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Halter is on a mission to unlock more productive and sustainable farming and ranching.
The Role
About the role
We’re Hiring a Director of Software Engineering.
We’re scaling very quickly and looking for a Director of Software Engineering who can lead our engineers and systems to new heights.
You’ll define the engineering vision and attract and grow the best engineers in the country. They’ll look back on their time at Halter as some of the best years of their life. You’ll create a developer experience that allows engineers to onboard quickly, shipping production-ready code in their first week. They’ll be able to deploy brilliant software at high velocity.
You'll also lead our Principal Engineers and Software Platform team - our central hub of technical excellence. They’ll support you in executing your engineering vision and ownership of cost, quality, stability and performance. Ultimately, to help deliver a world-class product to our farmers & ranchers.
You’re technically sharp and have a deep understanding complex systems. You know when and how to challenge implementation details, always thinking clearly from first principles and addressing the root cause of problems. You can zoom right into the details when necessary, but you never lose sight of why. You know when to explore new technologies and when to stay focused on proven solutions.
We’re looking for a great human; someone who is kind, curious, brings joy and wants to win. —someone who enjoys the challenges and opportunities that come with rapid growth. Someone who has done it before and can’t wait to do it again.
If this sounds like your next step, we'd love to talk.
What you’ll be doing:
- Set and execute the engineering vision, ensuring alignment with what matters most to Halter
- Scale the engineering team, including hiring, onboarding, and mentorship.
- Lead the Software Platform team and Principal Engineers, to execute on your engineering vision.
- Upgrade and maintain developer experience, tools, and delivery practices.
- Collaborate closely with product leadership, executives, and customers to solve whatever matters most.
- Balance long-term strategy with hands-on technical oversight as needed.
You’ll be epic if you have:
- Leadership experience: several years in a senior people leadership role at other scale-ups or excellent software companies under your belt. Love building high performance, low-ego, outcome first engineering teams.
- Recruitment and talent obsession: proven experience sourcing, attracting and hiring the best engineers at all levels. Ability to look ahead and close resource gaps before they appear.
- Technical chops: You have experience working on complex technical problems and are comfortable getting hands on if needed.
- Experience and pragmatism: You can bring the best of your experience & knowledge, and apply it when and where it makes sense within Halter. We’re not looking for someone to apply a learnt pattern, but solve the most important problems with experience and current context.
- Exceptional problem solving: Someone who can be pointed at problems to solve and figure them out.
- Deep curiosity: you are excited to learn farming and the Halter business. Curiosity beyond engineering will be a strong motivator for you.
- Ability to drive outcomes: you know how to deliver and you focus on the outcome for our farmers or for Halter over a perfect process.
Why our team loves working at Halter
- Every now and again a company comes along that disrupts and transforms an entire industry, leaving society in a better place. Few people get the opportunity to work at companies like these. Halter is an incredible technology transforming an essential industry. We have a genuine and shared connection to our mission to make a difference in the world.
- Our product changes the lives of our customers, directly improving their livelihoods and their lifestyle. Your work matters.
- Dedicate yourself to solving real-world problems alongside an epic team in a high-growth culture. The excitement, risk and reward of a high-growth technology scale-up on the global stage. Our ideas are truly valued, we are able to move fast, and our impact is real.
- State-of-the-art, dog-friendly office that’s been thoughtfully designed right in the heart of Auckland city. Did we mention dogs and cows?
- Healthy body, healthy mind. We’re partnered with Southern Cross Health Insurance to support your well-being.
- We offer 6 months of fully paid parental leave for primary caregivers, 4 weeks of fully paid secondary caregiver leave and many other parental benefits that support you and your family.
- Our personal growth is important. Halter offers an annual $1000 self-development budget to be used for anything that fuels personal growth.
- Our time to recharge is valued, we’re offered wellness leave and unlimited paid annual leave.
- We offer an inclusive and attractive remuneration package made up of salary, benefits and an employee stock ownership plan.
Our Office First Approach
There’s a reason you visit your friends in person, live with your family and don’t do dinners over Zoom. Humans are wired for connection. We believe a world-class, in-person office culture is the best way for high-performing teams.
Being office first is a core pillar of our culture. We believe in-person connections are key to driving your own growth, learning, impact, and building genuine long-lasting relationships. Strong relationships make it easier to disagree, give feedback, and do meaningful and aligned work. We don’t like having heaps of rules or policies, but this means having strong, trusted relationships is critical.
We’re office first, not office only. This means working from the office everyday is our default setting, but we flex when we need to. We have a high-trust culture, so everyone is trusted to do what’s best for Halter.
Our office vibe is something special, it’s hard to describe until you’re here, but people at Halter who have come from fully remote or hybrid companies say they could never go back - the high energy and spectacular people they are now surrounded by everyday makes work so enjoyable. Your growth, your learning and your impact is truly unlimited here, and a big part of that comes from being together solving problems, innovating, building context, and constantly learning from each other.
About Halter
At Halter, we’re on a mission to enable farmers and graziers to run the most productive and sustainable operations. Our customers are using Halter to break free from the time-intensive constraints of conventional practices. Imagine watching 500 cattle stand up and walk calmly towards their next break? No quad bikes, no dogs, no fences. Just a group of cattle walking at their own pace. People say it looks like magic. Our customers are revolutionizing grazing with Halter. It's changing lives and transforming an industry. People join Halter to do meaningful work. By joining us you’ll be solving challenging problems within a talented team and a culture built for high performance. Our team out-think, out-work and out-care. We’re committed to delivering real change in the world - this isn’t easy, and in truth, we love that it’s hard. We’re backed to deliver on a mission that matters by Tier 1 investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC, Blackbird, Promus Ventures, Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck and Icehouse ventures.
To find out more, visit our careers website, LinkedIn & Instagram.
Join our team
Halter is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace — a place where we can each be ourselves and do the best work of our lives. Research shows that while men apply to jobs when they meet an average of 60% of the requirements, women and under-represented groups of candidates tend to only apply when they meet every requirement. If you think you have what it takes but don’t necessarily tick every requirement on this job description, please still get in touch and apply to Halter. We’d love to chat to see if you’ll be an epic fit!
If this opportunity sounds like you, please apply below by sending through your cover letter explaining why you’re excited about this role and working at Halter, along with your CV, and we’ll be in touch!
Please also feel free to check out the careers page for more information on working at Halter and don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn & Instagram.
What the Team is Saying
Nicola
North Island Business Development Manager
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The Company
What We Do
We bridge deep tech into farming and ranching. Halter enables farmers and ranchers to remotely shift, virtually fence and proactively monitor their cows’ health and behavior. Can you imagine watching 500 cows or cattle walk calmly towards the milking shed or their next break? No quad bikes, no dogs, no fences. Just a herd of cows walking at their own pace. People say it looks like magic. Our customers are revolutionizing farming and ranching with Halter. It's changing lives and transforming an industry.
Why Work With Us
There's something special about being surrounded by spectacular people making real change in the world. At Halter, you'll do your best work, with the best people and have the biggest impact in a culture grounded in performance.
Gallery
Halter Offices
OnSite Workspace
Our field teams are often on the road however, we believe that in-person interaction is key to building a high-performing culture so there will be times when we would like our team to meet in person.
Typical time on-site:
None
