VP Engineering/CTO - Microservices Architecture

We are looking for a hands-on technical expert who has worked with multiple technology stacks and has experience architecting and building scalable cloud solutions with web and mobile frontends. 

 What will you work on?

•  Interface with clients
• Recommend tech stacks
• Define end-to-end logical and cloud-native architectures
•  Define APIs
• Integrate with 3rd party systems
• Create architectural solution prototypes
• Hands-on coding, team lead, code reviews, and problem-solving

What Makes You A Great Fit?

• 5+ years of software experience 
• Experience with architecture of technology systems having hands-on expertise in backend, and web or mobile frontend
• Solid expertise and hands-on experience in Python with Flask or Django
• Expertise on one or more cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google App Engine)
• Expertise with SQL and NoSQL databases (MySQL, Mongo, ElasticSearch, Redis)
• Knowledge of DevOps practices
• Chatbot, Machine Learning, Data Science/Big Data experience will be a plus
• Excellent communication skills, verbal and written

The job is for a full-time position at our https://goo.gl/maps/o67FWr1aedo">Pune (Viman Nagar) office. 

(Note: We are working remotely at the moment. However, once the COVID situation improves, the candidate will be expected to work from our office.)

About First Principles

We are a Tech Holding Company and our portfolio companies generate millions in revenue. What is unique about FirstPrinciples is that most of our companies remain controlled and majority owned by First Principles and its team members rather than by external investors. We are proud that our product engineering team builds world class products from India. https://firstprinciples.io/">https://firstprinciples.io/

About this Role

As we scale and build our organisation, we would like to add an individual to our core Technical Leadership who can scale our key products and projects and help us build and foster relationships with Enterprise clients.

We are looking for an experienced Technology Leader to join our fast growing organisation to help us with driving Technical Strategy, Approach and oversee the Implementation for internal and external products. You should be someone who loves Engineering, have amazing debugging skills and slay problems with technology. 

In this role, you will undertake Technical / Solution Architecture and should also be able to help team with Engineering and coding wherever required. That includes, working along with the team, writing code, doing R&D or POCs, ensuring we follow modern industry standards and building beautiful high performing Software and Applications and thus delivering a better solution and product. You will also help FP build strong relationships with clients and technical leadership on the client side.

You would be required to have a minimum of 10+ years of experience with a mix of Engineering, DevOps, Infrastructure, Cyber - Network Security, Enterprise Application Maintenance, Database Management along with Project, Client and People Management skills which are necessary to lead the team and be their voice. You should be a leader and not just a manager who loves delegating things to the off-shore team, but rather someone who would not hesitate to take over Git-Pull and start writing code and show ‘here is how it’s done’ and amaze everyone with your expertise! :-) 

Because this is a Senior role, you would also be involved working with the Product/Project Manager and will be responsible for the delivery and output.

Tech Stack [High-Level]: We are JavaScript focused i.e. we work in ReactJS, NodeJS, AngularJS, TypeForm, TypeScript, Redis. On the server side, we work with AWS/GCP/DO. Database: MySQL, PostgreS and MongoDb. API: REST and GraphQL API. We also have a strong DevOps stack - including Kubernetes(K8), Dockers and CI/CD automation. 

Interview Process: 

• 60 min Discovery Call
• 15 mins introduction and what you bring to the table (We love people who say, “We build the damn table”) 
• 15 min understanding your experience and background
• 15 min on why you want to join our team and your expectations, future plans
• 15 min Q&A
  
  
• 60-90 min Technical Interview  (May be more than 1)
• Technical Call
  
  
• 45-60 min Final Call
• 15 min discussion on results 
• 15 min CTC expectations / negotiations 
• 15 min closure
• 15 min buffer

• Draw up enterprise-wide architecture blueprint and enforce its implementation across products and systems
• Build from ground up, a scalable Enterprise platform infrastructure with multiple client applications and enterprise connectors
• Design, develop and deploy features and APIs with high quality standards
• As an individual contributor, evaluate technology options, build PoCs and prototypes
• Manage the infrastructure hosted in the Cloud. Monitor system reliability, uptime and security.
• Contribute significantly in reviewing architecture, code, design & test-cases authored by peers.

• 8-10 years of design and development experience building scalable & distributed systems
• Hands-on experience on one or more of the following tech stacks:
  • Python-Django, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, nginx, RabbitMQ, Redis
  • Microservices, REST APIs, NodeJS, Celery, Elastic Search, Logstash, Kibana
• Good understanding of OOPS concepts, design patterns, SQL. Good at troubleshooting/debugging.
• Experience with managing server infrastructure in GCP, Azure and AWS cloud.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering from reputed institutes
• Nice to have: Hands-on experience with analytics using Kibana and Elastic Search

Summary:

Smart Joules is looking for a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to drive the evolution of our technology platform (DeJoule) to make continuous energy optimization simple and profitable at scale. DeJoule is designed on the latest IOT and web technologies to continuously identify and correct for hidden inefficiencies in dynamic energy systems such as air conditioning and compressed air. It 1) collects data in real time from buildings and factories, 2) analyses real time and historical data using heuristic and machine learning algorithms to find hidden energy inefficiencies and optimum set points, and 3) continuously adjusts (controls) set points of various equipment installed in buildings and factories to minimize energy use. We are looking to build new capabilities in data-driven intelligence, user delight, universal compatibility and continuous optimization through full automation.

You will engage deeply with Smart Joules’ leadership and management team and customers to connect our software and its capabilities to our mission. The technology we build together will save 30% or more of the energy consumed in India’s most prominent buildings and factories that stand today and are yet to be built, and will displace the largest multi-nationals as the highest selling automation product in the Indian and other developing markets.

If you are passionate about stopping climate change, a believer in collaborative and multi-disciplinary innovation, capable of building and leading young and passionate technology teams, an expert in IoT and ready to commit yourself wholeheartedly to build the company that will manage the largest number of Joules in India by 2025, we’d like to meet you.

Overall Responsibilities:

• Build DeJoule into a product that can outcompete any other globally on automatic and continuous performance optimization at scale, user engagement and cost.
• Recruit, motivate, train and lead India’s #1 energy tech team.
• Strengthen the company culture around innovation and excellence so that DeJoule consistently remains ahead of the pack.
• Develop the company’s image as a global leader in the digital energy transition.

The Right Candidate:

• Is ready and hungry to work on the defining project of their professional career.
• Is able to cite specific experiences from their personal life and professional career where they have demonstrate that they have the ability to make tough decisions, to fight and win.
• Has 7+ years of experience building IOT & cloud technology platforms with mastery in System Design and Architecture, Database Administration, Data Structuring and Algorithms, Javascript frameworks (Angular.js, Node.js), AWS managed services (SNS,SQS, IoT core, Dynamo DB, Lambdas, Kinesis and others), Python and related technologies.
• Is humble and collaborative, with a deep-seated ambition to have a significant impact at a global scale.
• Has worked in a start-up or in start-up-like conditions with volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

About Smart Joules:

Smart Joules is India’s leading energy efficiency company on a mission to stop climate change by making continuous energy optimization simple and profitable at scalable for buildings and factories. We have pioneered the servitization model in the energy efficiency space in India and established leadership position in the healthcare industry with long-term projects in almost all states. Our clients are saving up to 70% in energy costs and have modernized their facilities with industry-leading technologies without making any up-front investments.

Led by an MIT/Berkeley Alumnus, an award-winning engineer from the Indian Navy, and a financial wizard, our team of 100+ professionals has a comprehensive set of capabilities spanning project development, design, financing, execution, cutting-edge IOT technologies, analytics and operations. We have won national and international awards, including recognition as a “Champion of Change” by the Prime Minister’s Office.

Our financial supporters include Asian Development Bank, Sangam Ventures, Max Ventures & Industries, Raintree Family Office, Echoing Green, Harvard University, TATA Trusts, David & Lucile Packard Foundation, TATA Cleantech Capital, Yes Bank, World Bank, SIDBI and some of India’s most prominent business families.

We like to work hard and play hard. Inspired by MIT’s motto “Mens et Manus”, we believe in using our minds and hands to develop and utilize technology for practical application. If you are curious to learn more about us, visit our LinkedIn page and the links we have posted.

• Product development-oriented: leading the architecture and design of a multi-tenant, cloud-native platform that hosts the IoT and Analytics apps architecting integration engine with connectors to handle and consume structured and unstructured data from different sources (customers ERP systems, external meta-data, etc) designing frameworks to support Big Data Analytics and real-time actionability based on predictive ML models driving the development of company's IoT platform dashboard and mobile applications with support from UX consultant.
• Internal team-oriented: building and a mentoring team of software developers planning and managing project timelines towards meeting roadmap goals and customer deliverables driving the team towards a test-driven and documented codebase.
• Customer-facing: work with customer's technical team to understand requirements architect and draft solution proposals integrate with customers' existing systems.

Requirements:

• Customer experience-related software development projects.
• In-depth knowledge and hands-on experience of time-series (relational or NoSQL-based) databases.
• Experience in integrating multiple Big Data solutions and legacy database systems.
• Experience in designing high volume data chains, i.e. messaging queues, streaming, processing large amounts of structured and unstructured data for IoT eco-system.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise application frameworks like spring/apache software integration web services (SOAP/RESTful), ESB SDLC tools (Git, Automated Testing Frameworks) cloud platforms (Azure, AWS), and containers (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Experience in building Big Data, AI, Machine Learning analytics pipelines.
• Familiarity with security requirements in IoT space & wireless sensor networks is a plus.