Software Engineering Manager

Who we are

Open Government Products is an in-house team of engineers, designers, and product managers who build technology for the public good. We proactively identify areas where technology can help, test our prototypes with actual users, and bring our best ones to launch. This includes everything from building better frontend applications for citizens, to automating the internal operations of public agencies. We use and release open source software, keep a flat hierarchy, and bypass bureaucracy to focus on delivery. We work on real problems, build for the user, and push for change.

Projects we have worked on include:
Covid-19 Vaccination National Appointment System - A suite of systems built to enable Singapore's national vaccination campaign for Covid-19. This includes informational sites, appointment booking systems, and records management systems.

Data.gov.sg - An open repository of all the Singapore Government's public data. It helps people understand the data using visualizations and articles, and provides real-time APIs for developers to use.

Parking.sg - A mobile app alternative to parking coupons. It lets users pay, extend, and refund their parking sessions just using their phones.

FormSG - A form builder tool for agencies to self-service and create online forms that capture classified data, with the goal of replacing paper forms.

Isomer - Isomer provides government agencies with an easy-to-deploy static website building and hosting service to create usable, secure and faster informational websites quickly.

RedeemSG - RedeemSG helps the Singapore Government to create, send and track redemptions of digital vouchers easily.

PaySG - PaySG was developed to enable digital payments for government services, and was initially used for payments for COVID-19 swab tests and Stay-Home Notices for incoming travellers to Singapore.

An overview of other OGP products can be found on our website https://open.gov.sg

What does a Software Engineering Manager do?

As a Software Engineering Manager, your job is to build, nurture, and enable a strong engineering team. You will be in charge of balancing staffing and resourcing allocation with delivery expectations, provide career guidance and performance management for their reports, and help to foster successful group dynamics to accomplish the team’s mission. You will also responsible for tracking, enabling, and developing the skills and careers of engineers reporting to them. They are ultimately responsible for making sure the engineers themselves are well developed, cared for, and utilised. Responsibilities include:

• Developing the capabilities of your engineering team through mentorship, training opportunities, and actionable feedback.

• Proactively identifying, initiating, and coordinating worthwhile engineering projects for the Singapore Government to pursue.

• Breaking down projects into concrete steps and allocating them to the team

• Designing engineering processes to allow the team to collaborate efficiently while reducing production failures.

• Identifying strong engineering candidates, reaching out to them, and convincing them to join the team

Overall, your role is to develop strong engineering teams, make sure they are well taken care of, and are making strong contributions to the organization.

What it is like working here

Rapid Prototyping - Instead of spending too much time debating ideas we prefer testing them. This identifies potential problems quickly, and more importantly, conveys what is possible to others easily.

Ownership - In addition to technical responsibilities, this means having opinions on what is being done and having ideas on what should be done next. Building something that you believe in is the best way to build something good.

Continuous Learning - Working on new ideas often means not fully understanding what you are working on. Taking time to learn new architectures, frameworks, technologies, and even languages is not just encouraged but essential.

Also, we're Great Place to Work™ certified!

Who we are looking for

We work mostly in JavaScript. However, we don’t require experience in any specific programming language or technology. Core competency in at least one language and the ability to learn is what matters to us.

We look for people who:

• Are able to write code and reason about system architectures (which will be tested during the interview). 

• Have an established history of building software - Prior work count for much more than specific degrees.

• Are comfortable leading people - In addition to establishing technical standards for engineers, you will need to develop their careers, motivation, culture, and their overall effectiveness as a team.

• Are confident in making technical decisions - You understand the tradeoffs between multiple approaches to implementing a given system, committing to one, and mitigating the drawbacks of that approach.

• Can plan and organize complicated projects - You can keep track of vague requirements with many dependencies and break them down into clear objectives with understandable steps.

• Communicate clearly with an engineering team - Both discussing technical decisions and giving the team a clear understanding what the plans and goals of a project are.

• Take initiative to make things happen - Our job is to push for change in government, so we need to challenge the status quo and not wait for instruction.

• Want to work for the public good - We are public servants, we serve the public. This sometimes means ignoring political pressures and misguided policies. We need people who will push back if something is not in the public interest.

Overall we look for people who have ability, initiative, good communication, and strong values.