Slate is looking for a Head of Automotive Software Development to lead their software development in the electric vehicle space and focus on defining and building their digital customer experience.
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in full-stack mobile development – Android / iOS or modern web browsers and services, mainly in Java in a Linux or Unix environment.
- Proven expertise in backend systems development including microservices architecture, API design, cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and modern backend frameworks (Spring Boot, Node.js, etc.).
- Experience with data modeling, relational and non-relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MongoDB), and event-driven systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ, etc.).
- 10+ years of experience contributing to the architecture and design (architecture, design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and current systems.
- Experience leading architects and full stack development teams that support consumer-facing global web solutions.
- Experience delivering customer-driven software products at a high scale in a fast-paced, technology-first, rapid-growth company.
Responsibilities
- Lead and grow a team of exceptional backend and platform engineers, setting a high technical bar and fostering a culture of ownership, scalability, and quality.
- Architect and evolve Slate's core backend infrastructure to support a modern, modular vehicle ecommerce platform—from real-time pricing and inventory to reservation flows and digital ownership tools.
- Drive technical direction and long-term architecture strategy across services, APIs, data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure to enable secure, performant, and resilient systems.
- Collaborate with product and UX partners to translate customer needs into robust backend capabilities that scale across web and mobile touchpoints.
- Champion best practices in software engineering—including CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and observability—ensuring teams deliver with speed and confidence.
- Serve as a key technical voice across the company, influencing critical decisions on data strategy, security, integration patterns, and system design.
- Mentor senior engineers and emerging leaders, cultivating technical depth and strong execution across multiple squads.
Other
- Must be able to thrive and succeed in a fast-paced startup environment where your contributions have a direct impact on the company's direction and success and not be hindered by ambiguity or competing priorities.
- This is a high visibility, high impact role that will interact with all levels of leadership across Slate.
- Experience partnering with UX, product and program management teams.
- 7+ years of engineering team management experience.
- Bachelor of Science in Computer Science or equivalent work experience.
