Head of Engineering

The Head of Engineering owns how Olarm's technology is built, operated and delivered, across every engineering discipline and the company's internal IT. The areas include Software, Firmware, Hardware, Industrial Design, Agile Delivery and IT & Network.

Responsibilities

Engineering leadership

• Lead Olarm's engineering organisation through a team of functional leads, not through direct technical work.
• Build and maintain the leadership layer: appoint, develop and hold accountable the leads for each function.
• Own engineering hiring, capability development, career levels and succession.
• Set engineering culture, standards and ways of working across disciplines.
• Build multi-skilled, multifunctional teams that can work across disciplines and cover for one another.
• Manage bus-factor risk: keep a key-person risk register, and remove single points of knowledge through cross-training, pairing, documentation and shared ownership of critical systems.

Architecture and technical direction

• Own technical architecture across devices, firmware, MQTT backbone, cloud, mobile and web.
• Make the final call on technical trade-offs, technical risk and technology choices.
• Maintain a technical roadmap that supports the product strategy.

Innovation and emerging technology

• Lead Olarm's technical advancement into new fields, including AI and robotics, in both products and internal operations.
• Build the capability, prototypes and partnerships needed to turn new technology into viable products and operational improvements.
• Stay abreast of new technology trends in software and electronics, and assess their relevance to Olarm.
• Bring emerging-technology opportunities to Justin and Product through the Product and Innovation Forum, where strategic bets are agreed.

Delivery

• Own engineering capacity, technical sequencing and delivery planning, partnering with Product to shape feasible priorities and flag trade-offs early.
• Schedule engineering-led work, such as system upgrades, infrastructure changes, security patching and technical debt, with Product on one shared roadmap.
• Commit to delivery dates and report honestly on progress and risk.
• Own release quality, engineering QA and technical testing across software, firmware and hardware.
• Hand products to Manufacturing through design transfer, release management and change control.

Support engagement

• Maintain constant engagement between Engineering and the Support team, led by the Support Lead and Operations Manager.
• Hold a regular, fixed cadence with Support to review open escalations, recurring faults and customer impact.
• Provide a clear escalation path and agreed response times for technical issues

Support cannot resolve.

• Feed field issues and support trends into engineering priorities, and close the loop with Support on fixes and root causes.
• Brief Support ahead of every release on changes, known issues and how to handle them.

Standards and certification

• Ensure engineering work and products comply with the standards and certifications Olarm holds or targets, including ISO 9001, ISO 27001, EN 50131, EN 50136, ATSP, ICASA and CE.
• Plan certification work into product roadmaps so launches are not delayed.
• Support internal and external audits, and close non-conformities by agreed dates.
• Work with the Head of Compliance, who sets the requirements and audits Engineering independently.

Platform and infrastructure

• Ensure an always-on product experience with 99.99% availability (about 52 minutes of downtime a year) across the platform, devices and apps.
• Design for resilience: redundancy, failover, disaster recovery and safe, zero-downtime releases.
• Own monitoring, incident management and post-incident reviews, and report availability against target.
• Own cloud and platform infrastructure, reliability, security implementation and cost.
• Own Olarm's networks, including device cellular and IoT connectivity, data networks and internet connectivity.
• Own the SLAs with network and infrastructure suppliers, such as mobile network operators, IoT SIM providers, ISPs and cloud providers; monitor their performance and manage escalations and renewals.
• Manage engineering standby rosters, ensuring after-hours cover for production systems, a fair rotation, a clear escalation path and standby allowances in line with policy.

Cyber security, backups, business continuity and disaster recovery

• Own cyber security across products, platform and internal IT: secure development, device and firmware security, access control, vulnerability management, patching and regular penetration testing.
• Lead the response to security incidents, including containment, investigation, customer and regulator communication with Compliance, and post-incident reviews.
• Own backups for all critical systems and data: automated, encrypted, stored off-site, with restores tested on a regular schedule.
• Own the technology business continuity and disaster recovery plans, with agreed recovery time and recovery point objectives (RTO and RPO, TBC) for each critical system.
• Test the DR and continuity plans at least annually and report results and gaps to the leadership team.
• Implement and operate the security controls set by the Head of Compliance under ISO 27001, POPIA and GDPR, and support staff security awareness with People.

Engineering labs

• Own the maintenance, quality and tidiness of Olarm's engineering labs and workspaces.
• Keep test and measurement equipment in working order and calibrated where required.
• Set and enforce lab standards for housekeeping, ESD control, storage of components and prototypes, and safe use of equipment.
• Coordinate with the Facility Manager on facility maintenance and health and safety requirements.

Internal IT and network

• Own office network, firewalls, VPN, connectivity, endpoint management, device standards and identity and access. Ensure reliable internal IT support for all Olarm staff.

• Implement and operate security controls defined by Compliance, including for ISO

27001.

Executive contribution

• Contribute to company strategy as part of the leadership team.
• Bring technology opportunities and risks to the business proactively.
• Manage the engineering budget.

Any other reasonable task.

Requirements

Experience

• Leadership of multi-disciplinary engineering teams across embedded, cloud and application layers
• Architecture of connected IoT or similar device-to-cloud systems
• Building engineering structure, processes and leadership layers in a growing company
• Working in regulated or certified product environments

Competencies

• Leads through leaders: delegates technical work and holds leads accountable
• Translates business strategy into technical plans and clear trade-offs
• Communicates with credibility to the leadership team, partners and investors
• Makes sound decisions under ambiguity and owns the outcome
• Builds a culture of honest reporting, quality and delivery discipline

Qualifications

• Degree in engineering, computer science or a related field (Dan holds an MSc in Biomedical Engineering, UCT)

Benefits

• Exciting Workspace.

• Cutting-Edge Technology.

• Engaging Projects and Innovations.

• High-Tech Atmosphere.

• Versatile Experience - Get exposure to a wide range of things.

• Involvement in Manufacturing Processes - End-to-End Involvement.

• Inspiring Work Environment.

• Opportunity for Career Growth and Continuous Learning - Cross-Functional Teams.

• Contributing to a South African Company with a real impact on people's lives.

• Olarm Device and Subscription.

Are you ready to embark on a journey that's both professionally fulfilling and personally rewarding? If you're excited about technology, driven by results, and thrive in a collaborative environment, Olarm is the place for you. Join us in shaping the future of smart security solutions!