Who we are
Boba Commodities are a successful, rapidly growing commodities trading firm with the wider purpose of investing into a better future for us all.
Our vision
To invest our trading profits into community enhancing businesses across the globe that share our values.
Our mission
Through our trading strategies, maximise the opportunity in the commodities and other markets to help us realise our vision.
We believe
Social value and long-term profit are inextricably linked. We carry this philosophy through to the role we play in the commodities markets. As part of this belief, we have ensured we are a carbon negative company, meaning we seek to double offset our carbon footprint, backdated from our inception as a company.
Where we are in our journey
From being founded in 2013, we have grown significantly over the past 10 years. We are now looking to scale our technology infrastructure and levels of automation of our trading processes. To add to the Engineering team, we are looking for a future orientated hands-on Lead Engineer who has a passion for software engineering, strong attention to detail, commercial focus and excellent communication to help support us and make our vision a reality.
Our values
· We believe in 80/20, the pursuit of non-perfectionism: We ensure we are always focused on the most impactful drivers and results and what achieves the highest value over time spent. We move fast and get things done.
· Adapt & Evolve: We are agile and growth oriented. We won’t get everything right first time, but we are open-minded to learning from mistakes and failures. We adapt and evolve whenever needed, and rely on honest, direct and timely feedback from each other.
· Best Ideas Rise To The Top: We champion the best ideas, not our own ideas. We ensure we listen to other ideas, regardless of the source and embrace cognitive diversity and creating a psychologically safe environment where every voice is heard.
· Care Personally: We care about each other at a personal level as well as ourselves. We put the team’s needs ahead of our own individual needs to support each other as servant leaders. The more we understand each other, the more effective we will be.
These core values are intrinsic in our culture and in everything we do.
What are you going to do?
As a technical lead of the Engineering team, you will report directly into the Chief of Staff with the mission to design, deliver and communicate the technology vision and a curate a high performing, ‘well-oiled’ Engineering team. You will also have responsibility for the Trading Product development team, working closely with the Trading team to implement rapid delivery and transparency of enhancements and innovations. Specific examples of specific responsibilities are:
· Work closely with the Leadership team to shape and make the technology vision a reality and be a force multiplier for our Engineering objectives and strategy.
· Work closely with the Trading stakeholders to maximise the effective support and delivery from Trading Product development team.
· Be hands-on, actively contributing to the development process through writing & reviewing code, designing and implementing solutions and resolving technical challenges. Indicatively it will be 20% future focused, 60% solution design, unblocking and solving technical problems with the team and 20% coaching and mentoring individuals to reach their maximum potential.
· Build high value pragmatic technology solutions for trading teams and automation of manual processes through technology solutions.
· Own and develop highly effective software development/SDLC processes and practices to reduce lead time to delivery and increase technical excellence.
· Mentor and coach the Engineering team in both technical skills and competencies for high performance and innovation, understanding them at a personal level to maximise their potential and productivity through effective coaching techniques.
· Work with the Trading and Trading Product Development team to continuously improve internal trading tech products, models, reports and visualisations.
· Sets high quality OKRs in line with business goals for self and team and holds self and team accountable for meeting or exceeding them.
· Sets the pace and cadence to optimise effectiveness and output.
· Solve complex problems in a logical and “80/20” way.
· Sets KPIs for self and team that effectively measure the health of the Engineering function in line with business goals.
Why diversity and inclusion is highly important to us
An inclusive and diverse workplace means we highly value differences in race, gender, nationality, culture, sexual orientation, physical ability, cognition, age and background as these differences bring new or different ways of thinking about our work. Therefore, creating a workplace culture that advances belonging and psychological safety brings a mutual respect and acceptance of others and fuels our values of caring personally, adapting and evolving and the best ideas rising to the top.
We need someone who must have the following…
· Experienced and effective technical leader and people manager/coach for the team, with a proven track record of helping their teams reach their potential and a strong working knowledge of effective coaching techniques.
· Be able to communicate complexity with brevity, clarity and precision and solve problems pragmatically and logically under pressure or during intense trading periods.
· Strong self-management such as self-awareness, adaptability, positivity, self-motivation, holding yourself and team to high standards.
· Positive reaction to failure, calm and comfortable in chaos and under pressure while retaining importantly strong ethical standards.
· Experience developing software in SQL, Python and AWS, and ideally Javascript & VBA
· Strong skills/experience in:
o Various AWS services, including but not limited to EC2, Lambda, Aurora, S3
o Working with containerization technologies e.g., Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) together with AWS Fargate and orchestration tools e.g., Kubernetes
o Current data paradigms e.g. stream processing (using Apache Kafka/Kinesis and Apache Flink), real-time architectures to enable downstream use-cases such as alerting and reporting
o Coding in Python & SQL
o Working with Relational Databases
o Knowledge of AWS security best practices, Identity and access management (IAM), encryption, and network security configurations to ensure a secure cloud environment.
o AWS networking concepts, including VPCs, subnets, security groups, NAT gateways, VPNs, and direct connect to design and implement scalable and fault-tolerant network architectures
o Managing data engineering pipelines through Apache Airflow
o Maintenance and optimisation of CI/CD pipelines and other automation processes in AWS Code Pipeline
o Knowledge and experience with Git (branching strategies and repo management)
o Monitoring tools like AWS CloudWatch to proactively identify issues and troubleshoot system performance
o Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform to automate and manage infrastructure deployments
o AWS backup and disaster recovery solutions, such as AWS Backup and Amazon S3 versioning, to ensure data protection and business continuity
o Best practices like Behaviour Driven Development (BDD), Test Driven Development (TDD) and Continuous Performance Testing using open-source toolsets.
o Building custom dashboards using React framework, Angular, Node.js, HTML, CSS and JavaScript
· Have deep hands-on experience in designing and building low-latency trading or comparable infrastructures and related operational/trading processes.
· Have hands-on experience in building rules based automation or machine learning technology solutions for trading e.g. automation of trading strategies or other intellectual property.
· Have a passion for building pragmatic technology solutions that focus on delivering the most value over time.
· Have excellent skills, experience and a passion for mentoring and coaching more junior Engineers in both technical skills and in highly productive ways of working; Able to marshal an Engineering team effectively, being clear and consistently acting in line with the best interests of the business and being firm on bringing the team back on track when we deviate from it.
· Have a deep understanding of working methods such as Agile, Kanban, Scrum, DevOps and CI/CD tools and best practices and successful experience in embedding them in teams.
Ideally will be a bonus if you have the following…
· Programming experience in C#
· Experience in designing and implementing RESTful APIs for accessing AWS Aurora to source data for the analytics
· Experience of Microsoft Power Bl /Tableau or other data visualization program to create effective dashboards and reports
You will thrive in the role if you have the following…
· Personal commitment to excellence; to self-development, personal growth, expanding your comfort zone; strong attention to detail, ability and hunger to learn quickly; all of which is balanced with a strong sense of pragmatism.
· Strong logical reasoning/critical thinking with an ability to make decisions, take a methodical approach, identify patterns to form conclusions and solve problems and ability to hold conflicting views in parallel.
· Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with an ability to liaise with co-workers at all levels of the business. Specifically skilled at presenting complex information in concise and clear ways, applying the appropriate sense of urgency when required.
· Strong team orientation, working collaboratively with high levels of self-motivation and caring personally for the team and co-workers; fosters psychological safety, clarity of purpose.
· Holds team accountable to their work, ensuring it is completed accurately and on time; communicates delivery timelines for work clearly to stakeholders.
· Understands when to be directive versus taking a more collaborative or coaching approach to delivery or problem solving.
· Effective active listener. Holds space for other’s ideas, avoids listening purely to respond; listens without ego getting in the way.
· Excellent organisational and time keeping skills.
· Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Excel.
· Able to clearly establish priorities but remain adaptable in a constantly changing environment.
· Expertise/strong awareness and ability to recruit in software engineering/technology domain.
Examples of success in this role include the following…
· Delivery of the strategic blueprint for trading infrastructure and the automation of our trading IP (intellectual property).
· Decommissioning our legacy excel processes and migrating to strategic, scalable solutions.
· Leading and enabling the Engineering team as a ‘well-oiled machine’.
· Delivering and embedding effective testing automation toolsets and practices.
· Strong working relationship with Leadership Team, acting as a trusted expert and advisor; being a force multiplier for the technology vision.
· Effectively collaborating across departments (e.g. Trading, Trading Risk Analysts and Finance).
· Increase innovation rates and deliver on product development.
· Oversee and minimise technology maintenance work through best engineering practices.
· Build strong trust and psychological safety within Engineering team and be a culture carrier for the broader company as a senior employee.
· Own and deliver improvements on Engineering KPIs
It would be even better, but not essential, if you have one or more of…
· An understanding of futures or commodities markets
· Experience of using Bloomberg/Reuters
Personal Fit
Our values run deep. You can come from any background, but championing our culture is critical. We’re looking for a team member who:
· Shares our vision and embodies the Boba culture as a role model.
· Is looking for an organisation that puts its purpose at the heart of what it does.
· Is hungry to help build the company - a proactive and enthusiastic force to improve our capabilities.
· Loves coding and loves putting technology to use in a pragmatic way.
· Has their finger on the pulse of latest information, ideas, and practices, and can transform these into tangible value for our team.
· Leads by first deeply understanding a problem and then leveraging their experience to work with the teams to find solutions.
· Has a keen interest and understanding in the wider technical landscape, regardless of our current tech stack; is intellectually curious.
Application and Interview Process
We are small but growing fast and we need the right people who can help us grow and retain and embed our culture and values. Our selection process is both rigorous and compassionate, but we highly encourage you to approach the journey as your authentic self. You are deciding about whether this role is for you as much as we are, so if we are a natural fit for you and you find yourself enjoying this process then you will likely thrive working at Boba. Below is an outline of what you can expect from the process, but this may change or evolve.
How To Apply
If you apply directly, please include your CV and a cover letter. Whilst your CV can cover what you have experienced, achieved, and accomplished, we really encourage you to take the opportunity to describe your personal 'why' and 'how' in your cover letter to tell us more about you as a person.
We want to get to know who you are as a person and not just what you have done in the past. Applicants we think could be a good fit for the role and culture will be invited to the first round.
Round 1: Introductory Interview
The first stage of the process is an introductory interview to ensure you understand as much as possible about who we are, what the role is and how we work. You will meet with our Associate Chief of Staff (Catherine) for approx. 45mins to understand more clearly what the role is about; ask any questions you wish and ensure we discuss anything on your mind about the role or interview process. The goal of this is to help you decide whether you would like to pursue the next steps of the interview process and embark on this journey with us. We want to be as transparent as possible with you.
Round 2: Getting to know each other
Approx. 2hrs with breaks. We would love to host you at our office and meet you in person, and we will pay any associated travel costs. This process will be in two parts. Should you meet or exceed the threshold of the technical assessment, you will then move to the second part. Typical format will be:
I. Technical Assessment (1hr) - the team will assign you a technical assessment exercise hosted by our Engineers (Amritha and/or Gary). This will be broken down into a task that involves some coding/code walk through for about 45 mins and a technical discussion regarding system design for about 15 mins.
Break: One of your potential future team will take you for a coffee/tea/beverage for an informal chat with you for 10-15mins for you to ask any questions about the role, Boba or anything else!
II. Meet with our Chief of Staff / Chief People and Culture Officer (Iain) for up to 45mins.
Round 3: Case Study Presentation and Final Round
Approx. 2 hours with breaks. This will be in-person in our office again, and we will pay any associated travel costs. This process will be in stages. Should you meet or exceed the threshold of each stage, you will then move to the next stage. The structure will likely be:
• Case Study presentation for up to 30mins with Catherine, Iain and one of our Engineers. Ahead of this round, we will provide an Engineering case study and the opportunity to elicit any further functional requirements or clarifications from one of the team. We will ask you to prepare and then present to the team your approach to this scenario. This will be for a max of 15mins (and up to a max of 5 accompanying slides if needed), and up to another 15mins of questions from the team.
• Break. (We typically ask one of the team you’ve not met yet to take you for a tea/coffee for up to 15mins).
If we both wish to continue, then:
• Meet with our COO (Marc) for up to 45mins inc. any questions you may have.
• Meet with our CEO (Samir) for up to 30mins inc. any questions you may have.
What we can offer you
We are growing and adding to how we want to make Boba the best place to work on the planet and are always listening to what our team think we can do to achieve that. On top of a culture of personal growth, caring personally, inclusivity where your ideas are heard and often implemented, we can offer:
· £110-120K Annual salary plus annual discretionary performance bonus.
· Support from a professionally qualified Coach to help you achieve your personal and professional goals.
· Work/life balance. We mainly trade in US markets, and as a result need to ensure we have Engineering available to support the Trading team. However, outside of having appropriate coverage in place, we work hard to stick to an average 8 hour day and you will have a large amount of autonomy over your work. We value output and engagement and we do not like presenteeism, we know that everyone has a life outside of work
· Comprehensive health care cover, including mental health, dental and optical cover, with zero excess for the employee (and tax is paid by us!) via Aviva
· Life Insurance and Income Protection via YuLife
· Physical health allowance where we provide an allowance to each employee to use towards a physical activity of their choice (e.g., gym membership, Brazilian ju-jitsu, personal trainer, running club; pretty much anything as long as it gets you moving!)
· 39 days holiday, to be taken whenever you want subject to ensuring we have operational and trading coverage. We do not mandate you work public holidays nor do we mandate you must take them off, instead we recognise that UK bank holidays do not always align to important dates for everyone so give our employees the choice
· Up to £1K a year to support one personal amazing growth goal. Our only guidelines are that it cannot be incongruent to our purpose or values, and it must push you out of your comfort zone
· Pension contribution
· A book a month for personal development
· A gift on your birthday.
· Support to pursue professional certifications/qualifications
· Fridge full of snacks and drinks (healthy and less-healthy options are available!)
· Boba Day – an optional annual away day for socialising and training together
· ‘Bobaversary’ recognition for reaching significant milestones in your career with us
Other examples of situational/ad-hoc schemes we have run for our employees:
· Surprise and delight – we sent our people gifts from us during mandatory WFH periods, just to show we are thinking about them
· Social events & celebratory gifts for achieving team goals
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