Engineering Manager

First Mode is a creative engineering company solving the toughest problems on and off the planet, with the goal of having an outsized impact on the world around us. We build the barely possible.

From our state-of-the-art manufacturing and production facilities in Seattle and Perth, we design and deliver resilient, reliable solutions for the most demanding and constrained frontiers in existence. In the last year our engineers built a 2MW hydrogen fuel cell and battery powerplant to retrofit a three-story, 300-metric-ton-capacity diesel haul truck; designed the power source and refueling system for the world's first endurance race vehicle to be powered by liquid hydrogen; and delivered spaceflight hardware headed 370 million kilometers from Earth to asteroid 16 Psyche.

While each project is unique, we typically meld together robotics, automation, systems engineering, modeling and simulation, and advanced fabrication to create a new future across many industries. If you have exceptional talent and a vision for the future, we want to talk.

First Mode is seeking to add an **Engineering Manager** to its Perth team, our Engineering Managers** **provide a supportive structure to enable First Mode's engineering staff to do their best work. They advocate for members of the engineering staff, representing their interests to balance against the needs of the product or program where they work. You may be an experienced people manager, or an engineer who has gravitated towards enabling your teammates. Either way, you've spent some time working as an engineer, but want to make supporting and advocating for people the focus of your next role.

The focus of this role is very much on the people and organization, not a product or technical work. Your measure of success will be in the success of the people on your team, and the growth of the organization to meet First Mode's engineering needs. You need to have enough technical experience to understand and talk about what people are working on, but deep expertise is not required though it would be a bonus, of course

Part of your focus will be on people management - support, career development planning, and soft-skills mentoring of the people in your group. It will also mean helping to mentor and grow our engineers who are growing into leadership and people-care positions, many for the first time. Another major component will be planning and driving the growth of our engineering teams - workforce planning, planning career and skills development to internally grow the skills we'll need in the future, and working with our recruiting team to identify and hire the great engineers we need meet our expected demands.

**Position Responsibilities**
- Serve as a resource for Engineering staff members in your group, providing a consistent relationship as they transition through different project roles.
- Help advance your group members' careers by representing and advocating for them in work assignments and performance reviews
- Provide coaching and mentorship to group members in navigating challenges, developing soft skills, and becoming effective in the First Mode environment.
- Work with the Directors of Multiple Engineering teams in matching engineers to project work, meeting business needs while your team opportunities to be challenged and grow.
- Help grow the wider Engineering team to meet future needs through workforce planning, interviewing, and hiring.
- Mentor emerging leaders and fresh people managers to help them develop their skills and capacity to effectively provide support to others.

**Basic Qualifications**
- 5+ years of experience as a Software/Systems, Mechanical OR Electrical engineer
- A demonstrated history of communicating and managing in an engineering environment, whether you had the title of "Manager" or not
- Experience in a people management role, OR demonstrated aptitude and passion for supporting people
- An empathic bent, and knack for helping people talk through their problems
- An interest in helping others develop their interpersonal communication and conflict management skills
- Significant experience in interviewing and hiring engineers

**Preferred Qualifications**
- Leadership experience and/or people management experience
- Extensive experience in recruiting and interviewing process
- Experience defining best practices, establishing processes and tool selection within an engineering environment
- Experience in technical mentorship and assisting early career engineers through complex problems
- Experience working in a matrixed organization
- Experience with workforce planning for 100+ person organizations

**Location**
- This position will be located at First Mode's office in Perth, WA

**Eligibility**
- Applicants must be eligible for employment within Australia

**Benefits & Perks**
- Competitive compensation and bonus structure
- Paid-for private health insurance (hospital & benefits)
- 12 week paid parental leave for all parents both second