operational friction. Identify the five biggest bottlenecks slowing the team down. By month six, those problems should be solved and measurable. This might be unclear prioritization, dependencies discovered mid-sprint, code review bottlenecks, unnecessary meetings, or context switching that kills focus.
- Own delivery on major cross-team initiatives. Define what success looks like, track progress weekly, manage dependencies, escalate risks early.
- Keep hands-on technical credibility. Spend about 35% of your time on real technical work: code review, architecture decisions, mentoring leads, unblocking hard problems. This is not negotiable. Your technical credibility determines whether the team respects your leadership. You need one foot in the code so you make better trade-off decisions.
- Partner on technical strategy. Help articulate where Socket's architecture is heading. Create lightweight architecture review processes so major decisions are coordinated and informed, not siloed.
- Establish culture and feedback loops that scale. Run skip-level 1-on-1s to understand what's actually blocking people. Institute monthly retrospectives so the team learns from each other's wins and failures. Build a feedback culture where code review is learning and where architecture reviews strengthen decisions instead of slowing them down.
Requirements
- You've scaled an engineering organization up to 100 people. You remember exactly what broke along the way and how you fixed it. You can articulate what 'good' looks like at each scale and why the things that worked at 40 people stop working at 100.
- You've built and executed operating systems for large organizations. You can walk through your planning process, how you manage dependencies, your sprint cycle, and how you surface risks. You build structure without creating bureaucracy.
- Deep hands-on technical depth. You code regularly. You can have sophisticated conversations about architecture, distributed systems, and trade-offs. You can explain a major technical decision you made and whether you'd make it again. You're not afraid to challenge engineers on design.
- You've managed complex cross-functional programs. You have concrete examples of coordinating 4+ teams on major initiatives. You surface dependencies upfront, handle conflicts thoughtfully, and keep complex programs on track.
- A track record of moving fast and shipping. You can point to the biggest things you've shipped in the last year: how long they took, how many people, what the impact was. You optimize for speed without sacrificing quality.
- You work exceptionally well with founders and hands-on leadership. You push back thoughtfully when you disagree. You complement our strengths. You don't need to be the smartest person in the room; you need to make the smartest people on your team better.
Nice to Have
- Experience with security or supply chain security is a plus. You've shipped security features or worked on infrastructure security. You understand why this problem matters.
Benefits
- Market competitive salary bands
- Meaningful equity program
- Comprehensive health benefits for you and your family (99% coverage)
- Flexible time-off, holidays, and winter shutdown to rest & recharge
- Paid parental leave
- Remote-first, with quarterly team off-sites
Team
Team size: 40. Structure: 40-person engineering team
