Engineering Manager

A woman has to send in 30% more applications to get a job. For a person of color, that number goes up to 50%. At the same time, only 19% of all hires made are deemed to be a complete success. Some candidates never get a fair chance, while others are getting flooded with requests. Simply based on a few lines on a CV or on Linkedin.

There is something seriously wrong with the hiring market. We want to change that. Don’t you? This is your chance! Alva Labs is looking for another Engineering Manager to drive one of our squads.

The company

Alva Labs was founded in 2017 and offers a digital candidate assessment solution that helps over 500 companies worldwide drive more accurate and efficient hiring processes. Our platform provides Talent Acquisition Managers, Recruiters, and Hiring teams the insights to make confident and efficient hiring decisions while delivering a high-quality candidate experience. At the same time, we provide candidates with the means to demonstrate their full potential to employers.

We develop easy-to-use assessments based on leading research in psychometrics, best-in-class coding tests, and a smooth, modern workflow that integrates with other HR platforms. All tied together in a fantastic user experience. This matters because it enables high-impact matches between companies’ needs and candidates’ potential.

The role

Working as an Engineering Manager at Alva combines the best of two worlds; people leadership with technical leadership. You will play an instrumental part in the future of the engineering team as you will be responsible for staffing and developing the people in your squad. Apart from day-to-day managerial work, you will act as a knowledgeable leader and sounding board to the team members, thanks to your solid experience in software engineering.

The department has (like the rest of the company) developed extensively over the last 18 months. Today we are a team of almost 20 engineers divided into four squads focusing on different aspects of the product. Your squad is owning the core assessment functions including psychometrics and interviews. In close collaboration with other experienced engineers as well as designers and product managers, you will make sure we make a difference for thousands of candidates and recruiters, worldwide.

You

To be the next addition to our Engineering management team, we believe you have solid work experience as a software engineer in different parts of the stack. Ideally, you have led technical discovery work and projects before, and thrive in doing so. Except that, you:

• Are a humble and empathic leader with experience leading other engineers.
• Enjoy working in a fast-paced startup environment where things change often as our knowledge of our problem domain increases.
• Has a customer-centric mindset to problem-solving and software engineering.
• Are ambitious and goal-striving, ready for a growth journey in a forward-leaning company.
• Are a prestigeless team player that enjoys sharing your knowledge to help other team members improve their engineering skills.
• Have excellent communication skills. Our internal language is English, so no need to speak Swedish.

What we offer

We strongly believe that experimentation is the best way of learning and making decisions about product and technology. That means that change is our only constant and that you will be part of an exciting journey where no day is like the other.

Apart from this, we try our best to keep the feedback loops short to iteratively improve our product and our system, by listening to suggestions, improvements and ideas every day. For this to be possible, we need a modern system that is pleasant to work with. The core of our tech stack is;

• Python
• React, JavaScript/TypeScript
• Google Cloud Platform
• Pub/Sub
• PostgreSQL, Firestore
• Kubernetes, Cloud Run
• GraphQL
• Protocol buffers
• Event-driven microservices
• Described in more detail → HERE ←.

Other things to look forward to if you join our team are;

• A team of knowledgeable Engineers and Engineering managers to learn from and grow with.
• 7 weeks of vacation!
• On-market salary and stock options.
• Flexible work hours and a hybrid model (you decide if you are at the office or remote within Europe).
• A well-used and appreciated system to work on.
• A company that actually puts the product first.
• 70ish coworkers from 18+ nationalities.
• A value- & purpose-driven organization that has the opportunity to change the world of hiring, and impact lives (read about our company values → HERE ←).

The hiring process

Given that we claim to be experts in hiring, you probably wonder what we have in store for you.

1. Objective screening with screening questions and Alva’s psychometric tests
2. First interview with HR
3. Optional meet-n-greet with a future colleague
4. Take-home tech assignment
5. System Design interview with CTO (who is also the hiring manager)
6. Final interview with COO
7. Background check (yes, we do take security seriously)
8. Offer and toast in bubbles!

Due to summer vacations, the feedback on this hiring process will take longer than usual. We will review your application and get back to you as soon as possible. The estimated time for interviews to start is the beginning of September. Thanks for your understanding!