About iMentor

iMentor is a national non-profit organization that builds mentoring relationships which empower first generation college students to graduate from high school, succeed in college, and achieve their ambitions. iMentor partners with public high schools in low-income communities where the majority of students will be the first in their family to go to college. iMentor matches every student in those partner schools with a college-educated mentor. Mentors commit a minimum of three years to working with a single student before having the option to extend their match through college completion. Since its inception in 1999, iMentor has created over 25,000 mentoring relationships and has a track record of significantly improving college entrance, persistence, and completion rates for the students and schools it serves, and has matched 7,400 students with mentors this year. iMentor has been recognized through funding by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lumina Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and the Robin Hood Foundation, and the federal Social Innovation Fund.

iMentor is one of the nation’s most innovative and quickly growing college success organizations. As a team, we are mission-focused, results-oriented, passionate and fun, and were named one of the Best Nonprofits to Work For by Opportunity Knocks and The Nonprofit Times.

Position Overview

iMentor is seeking an experienced VP of Engineering to lead the development of its proprietary technology platform. The iMentor platform facilitates most aspects of the iMentor program. Mentors and mentees communicate weekly through the platform, providing them with a secure way to build their relationships, engage with our curriculum, and chart their progress as pairs. iMentor staff use the platform to manage, monitor, and evaluate the program. iMentor also sells a white-labeled version of the platform to other non-profits, allowing them to run the iMentor model in their local communities. Developed in-house over the last 10 years, the iMentor platform is a web application, with upcoming native mobile applications for iOS and Android. It includes a comprehensive intake application for volunteers, rich communication and learning spaces that integrate with popular educational services such as Google Drive, analytics for staff to monitor program performance, intelligent automation of routine administrative tasks, and robust APIs to connect with ancillary services such as Twilio, Qualtrics and Tableau. The iMentor platform is currently used by over 20,000 mentors and mentees and 300 staff members each week in 17 communities across the country. 

Working closely with the CEO, Chief Program Officer and senior leadership, the VP of Engineering will bring deep experience in building and scaling web applications to take iMentor’s platform development to the next level. S/he will be responsible for overseeing the entire development process, including hiring and managing all engineers, devops, and QA professionals. S/he will work collaboratively with iMentor product manager(s) and program leadership to develop and execute on product roadmaps. The VP of Engineering will join the organization during a period of strategic growth and serve as the driving force behind a highly visible, mission-critical product used by individuals and organizations across the country. 

Responsibilities 

Lead and manage a team of engineers

• Evaluate, hire, manage, and review the work of a distributed team of engineers, devops and QA professionals
• Communicate requirements and project status to engineers and other internal stakeholders
• Manage the engineers through the software development lifecycle, ensuring the project stays on time and within budget

 Oversee platform infrastructure, stability, scale, and security

• Define and track key product performance indicators; monitor usage data and customer feedback to gauge success and plan for iterations
• Ensure the iMentor Platform is meeting the latest security standards, planning for consistent upgrades, and regular security testing

 Drive product development

• Collaborate with the Product Manager through all aspects of the entire product lifecycle from ideation to planning and execution with an eye toward creating beautifully simple user experiences for mentees, mentors, and all program staff
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to define and manage product strategy and roadmap
• Advise on product requirements and feature design
• Become an expert in iMentor’s program design and implementation and generate new ideas based on program strategy as well as new product and technology trends

Qualifications

• 5+ years of engineering experience and product leadership with demonstrated success building high quality web-based software, preferably in a B2B or educational technology company
• Hands-on engineering experience, Python, PostgreSQL and Angular.js preferred
• Experience defining an engineering strategy for web and/or mobile product, and then evaluating, selecting, and managing engineers and firms preferred
• Ability to design a sound data structure for products
• Good intuition and judgment on how to make software that is easy to use
• Superior analytical skills with the ability to distill feedback from disparate sources, make recommendations and decisions
• Excellent communication skills and proven ability to manage up and influence cross-functional teams without formal authority
• Exceptional project management skills fueled by persistence and follow-through
• Curious, insightful and innovative with a natural bias for action, thrives in a dynamic, fast-paced environment
• Aptitude to learn the nuances of iMentor’s program, partners and current platform and translate this into a structure that expands current capabilities
• Disciplined self-starter, resourceful, flexible and able to work independently
• A sincere and deep commitment to the fundamental belief that every child deserves a college education and that college closes the opportunity gap
• Aligned in thought and action with iMentor's values (http://www.imentor.org/values)
• Views differences between individuals (race, gender, age, cultural heritage, physical ability, education and lifestyle) as an asset and demonstrates an appreciation of the diversity within iMentor
• Bachelor’s degree required
• Employment is contingent upon the completion of a satisfactory fingerprinting and criminal background check, conducted by the Division of Human Resources at the New York City Department of Education

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary commensurate with experience
• Up to 100% employer funded comprehensive medical and dental coverage
• 18 days paid annual vacation and 13 paid holidays + most iMentor functions closed between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• 401K match up to 4%
• Significant opportunities for professional development and growth