Engineering Manager

About KOMOJU

KOMOJU (by Degica) is the leading cross-border payment gateway for Japan. We power payments for companies like the video game distribution platform Steam and the popular mobile app TikTok. Today we help thousands of merchants by providing them with the payment infrastructure they need through developer-friendly APIs to integrations on popular platforms like Shopify and Wix; we help our merchants grow in all markets they are expanding.

 

What to expect

We are product-focused, meaning you will work on our payment gateway and any other pilot projects toward building the future of KOMOJU. You will work with other engineers in a flat and inclusive culture where engineers have a say in both key product and technology decisions. The culture is largely self-organizing, which means engineers have both a stake and ownership in what they work on. Engineers play to their strengths, but are also able to invest in areas where they want to grow within the team. At KOMOJU, you are the main driver behind your growth and position in the company.

 

International at our core

Our founder is Canadian, and about 50% of our employees are non-Japanese. In the engineering team, we use English as our common language, and throughout the company, many people are bilingual.

Being an international company, we know the importance of bilingualism. We offer all employees a choice between English and Japanese lessons.

We hire international software developers not yet based in Japan. You’ll have the option to work from your own country, or if you’d like to relocate here, we will help you get set up in Japan, including arranging temporary accommodation for you, and helping you to secure a permanent residence.

 

Passionate about technology

Developers at KOMOJU are passionate about their craft. To foster innovation, we have a monthly open hack day, where you can work on whatever you want. It could be something like trying a new programming language or tool, but sometimes developers create totally new tools, which become adopted by the company.

An example of this is Kaiser, a Docker Compose like tool that’s specifically focused on Ruby on Rails applications. When you’re using Docker Compose for running Rails applications, particularly those using microservices, it can get quite complicated, and require you to write a ton on YAML. But Kaiser makes it super simple to run such Rails applications.

We also sponsor developer conferences like RubyKaigi and EuRoKo, and provide time and resources for any developers that wish to submit a talk.

 

A generous holiday policy

In addition to your regular holidays (10 days of annual leave), you’ll get an extra paid holiday on your birthday, an additional week of vacation in the summer, and one week during the New Year.

 

Our hiring process

We’ve designed our hiring process to allow you to highlight what you can bring to our team.

It starts with you submitting your resume to us, after which it will be reviewed by our team. If we believe you have the skills and experience to be a great addition, we will invite you for an initial screening call.

Assuming you pass the initial screening, we’ll invite you for an initial interview with our other EMs. In this interview, we will discuss your previous experiences, opinions, and ideas. If you pass this round, you will meet with senior developers and Product Manager to discuss how you can help to empower our teams.

And if you pass that interview, we will invite you back for a third and final interview, either with the Vice President of Engineering or the CTO, and with our COO or CPO.

 

About this position

As an engineering manager, your mission is to maximize the output of engineering. You will utilize your communication and organizational skills to allow individuals and teams to work together to achieve common goals.

At Degica, engineering managers play a crucial role in supporting the company vision and ensuring the stability and health of both the engineering teams and the system. They work closely with product and engineering to refine the “what” and “how” of features being built. They play a major role in scaling engineering through identifying and improving processes, and ensure everyone is working towards a clear and consistent goal. They work closely with the engineers to support their long-term career goals and job satisfaction.

 

Responsibilities

• Ensure engineering teams are efficiently achieving their goals
• Provide mentorship and guidance through 1-on-1’s and performance reviews
• Set expectations with engineers and hold them accountable for project deliverables
• Participate and improve processes around engineering onboarding, training, and hiring
• Define processes to increase productivity and ensure adoption across engineering

 

Requirements

• Previous Engineering Management experience (Team Lead is also acceptable)
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work with the product owners to provide context to inform projects and timelines
• Ability to collect and provide meaningful context to help inform the developers' technical solutions
• Ability to provide thoughtful feedback to help developers improve their skills
• Ability to work across teams and departments to unblock developers and improve productivity

 

Nice to haves

• Experience building and working on large-scale software products
• Solid understanding of software development best practices
• Understanding of concepts like technical debt and continuous integration
• Knowledge of the Ruby programming language
• Able to speak Japanese

 

Benefits

• At Degica, we embrace remote work while also offering office space for those who prefer in-person collaboration
• 10 days regular vacation, an additional 5 days summer, and 5 days winter vacation
• Paid birthday holiday
• Budget for self-learning allowance to ensure our employees’ skills remain current
• Language training for Japanese

 

Salary

10,000,000 - 14,000,000 yen / year

Includes (rough estimate of) bonus.

Compensation will be based on experience and skill level.