Software Engineering Manager

About KOKO Networks

KOKO Networks is a venture-backed technology company currently operating in Kenya and India. Our mission is to imagine and deliver technology that transforms life in the world’s fastest growing cities. We build and deploy cloud-connected "KOKO Points" inside local retail outlets, which provide mass market consumer goods in partnership with major suppliers. Our first solution is liquid ethanol cooking fuel, which offers significant cost savings and quality of life improvements in the multi-billion dollar urban cooking market. In Kenya, this solution is delivered in partnership with Vivo Energy, the operator of Shell-branded fuel infrastructure across Africa. KOKO offers a fast-paced and highly collaborative work environment with significant opportunities for professional growth. We are looking for people who share our passion for technology and our vision for global impact.

Your Role
As KOKO grows within and outside Kenya, our team is looking for an Engineering Manager to build and manage part of our growing team of engineers, be responsible for ensuring high standards are maintained and projects are successfully executed.  As such you will play a key role in enabling KOKO’s long term success, including our expansion beyond Nairobi and Kenya. This is a very visible leadership position in which you should be able to influence the decisions of your team without having to make all of them.
In this position, you’ll have the opportunity to contribute and add value across KOKO's entire product suite, through individual contribution, and equally importantly through bringing strong leadership to a group of software engineers. In this role, you should be a "player and coach" - excited about managing and coaching software engineers, as well as contributing, hands-on.
KOKO’s suite of products spans multiple technical domains and disciplines in software and hardware, and so experience in end-to-end systems thinking across distributed components is key.

What you will do

• You will recruit, manage and provide technical mentorship to engineers through active coaching and setting measurable goals that help them grow and create maximum impact for KOKO.
• You will build the engineering culture at KOKO, ensuring it is positioned to attract similar minded people with a passion for using technology to tackle some of the hardest challenges.
• You will work closely with Product and Engineering leaders to contribute to the most valuable areas of technical decision making, advancing key initiatives and reducing risk on critical projects.
• You will ensure the use of best practices including code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD across teams and projects, and help others to improve the quality of their work.
• You will serve as a technical authority and represent the full internal and external capabilities of our platforms within and outside the Product and Engineering teams
• You will review technical designs, and ensure they will be scalable and robust.

What You Will Bring to KOKO

• Three or more years of experience directly managing software engineers and 8+ years of experience in software engineering overall.
• Strong track record leading, developing, and delivering significant software projects
• Significant experience in the following areas: enterprise application and service based architectures, software design patterns, messaging protocols, cyber security, distributed application development, modern front-end design, highly scalable data architectures.
• Well developed skills in designing for testability, reliability, security and maintainability.
• Evangelist for Agile practices, able to work closely with product leaders to support engineering team members in delivering in an agile manner to achieve key goals.
• Strong communicator, both written and verbal, who is calm and decisive under pressure.
• Empathy for your colleagues, encouraging team members to think creatively while knowing where to intervene to tackle tough problems and navigate conflicts.

What we offer

• Competitive salary plus a quarterly cash bonus
• Annual compensation reviews - we reward great work
• Discounted health insurance with no-cost financing for you and your dependents (in Kenya)
• 21 days of annual leave plus public holidays plus examination leave
• Ongoing investment in you and your skills, incl. full access to over 5,000 online courses
• The right equipment for the job - a choice of MacBook, Windows, or Linux laptop

If you share our passion for technology and our vision for global impact, we strongly encourage you to apply!
KOKO is committed to gender and racial diversity in the workplace. We encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply!