Chief Technical Officer

About our project

Bookmate is built around 3 customer-faced products (website, iOS app and Android app).

We also constantly develop a plethora of services that make communication with external partners possible (including the partners who publish the books, the partners who provide Bookmate to their customers as a form of bundle service, etc..). Naturally, we also have internal systems that keep all this up and running. You can find practically any type of interesting project in our ecosystem.

Our code base is 10+ years old and incorporates over 50k commits, but we’re always open to any innovations in terms of code or technologies applied to achieve business results.

More information on the technical stack can be found in our other job postings: Backend Developer (Ruby, Ruby on Rails), iOS Developer, Android Developer, Web Developer (Javascript, React).

About our processes

Our development teams follow the best practices of creating high-quality software:

Testing. All code that gets into Bookmate’s repositories has full test coverage.

Continuous integration. Automatic code builds are run for every commit made to any repository branch.

Static code analysis is performed for each commit. We use the Code Climate service to automate this process.

Code review. Any code change will be reviewed by at least two randomly chosen teammates.

Collective code ownership. Any member of the team can make the necessary changes to any part of the system.

DevOps Our DBA/SRE engineers work in close proximity to our developers and are always ready to help.

About you

We believe that the role of Chief Technical Officer (CTO) is one of the most important roles in our company. To make this collaboration as long and productive as possible, please consider our requirements for the position:

At least 2 years of experience on the similar position of CTO / Technical Director in a team of no less than 15 developers
At least 8 years of experience in IT (development background preferred, a proven experience in one or more of technologies and languages used in Bookmate is a huge bonus)
Profound experience in communication with various stakeholders and business / product owners
Profound experience in creating from scratch and/or supporting existing software development processes and practices, such as strategic planning, team resource allocation, task distribution, KPIs etc.. (proven proficiency in Agile/Scrum methodologies is a bonus)
Proven track record of successfully creating and/or supporting and enriching complex systems, containing approximately 0.5M or more lines of code
Ability to deal with legacy systems (which includes being ready to propose a development strategy that includes both moving forward and keeping the core functionality stable)
Excellent communication skills. Ability to communicate technology strategy to top managers, partners and investors. Spoken and written English is a must (at least B2, ideally C1-C2). Excellent team leadership skills. Ability and willingness to invest in the team are a must. Our ideal candidate for this position would possibly consider himself more of a “player-coach” than a “manager”.

Our hiring process

Like what you see? We’re glad to hear that. Our hiring process is very simple:

Send your CV and/or a portfolio of projects to hr@bookmate.com. A hiring manager will contact you and invite you for a quick screening interview by Google Meet or Zoom (appr. 30 minutes). We’ll talk about your previous experiences and answer any questions about Bookmate as a company.
If the screening interview goes well, you’ll be invited to a technical interview with senior development team members.
If the technical interview goes well, you’ll be invited to an online meeting with the CEO and a couple of other management board representatives. This meeting is treated more like a special time reserved to meet each other and know more about the current challenges and goals of the company. You are encouraged to ask as many questions as we will ask you (it could be, once more, a talk about your previous experiences or your general career plans).
After the final meeting is over, we’ll take 1-2 weeks to consider our options and inform you of our decision.

Frequently asked questions

Is Bookmate an international company?

Yes, we’re working on European, Latin American and Asian markets. Our team is international and distributed all over the world.

Does Bookmate offer any options for relocation?

We’re currently offering the option to relocate to Belgrade, Serbia. If you’re willing to relocate, we can provide you with the details of what exactly can we do to make this process easier. Unfortunately, we can’t help you with relocation to another country.

Does Bookmate support remote work?

Yes, but you should be available during typical CET working hours. If you’re close to one of our offices, you’re very welcome to come work in it.