Head of Engineering

About Alva
Alva’s mission is to reduce menopause suffering and help women live longer in good health. We support women through menopause with evidence-based information, assessment and treatment.

By 2025, over 1 billion women will be in menopause. 80% have symptoms, of which 36% experience severe and sometimes debilitating symptoms. These can last up to 15 years (7 years on average). In the UK, 13 million women are currently in menopause but there are fundamental problems in menopause care that have lead to limited access to local services and long waiting times.

We’re building a comprehensive digital healthcare service to make excellent menopause care accessible to all. Women of every age, ethnicity, sociodemographic background, sexual orientation and disability deserve the highest quality care – for their physical and mental health.

Although Alva’s platform is built for women, we’re passionate about including men and families in our menopause conversation. The only way we can contribute to breaking the stigma is by being inclusive to all.

About this role
Alva is building novel, next-generation healthcare services that have the potential to scale to serving millions of women. Our top priority is delivering high-quality care in a safe & scalable way. Our current tech has gotten us to where we are now but as our product vision has changed and our company has grown. We now need to build a new healthcare platform that will take us into the future.

You’ll be joining Alva to takeover the design & build of this new platform and manage the current engineering team. We are looking for someone that can set a strong engineering culture built around trust, autonomy and safety while also aligning with the wider company culture, which you can read about here.

What you’ll be doing
Taking over the design & build of our new healthcare platform, services & infrastructure, as well as helping us migrate and separate our existing systems / data.
Collaborating with the medical & operations team to define, scope and plan future product & platform requirements.
Creating new software development process’ to enable the current (and future) engineers to deliver the products and features we need to scale Alva.
Managing & growing the current engineering team.
Developing and mentoring engineering team members.
We’re a small company and it’s often all hands on deck. There’s a good chance you’ll occasionally be helping with things beyond your role.

What we’re looking for
Previous experience as a Head of Engineering at a fast-scaling technology startup. Healthcare experience is a bonus, but not a requirement.
Proven experience designing systems that allow teams to move quickly while maintaining security and reliability.
Prior experience of putting in place the processes and culture required to create a high performing engineering team.
Deep understanding of how to design scalable and secure cloud based systems.
Understanding of, and significant experience working with Typescript and NodeJS based applications, including common build systems & testing toolsets.
Great communication skills; the ability to breakdown problems, explain work, and relay information in ways that help everyone move forward with a shared understanding.
Experience working with modern frontend frameworks and patterns. Our frontend is built with Vue.
A passion for company culture and the conviction to contribute to it.
At this time we can only offer roles to people who have the right to live and work in the UK.

Benefits
A competitive salary with twice yearly salary reviews.
Own a part of Alva through our employee share option scheme.
28 days of holiday per year, plus bank holidays. We also have an extra “birthday bank holiday” policy (take your birthday off, or the Monday after if it’s on the weekend 🥳).
Flexible working hours – work at the times that are best for you.
Pension contributions.
A dog-friendly office 🐶 (and a team dog called Susan) with a lot of plants 🌱. It’s next to Broadway Market.
Our benefits get reviewed periodically with input from the team.

FAQs

Is this a full-time role?

Yes. We’re not currently looking for contractors or freelancers.
Can I work remotely full-time?

Yes, we’re open to remote applications for this role. We do have an office in London Fields and most of the team are coming in 2-3 days per week. But we are operating a hybrid model.

What’s the hiring process?
Intro call (30 mins)
Engineering-focussed discussion (1 hour)
Past experience & how you work (1 hour)
Culture fit (1 hour)
Offer
The aim for us is for us to get a really good understanding of your skillset, whether you share our cultural values and what you’re looking for in your next role.

We also want to give you the opportunity to ask lots of questions so that you can evaluate whether Alva is a good fit for you for the long term.

We’d like this to be a process that let’s you show your best work and doesn’t constrain your ability to do that. We can adjust the process as needed, so just let us know.

How to apply
Please send an email to clare@withalva.com with

Your resume and/or LinkedIn profile
Contact details and some times you’d be free for a 30 minute intro call