Performing Remote

Founder

PixMob

Director of Engineering

Nicolas Cava

I'm looking for a long-term relationship with a distributed SaaS business. I'm available right now for full-time permanent employment.

I can speak English or French and work from anywhere.

My expertise:

- Engineering management
- People management
- Strategic planning
- Project execution
- Systems and processes
- Distributed work
- Culture building
- Incident management
- Hiring and onboarding talents

Please connect with me and discuss how we can win together.

Engineering Manager

Zendesk

Zendesk is a large public enterprise with 5500+ employees distributed worldwide. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, US.

Industry: customer experience and instant messaging tech.

Responsible for:

→ Lead distributed software teams of up to 14 people.
→ Build core messaging capabilities for Zendesk products.
→ Contribute to the high-end conversational CX strategy.
→ Provide the API, conversation store, message routing, and orchestration pipeline.
→ Provide all the logic and integrations to operate in social channels.
→ Lead weekly tech talks.

Tech stack:

→ React
→ Node.js, Express, Ruby
→ MongoDB, Redis, DynamoDB, RabbitMQ, Kafka
→ Terraform, Istio, AWS
→ Spinnaker

PixMob was a bootstrapped company with 80+ employees distributed worldwide in the event industry. The company was headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Industry: event management tech.

Responsible for:

→ Led the software engineering department composed of 10 employees across two continents.
→ Contributed to human-centric experiences, light shows, and corporate event activities.
→ Built edge computing, cloud computing, and high-availability data processing.
→ Built products on top of cutting-edge hardware infrastructure.
→ Supported decentralized authority and execution freedom.
→ Built an async-first culture with an emphasis on writing communication and documentation.
→ Organized 4-week development cycles with shaping, betting, and execution.
→ Provided individual development, coaching, and connections building.
→ Co-led a successful M&A by Bizzabo.

Tech stack:

→ React, React Native, Swift, Kotlin
→ Python
→ MongoDB, Redis, InfluxDB, Elasticsearch
→ Terraform, Nomad, Consul, Google Cloud
→ GitLab CI/CD

Swile

Swile was a VC-funded fintech startup (30M Series A, 70M Series B) with 300 employees distributed in France. The company was headquartered in Montpellier, France.

Industry: fintech.

Responsible for:

→ Led a distributed software team of 10 employees.
→ Built a B2B2C product with banking features, mobile, and web payments.
→ Built bank accounts, transfers, credit card management, and P2P payments.
→ Also built money pots, KYC and compliance, and charity donations.
→ Provided autonomy, ownership, decentralized authority, and execution freedom.
→ Built an async-first culture with a focus on written communication and documentation.
→ Provided individual development, coaching, and connections building.

Tech stack:

→ React, TypeScript, Kotlin, Swift
→ Ruby on Rails, Node.js, GraphQL
→ PostgreSQL, Kafka, Redis
→ AWS, Confluent
→ CircleCI, Bitrise

Swile was a VC-funded fintech startup (30M Series A, 70M Series B) with 300 employees distributed in France. The company was headquartered in Montpellier, France.

Industry: fintech.

Responsible for:

→ Member of a cross-functional and distributed software team.
→ Led a distributed team of 10 employees part-time.
→ Built a B2B2C product for employees and administrators in SMB and mid-market.
→ Built meal voucher credits, credit card orders, and employee management.
→ Also built onboarding, off-boarding, bank accounts, and credit card payments.

Tech stack:

→ React, JavaScript, TypeScript
→ Ruby on Rails
→ PostgreSQL, Redis
→ Heroku, AWS
→ Semaphore

Senior Software Engineer

Maple Inside

Maple Inside was a funded startup studio (2M seed) with 20 employees distributed worldwide. The company was headquartered in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

Industry: fintech and adtech.

Responsible for:

→ Co-founded the company with former colleagues.
→ Led a distributed team of 10 employees as head of product development.
→ Bootstrapped business ideas by building MVPs quickly to reach market pull.
→ Profitable products were incorporated into companies with hired founders.
→ Built products in the adtech, sharing economy, and fintech industries.
→ We grew the business to 1M ARR.
→ Had to close operations in 2018 as we consumed our runway.
→ A few companies emerged from the studio and are still in business.

Tech stack:

→ React, React Native, TypeScript
→ Node.js, GraphQL, Python
→ MySQL, Redis
→ AWS, Google Cloud
→ CircleCI

Co-Founder & CTO

PetalMD

PetalMD was a VC-funded healthtech startup with 100 employees distributed in Canada. The company was headquartered in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

Industry: healthtech.

Responsible for:

→ Member of a cross-functional software team.
→ Built a B2B product for physicians and healthcare facilities.
→ Also built online management, communication, and planning tools for physicians.

Tech stack:

→ JavaScript, CoffeeScript, Angular
→ Ruby on Rails
→ PostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch, Pusher
→ Heroku
→ Jenkins

Crakmedia

Crakmedia was a bootstrapped adtech startup with 250 employees distributed in Canada. The company was headquartered in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

Industry: adtech.

Responsible for:

→ Led a front-end team of 10 employees.
→ Built an affiliate marketing platform supporting billions of daily hits.
→ Also built media buying, advertising platforms, traffic analytics, and offer management.
→ Also built big data processing and data science software.
→ Refactored a huge monolithic to a microservices architecture.
→ Provided individual development, coaching, and connections building.
→ Designed software architecture and technology strategies.
→ Led product analytics and application performance initiatives.

Tech stack:

→ JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Redux
→ Node.js, PHP, Symfony, Express
→ MySQL, Redis, Vertica
→ AWS
→ Bamboo

Front-end Technical Lead

I help remote leaders who are overwhelmed by their workload leave chaos by empowering people and improving self-discipline through the Performing Remote OS. | Fractional Engineering Leader, Coach

I'm a passionate people-first Engineering Manager with 12y+ of experience leading distributed teams for renowned SaaS businesses like Zendesk and Swile in AMER and EMEA.

I'm also a social entrepreneur who cares about positively impacting people and society. My personality type is ESTJ-A, and I'm a systems thinker with strong organizational and self-discipline skills.

My core values are contribution, growth, discipline, justice, transparency, and resilience. I'm also a father, gamer, remote work advocate, traveler, content creator, and developer, which I consider my identity stack.

My backstory is that I burned out in 2018, and remote work saved my life. Since then, I have strived to become the best remote leader I can be for my people and show that we can build exceptional distributed businesses by putting people first and providing opportunities for anyone from anywhere. I also share my journey in public with vulnerability and authenticity to help as many people as possible.

I post daily about remote leadership and personal development. I'm also building the Performing Remote OS, a system I use as a remote leader.

My credentials:

- 12+ years in distributed SaaS businesses in AMER and EMEA
- 10+ years as a successful leader of distributed engineering teams
- Dealt with 525% employee growth over 2 years
- Supervised 76 talents across 4 continents
- Co-founded and scaled a startup studio to 80K+ MRR in 3 years
- 94K+ paying customers in a B2B product
- Led a technical due diligence for a $13.5M M&A
- 6000+ workers supported in the Digital First Crew at Zendesk
- Led competitive virtual gaming teams of up to 40 individuals for 5 years
- 12+ years as a remote worker

Where to start:

- Follow me to receive my daily content
- Connect and DM me for more
- Book a free discovery call: https://www.nicolascava.com/discovery
- Send me an email: hello@nicolascava.com

Blue Human Resources Consulting Inc.

Owner & Principal Consultant 

St. Clair College

Instructor - Human Resources Management

CSW Industrials Inc.

•	As a member of the Senior Leadership Team reporting directly to the President, establish and lead local human resources strategy while ensuring alignment of organizational objectives.
•	Act as the Human Resources lead supporting human resources functions across three Canadian locations while having full oversight of the local human resources and payroll department.
•	Lead the creation of a recruitment and retention strategy to successfully fill over 30 previously vacant critical roles to the organization, resulting in increased production results and profitability.
•	Work with Management to develop people and organization strategies to create a high-performing team, improve moral and drive business results.
•	Lead and implement an organizational restructure including job evaluation, role realignment, job reclassification and pay equity which saved the organization approximately $100,000.
•	Develop and implement Human Resources Policy and Programs including violence and harassment, succession planning, and performance management.
•	Oversight of human resources legal matters including pending litigation and negotiation.
•	Oversee and lead the roll out of a deferred profit-sharing plan including launch, employee education, payroll set up and full pension plan audit.
•	Manage all employee short-term and long-term leaves, RTW, accommodations and WSIB injury claims through to appeal process.
•	Provide guidance and strategic human resources advice to support the leadership team in mitigating organizational risk.
•	Ensure Human Resources policies and programs meet legislative compliance, outline gaps, prioritize issues based on liability and develop an action plan to address concerns.
•	Lead the realignment of Canadian payroll reporting to ensure compliance with Canadian standards.
•	Manage all labour related litigation issues including wrongful dismissal claims, executive level contract terminations, and ensure a full and final release of all involuntary terminations.

Human Resources Manager, Canada

Vistaprint

•	Provide leadership and guidance to managers, supervisors and employees regarding laws, regulations and procedures related to employee relations matters.
•	Work effectively in a high-volume, mass production, 4 shift operation to provide timely human resources support and meet organizational goals.
•	Manage three recruitment agencies for temporary staffing support of up to 600 employees at peak season to ensure targets are being met, quality candidates are being presented and work with purchasing to renegotiate new agreements.
•	Lead the implementation of a new HRIS system (TEAMS) for time and attendance tracking including system roll out and training which reduced absenteeism by approximately 5%.
•	Oversee Supervisor in Training Program to provide training, mentorship, and assessments to support organizational succession planning initiatives.
•	Accountable to provide human resources support to three VSO, upwards of 500 employees.
•	Manage the employee appeal process and appeal committee for disciplines.
•	Lead internal and external recruitment strategy for finance, engineering, production supervisors and shift managers.
•	Act as a strategic partner to ensure human resources operations aligned with business goals and objectives.
•	Conduct employee relations investigations and inquires, providing consultation and guidance on outcomes.
•	Conduct file reviews for terminations and provide recommendations to management on risk mitigation.
•	Lead employee discipline, suspension and termination meetings and prepare all related correspondence.
•	Review human resources polices annually and implement new policies such as Violence and Harassment and Attendance Management Policies.

Sr. HR Business Partner 

SYNCREON

•	Provide advice and support to management and employees regarding human resources matters in a unionized environment.
•	Ensure collective agreements are being adhered to, receive grievances, and participate in step two grievance meetings while developing good working relationships with union representatives.
•	Draft and issue employee disciplines and terminations for hourly team members where appropriate.
•	Full cycle recruiting, orientation and onboarding of new staff. 
•	Post and maintain all internal job openings as per Collective Agreement.
•	Approve payroll from branch level using ADP for all hourly staff.
•	Oversee employee time and attendance tracking and documentation administration.

Human Resources Generalist

Leggett & Platt Automotive

•	Work directly with front line Supervisors and Area Managers to resolve labour relations issues.
•	With the support of the Director of Human Resources, develop and implement continuous improvement initiatives including policy and procedure updates and the implementation of an employee handbook.
•	Evaluate limitations of the HRIS system and develop internal solutions to address gaps.
•	Manage direct hiring procedures and policies for hourly employees including the development of recruitment procedures, job descriptions, interview and reference templates, etc.
•	Coordinate and maintain training needs for internal staff and external training providers.
•	Prepare border crossing and invitation letters, as well as Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) exemption applications.
•	Responsible for pension and benefits administration.

Human Resources Coordinator

LucasWorks!

Recruiter

University of Windsor

Marketing Coordinator

A trusted, results-oriented professional with extensive experience in Human Resources Management leading strategic direction for high-volume global production facilities.  Strategic thinker with proven experience leading high-performing teams across Canada.  Impressive record of identifying inefficiencies and implementing lasting solutions that streamline processes and improve operations. Areas of expertise include:

- Employee Relations 
- Strategic Planning 
- Performance Management	
- Policies and Programs
- Labour and Employment Law 
- Operations Management	
- Personnel Management

taplio

The Battle

Nicolas Cava

Meaghan Wasylyk, CHRP, PHR

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