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

RDX Sports

Assistant Director Supply Chain

Monolith

Monolith Brands Group is on a mission to turn ordinary moments into cherished memories for parents and their little ones (including fur babies)

Key Tasks:
• Responsible for managing procurement activities for baby and toddler bedding brands (Little Giraffe & Sleeping Baby)
• Managed procurement for one of the top brands “Re-play” focused on kids’ utensils and feeding’ category with $20MM per year in gross sales. 
• Alignment of demand and supply plan with close coordination on planning and then making sure days of inventory are covered.
• Communicating with 17+ suppliers located in US, Mexico and China while managing mutual business relationships across the globe.
• Coordinating all the production plans, packaging requirements and any support required to expedite the shipments.

Procurement Manager

Switch Supply

I worked on a freelance sourcing project which involved identifying suppliers to source high volume certified organic (premium grade) food ingredients for the Australian Market. 

Key Achievements:
• Successfully identified and on-boarded the suppliers from China, Vietnam, Peru and India. 
• Closed the big order for walnuts and cashew worth $450k through suppliers from China and Vietnam.
• Established the strong network of suppliers for repeat business and continuous supply.

Sourcing Manager

Moonshot Brands

Moonshot Brands acquires and grows profitable e-commerce businesses.

Key Functions: 
•	Playing a key role in supply chain strategy – using internal and third party tools to analyze sales trends and inventory needs.
•	Developing and constantly improving supply chain and logistics processes.
•	Daily management of all aspects of the company’s supply chain for all brands/accounts.
•	Overseeing the sourcing and inventory management operations.

Supply Chain Manager

WETHEBRANDS_

WE-THE-BRANDS_ is a technology-driven e-commerce company that buys, grows and operates Amazon businesses.

Key Highlights: 
• Playing a significant role in reducing COGS through purchase price reduction and controlling freight costs. 
• Achieved total cost saving worth $80000 for quarterly ordering cycle through relationship building, trust and negotiations. 
• Maintaining optimum inventory levels to save business from lost revenue scenarios through proactive ordering approach and minimizing OOS situations.

Purchasing & Global Logistics Manager 

Thrasio

HIGHLIGHTS:
• Managing purchases for the diversified brand portfolio (63 brands) with YTD spent of $300M.
• Overseeing buying ops for 5 major brand categories having 2000+ SKU’s, 5 Markets (US/UK/CA/ EU/JP) and 200+ global suppliers’ network. [categories: sports/outdoor/health wellness/personal care/pets]
• Developed a great team of 5 buyers from scratch and leading them passionately in a fast paced never settling environment which helped to support company growth.

LEADING PURCHASING ACTIVITIES:
• Ensuring the portfolio of suppliers is managed by the buyers in compliance with:
    1. Supply agreement terms
    2. Packaging requirements
    3. Product quality
    4. Trade compliance
    5. Committed ERD's
    6. Production capacity
• Ensuring the maintenance of product and suppliers’ databases including:
    1. Lead time
    2. Minimum order quantities
    3. Packaging info
    4. Product Specs (Weight and volume)
    5. Price lists
    6. Catalog
• Building effective communication and collaborating closely cross functional, internal, and external with relevant stakeholders.
• Reviewing the accuracy and existence of backup documentation files including in NetSuite of the portfolio transactions.
• Maintaining good filling system in accordance with the company policies and standard procedures.
• Conducting regular supplier evaluations and ensure collaborative relationship including identification of opportunities for cost savings.
• Leading process improvement special projects as assigned.

TEAM MANAGEMENT:
• Managing and developing a team of buyers.
• Overseeing the day to day purchasing activities (Approving PO's, Payments, Shipping documents)
• Serving as backup to the lead buyers including creating, reviewing, processing, and issuing orders with suppliers.

Team Lead Buying

LEADING SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT:
• Managing the supplier data base and updating all changes in a timely manner.
• Negotiating cost and lead times to support demand plans.
• Maintaining a collaborative relationship with the supplier to navigate any issues or challenges.
• Collecting and maintaining a database of supplier specific pricing, packaging, product catalogue, activities, production capacity, lead times and all relevant information.

MANAGING THE PURCHASING PROCESS:   
• Creating Purchase Orders in NetSuite and monitor order progress.   
• Managing the production plan ready dates closely with the supplier to ensure delivery as per the agreed timeline.  
• Reviewing inventory gaps as purchasing plans from the planning team for the new orders, also expediting, cancelling existing order.  
• Ensuring all requirements for shipping documents and invoicing are met and PO receipts are entered in the system in a timely manner.  
• Communicating any delays, issues, challenges and update the ready to ship dates to all relevant stakeholders.   
• Maintaining a filling system for backup documentation including in the ERP. 
• Identifying opportunities to improve communication and process improvement to share with the purchasing manager.
• Building strong partnerships with internal stakeholders including due-diligence/planning/logistics and omni-channel fulfilment teams.

Senior Buyer

• Managed purchase & logistics activities of 500 SKUs (10 brands) for US, UK and DE markets.
• Prepared supplier performance analysis based on price, delivery time, quality.
• Developed and maintained good vendor/supplier relations.
• Kept close coordination with suppliers for issuing purchase orders, payment processing, quality inspection checks.
• Coordinated on production plans based on replenishment needs and ensuring all requirements are met by suppliers.
• Kept ERP (Oracle NetSuite) up-to-date with all events, documentation and data.
• Coordinated with 3PLs in US, UK, DE for all inbound shipments.
• Recorded and collected all documentation to maintain directory for Audit purposes.
• Communicated, recorded and updated accurately and timely ERD’s to all relevant stakeholders.
• Coordinated with the freight forwarders, shipping agents, customs clearance agents, shipments pickups, quotes, cross border transportation and customs clearance until delivered to Amazon or other designated destination globally.

Purchasing & Global Logistics Specialist

Trillium Information Security Systems

• Operated Kaspersky Order Management System.
• Coordinated for ‘Proof of Deliveries’ and Issuing License keys.
• Provided service level agreement (SLA’s) / contracts to relevant parties.
• Created a liaison on purchase activities for reputed ICT brands : IBM, Kaspersky, Gemalto, Solarwinds, Huawei, Forcepoint, Titania, Acunetix and Arcserve.

Procurement Operations Executive

• Assisted top management in day-to-day operations of the organization.
• Managed internal and external stakeholder relations.
• Prepared and maintained operations documents and reports.
• Monitored and evaluated progress toward operational and customer-oriented goals.

Operations Coordinator

I am a dedicated and detail-oriented supply chain professional with comprehensive experience in buying for high volume e-commerce (Amazon FBA/FBM/MCF) brands and online retail industry. Possess a thorough skill set in end-to-end supply chain management activities and managing day to day processes / operations including sourcing, purchasing, negotiations, purchase orders, demand planning, supplier relations and global logistics.

taplio

The Battle

Nicolas Cava

Zeeshan Ali

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