Head of Engineering

About Outlier Ventures

Outlier Ventures is the leading Web3 accelerator in the world. Founded in 2014, it works with startups at various stages of their lifecycle from pre-seed/seed (via Base Camp) to later stage about to launch or live token networks that specialize in a new data economy, infrastructure, DeFi, and bringing together a network of 1,000+ of the world's leading Web3 founders, protocols, VCs to mentor and invest in startups.

At Outlier Ventures, we value curiosity of mind and an agile, entrepreneurial mindset.

We value all people, regardless of their gender, age, disabilities, race, ethnic origin, pregnancy or maternity status, religious beliefs, political beliefs, marital status or sexual orientation. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to promoting equality at every opportunity, both as partners, providers of services, and employers.

About The Role

Outlier Ventures is seeking a Head of Engineering to help source the best Web3 technologies and AI to use them with portfolio companies and within OV itself.

The Head of Engineering plays a strategic role in developing the technical direction starting from the CTO guidelines. You help portfolio companies and Outlier Ventures itself to find the best trade-offs by mixing Web2 tech with Web3 and AI tech stack in the most seamless way.

The Web3 ecosystem landscape is constantly changing, and because of that, looking, selecting, and staying updated with Web3 technologies plays a primary role. It offers an excellent opportunity to use your experience and practical approach to filter the noise from the signal.

You work with the rest of the Product & Engineering team to deliver first-class product and engineering advisory to the co-founders, CTOs, and engineers of the portfolio companies to bring new paradigms to life as they build viable businesses. We are here to ensure they can deploy the best, most scalable, and secure architectures possible.

Having strong communication and interpersonal skills is crucial to fostering collaboration between all the internal and external stakeholders (e.g. Startups, Investment Team, Accelerator Team, etc. )

Plus, because we are an accelerator, you will be involved in the admission process of startups. This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of the selection process that shapes the subsequent batches of founders. Practically, you will run solo or with other colleagues through tech due-diligence sessions where you learn and challenge applicants' architectures, approaches, and business models.

We are looking for technical builders who love the Web3 movement, startups, and the growing AI industry.

The role is fully remote; if you are based in London, you are more than welcome to work in our London-based office. Successful candidates will need to work London office hours (-+3 hours Timezone).

Your Key Responsibilities:

• In advisory capacity, run workshops about product roadmap best-practice and architectures in line with the startup's long-term business outcomes.
• Help OV to build and execute on viable product roadmaps for leveraging technology, particularly AI, in its daily activity and create tools to empower the in house employees and expert teams.
• Being the line manager of the Product Engineers in the team and contribute to the growth of the Engineering practice by hiring, coaching, and mentoring.
• In advisory capacity, with the startups, identify technical blockers and come back with actionable alternatives considering the impact from an engineering and business perspective.
• Run architecture and code review sessions.

We are looking for someone who:

• Has a deep exposure to Web3 technologies and has built something hands-on (Solidity, Hardhat, EtherJs, etc.).
• Has been exposed to the hectic startup life either as a founder/employee/investor.
• Has 5 years experience in blockchain engineering roles.
• Knows distributed system architecture (e.g., Microservices, CQRS, Saga, Sharding, etc.).
• Is fluent in one or more general-purpose languages (e.g., TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust, Java).
• Is familiar with Domain Modelling, DevOps principles, containers, Testing, Continuous Integration, and Deploy.
• Understands the markers of a quality codebase (design patterns, testing, documentation, commit activity, CI/CD).
• Has strong interpersonal skills: ability to advise on technical direction and explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences.

Nice to have:

• Fundamentals of Solidity.
• Viem and/or Ether.js and/or Web3.js.
• React or any modern web framework.
• Software security training, particularly smart contract security.
• Knowledge of Machine learning and exposure to new LLM paradigms.

What we offer:

• The package is subject to relevant experience.
• Private medical insurance.
• Discretionary bonus scheme.
• 25 days of holiday per year (plus bank holidays).
  
• Cycle-to-work scheme.