Trestle is seeking a Director of Engineering & Security, well-versed in scaling software products and teams, with an emphasis on security, to join us in solving some of the most critical technology challenges facing the progressive movement. 

In this role, you will support small multi-disciplinary technology teams to help organizing groups and political tech organizations quickly identify gaps in their existing technologies and services, and/or scale up new tools/features in response to user need, security risk, tech reliability, etc.  

If you are someone dedicated to crafting secure, scalable, inclusive, and user-centric tech solutions that empower progressive movements, nonprofits, and candidates this role might be for you!

About Trestle

Trestle Collaborative is a nonprofit team of technologists supporting organizations that wish to better wield technology for organizing, movement building, and electoral campaigns. We provide hands-on design, security, engineering, and product development guidance to ensure that technology is never a barrier to organizing for movement building, protecting democracy, and winning elections.

Since our start in the 2020 election cycle, Trestle has made significant improvements to nearly every tool used to mobilize volunteers for progressive causes, protected national and local organizing groups from security vulnerabilities, and cultivated a diverse community of 130+ senior engineers, designers, and product managers.

Working with Trestle

We’re seeking someone who cares deeply about the pressing issues of our day. We strongly encourage BIPOC folks, people with disabilities, people with diverse sexual orientations, gender expressions, religious affiliations and identities to apply. 

We are a deeply values-driven organization — we are building a workplace that centers equity, fights burnout culture, and makes space for levity and whole humans. We’re looking to collaborate with folks who appreciate and bring this spirit to their work. Read more about our values here.

Our team is fully remote, follows a 4 day work week (with no work on Fridays) and operates across US time zones.

About this role

Responsibilities

• Manage Trestle’s engineering and security projects, including:

• Oversee a portfolio of engineering and security focused projects that Trestle conducts in partnership with outside organizations.

• Respond to and scope prospective projects, estimating hours and costs, working with clients/partners to align on project plans.

• Select, vet and staff team members to execute projects.

• Ensure the success of Trestle’s engineering & security projects by supporting teams through regular check-ins and assessments of implementation delivery. 

• Collaborate with Design and Product Management colleagues to shape strategy and focus of Trestle’s projects and teams.
  

• Manage the engineering and security lane of Trestle’s network of freelancers, including:

• Drive technical hiring to expand Trestle's talent pool, including the Trestle Network and 2024 Fellowship recruitment.

• Curate and oversee Trestle’s Network of freelancers to address risk issues effectively.

• Supervise and mentor up to two Senior Tech Fellows.
  

• Serve as a trusted technology leader to the movement/political technology community, including: 

• Engage with stakeholders, including funders, partners, and prospective clients.

• Collaborate with executive tech leadership across various political organizing tools and groups to identify operational challenges and risks.

• Partner with allied tech organizations to identify and resolve security and reliability concerns.

• Provide temporary technical engineering support for crucial engagements.

Qualifications

Engineering Management Skills

• Expertise in evaluating technical talent and building high-performing engineering teams;

• Demonstrated leadership in guiding teams through complex project implementations;

• Strategic planning abilities to streamline engineering processes and workflows.

Engineering Expertise

• Proven production engineering experience in large-scale software systems on cloud environments like AWS or GCP;

• Proficiency in multi-disciplinary collaboration to tackle intricate technical and product challenges;

• Versatility in addressing challenges across various tech stacks and operational domains.

Application Security Experience

• Profound understanding of OWASP standards and cloud-based vulnerabilities;

• Proficiency in securing modern software environments such as Kubernetes, databases, and cloud infrastructures;

• Experience in optimizing Web Application Firewalls and CDN services such as Cloudflare or Fastly.

Desired skills & competencies

• A strong commitment to working on teams within a values system that includes diversity, equity, and inclusivity;

• Dedication to agile, human-centered, and standard industry best practices for product development and digital/application/cybersecurity;

• Great communication skills, including the ability to jump in and engage with new teams on short timelines. Comfort synthesizing and explaining technology projects in layperson’s terms, both verbally and in writing;  

• Candidates who are skilled at working efficiently under tight schedules and can contribute positively to team dynamics in occasionally high-stakes situations are encouraged to apply

Salary & benefits

The salary for the Director of Engineering & Security is $160,000-170,000.

Benefits include:

• Comprehensive health insurance: health benefits plus dental, vision, and affordable family coverage

• Flexible 4-day work week

• Flex Spending Account: Tax free accounts to offset transportation, medical and childcare costs

• 401k with 3% employer match

• Life Insurance & Disability: To protect you and your family 

• A generous and flexible paid leave policy including unlimited sick time and 20 vacation days plus a winter holiday break, the day after Thanksgiving, and 10 federal holidays

• Home office remote work stipend

• Professional development funds

• Remote work from anywhere in US time zones

A note about compensation: 

Trestle is a non-profit organization operating in the often under-resourced environment of political and social movements. We are unable to negotiate beyond the above salary due to these constraints at this time. At Trestle, we care deeply about pay equity & transparency — and recognize our compensation may feel lower for similar private sector tech leadership roles. This salary matches that of the other peer roles at Trestles and progressive tech orgs. We are happy to share more about pay and benefits during the application process.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer with a strong commitment to diversity of staff and leadership. We may track identity in our applications and our hiring processes to ensure we are holding ourselves accountable to our values.