Chief Technology Officer at TeachStreet

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About TeachStreet

Founded in June 2007, TeachStreet is dedicated to helping students find great local teachers, and empowering teachers of all kinds (we're all experts in something!) with robust online tools to manage their teaching business.  The free site provides the information that students need to make a good decision about their learning experiences, including student reviews and teacher recommendations, pricing information, location, teacher background and training, and more. TeachStreet is headquartered in Seattle, WA and backed by Madrona Venture Group. For more information, visit www.TeachStreet.com

TeachStreet leverages the principles, features and benefits of social networking, location–based services, user–generated content, affiliate programs and search engine optimization to help individual Teachers, Trainers, Coaches and Tutors manage their local teaching businesses. Our incredibly easy–to–use online tools will help Teachers establish an online presence and find more students in their local geographies.

Overview: Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

We are looking for a Chief Technology Officer/Technical Leader who is excited about building on a new, revolutionary, and rapidly–growing service –– someone who can manage everything from technical development to systems administration, understands and can manage large–scale, distributed systems, and who can be a proactive contributor to our senior management team. Ideal candidates will work well in a collaborative manner with a small team of designers, developers and product managers, with a strong drive for "getting things done".  The ideal candidate will relish the opportunity to be an active contributor to our codebase (i.e. 30–50% of time)

Job Description & Responsibilities

• No two days will be alike –– stars in this role will be excited to work on a wide variety of technical problems including data gathering/analysis, database design, front–end programming, caching strategies, search and region–centric algorithms, and more.
  
• Start with ideas, design products and features, architect technical solutions, then rapidly prototype, build, test, launch and measure the effectiveness of services/solutions.
• Supervise all job functions related to all phases of the technical product development life cycle.
• Plan and oversee the testing and QA function for all aspects of the TeachStreet product, including design and code review.
• Work closely with the CEO and senior leadership team to plan, prioritize and manage all elements of the product.
• Be responsible for budget management as well as staff hiring, training, and supervision.  Currently expected to directly manage a team of 3 in–house software engineers, 1 web developer, and indirectly interact with a team of small team of non–technical employees (product, marketing, operations, customer service).
• Proven ability to attract, hire and retain superstars.
• Open to testing variations on ideas; we're designing TeachStreet to enable customers to tell us (with their actions) what they love.

• Working hard and smart to make TeachStreet a one–of–a–kind experience (will occasionally have to trade in their CTO hat for a for a used, sweat–stained, whatever–it–takes Tacoma Rainiers baseball cap) –– one day you may be writing code, and the next you may be actively participating in business development, marketing, and financial meetings.

• Actively contribute as a critical member of an energized start–up team.

Experience Requirements

• Strong knowledge of, and experience with, Linux/Unix as both an operational and development platform. Debian or Ubuntu distributions preferred.
  
• 5+ years experience building and scaling large–scale, enterprise databases with relational database platforms such as Postgres, MySQL, SQLServer, or Oracle. Postgres preferred, PostGIS experience a plus.
  
• 5+ years experience with Ruby/Java/C/C++ and contemporary web frameworks such as Struts or Tapestry. Experience with Ruby on Rails a plus.
  
• Strong understanding of web standards including HTML/CSS and experience with popular JavaScript libraries including Script.aculo.us, YUI, jQuery.
• Demonstrated proficiency in enabling online communities using collaboration technologies, location–based services, subscriptions, blogs, content management and distribution, and technologies required for implementing a “Web 2.0” and beyond site.
• Strong understanding of algorithm design & building scalable, distributed architectures including multi–tiered, redundant, fault–tolerant systems.
• Proven experience managing teams of individuals of varying skill–sets & disciplines including, but not limited to developers, program managers, testers and designers
• Proven experience working directly with business, financial, legal, customer service, human resources, sales and marketing efforts in the process of product development.
• Incredibly positive, just–do–it attitude! (Pessimists and complainers need not apply)

Strongly Desired that Applicants have previous experience at a start–up.

If you're interested, please submit the following to jobs@teachstreet.com to the attention of Dave Schappell:

• Cover Letter, explaining why you'd ROCK at this job, and what you're interested in learning / what you've learned recently
• Resume
• Your TeachStreet Profile URL