Chief Technology Officer

About Tandem

Tandem is a language exchange app on iOS and Android that connects language learners with native speakers. Members can search for language exchange partners to talk to by either text or voice chat.

Position

Your role will be to:

• Have outsized impact and autonomy to further build out Tandem’s community and our engineering organization
• As a senior leader work very closely and on eye level with the co-founders (who act as CEO and CPO)
• Lead, coach and mentor a highly-skilled, diverse team of currently eight (soon >15) engineers, working in an agile environment
• Hire new team members and contribute to employer branding projects that help make our engineering team stronger
• Work closely with the team to make architectural and technology decisions
• Facilitate communication and maintain alignment both within and across teams
• Be a champion for innovative, cutting edge solutions throughout the ideation and development process, working closely with product, growth, data and marketing teams
• Foster our culture of continuous learning, personal growth and transparency

Your qualification

• Are a strong communicator with significant experience leading and coaching diverse, international engineering teams in an agile environment
• Are an expert in client-server architectures and APIs
• Have deep knowledge of iOS and Android mobile application ecosystems
• Have a strong business and product sense, that helps you to understand the challenges faced by different teams in a tech startup, such as growth, product, design and marketing. You enjoy helping them solve hard problems.
• Are based in Berlin or willing to relocate (German language skills NOT required, though)
• Are passionate about learning and especially language learning

It’s a big plus, if you…

• Gained significant experience working on high load and high-performance apps
• Bring a deep understanding of backend architectures and relevant products in the AWS and GCP ecosystems to the job
• Have both a broad and deep understanding of the consumer mobile ecosystem and the relevant tooling (CRM, attribution, analytics)
• Are an expert in modern web apps

What we offer

Passion for languages 
We're a team of 24 people speaking 20 languages fluently between us. For those wanting to improve their German (or Denglisch!), you can join one of our German classes on us. We also run regular Spanish, Russian, and German lunches! 

Take a deep dive
As a Tandem team member, we’ll give you a budget for up to 6 “Deep Dive Days” per year. Pick a topic you’ve always wanted to explore for your professional development that has never made it out of your backlog. Then book a cabin in the woods or whatever matches your individual learning style.

Teams who train together, stay together
We offer Urban Sports Club gym memberships to boost our team’s physical and mental health. If you prefer, we can contribute to your monthly public transport ticket instead.

It takes a team to Tandem
Bonding with our teammates outside of our normal work routine is important to us. We organize regular team events: from day trips to weekly lunches, to Friday beers, summer BBQs, and board games.

Balance matters 
Life isn’t just about work. We know when to snooze Slack notifications, recharge our batteries, and take time out for our personal hobbies. As we’re mostly working from home right now, it’s even more important to be able to switch off from work and relax.

Modern family
As part of our family-friendly company philosophy, we embrace flexible working hours, welcome families to our events, and love for our kids to visit the office and get a taste of life at Tandem.

Relocation without the stress 
If you’re looking to relocate to Berlin, we’re ready to assist you with the infamous German bureaucracy. Many of us have been through it before, so we have plenty of tips to share. You’ll feel settled in no time. 

An office that sparks joy
Our open-plan working oasis is located in the heart of Berlin-Mitte. We offer a free choice of IT setup and whatever tech you require. As an added bonus, our kitchen is always fully stocked with free drinks, healthy snacks, and fresh fruit.