Hi, I'm Joe Mathews
Hi, I'm Joe Mathews
I’m an exec level technology, product, and engineering leader who has created, scaled, and maintained award-winning products, teams, and organisations.
I'm currently Senior Director of Engineering at GoStudent managing the Product Engineering teams, as well as the Platform team.
Previously, I spent many years building Xumo from a start-up to a leading international streaming platform.
From pre-seed to Series E I've repeatedly navigated growth with startups and scaleups, having an outsized impact whilst helping technical teams thrive.
Scaling Tech Teams
Building and scaling high performance teams
Hands On
Do things that scale
Whilst I no longer code I make a point of keeping up to date with the latest technology trends, and remain hands on. I drive adoption of cross company best practices, guide system architecture, and utilise my vast experience to ensure that the best technical solution is part of the conversation.
Remote and Hybrid. Manager of Managers
I have a proven ability to hire, retain, grow, and help diverse, remote teams thrive.
I help teams do their best work and support their continued growth. I've managed distributed teams across global time zones, while coordinating projects with peers and stakeholders spread around the world.
DEI → Retention
Diversity isn't a new buzzword for me
My focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, psychological safety, and professional development has enabled me to repeatedly build distributed teams of talented, caring, diverse individuals with a >90% retention rate.
Data Driven
That which can be measured can be managed
I excel at quickly understanding a company's culture, processes, and ways of working. Combining industry standards such as DORA with metrics specific to your team allows me to define and drive optimal processes that measurably work for your team.
My team's reviews
Recommendations 📝
But you don’t have to take my word for it: See what my team has to say about me.
If you are on the market for an experienced tech leader who inspires your org and rolls up his sleeves to help his team deliver, look no further
Joe strikes the perfect balance between technical know-how and leadership skills. Resulting in strong relationships with experts and leaders alike. Joe's up-to-date tech expertise allows him to remain hands-on and technically engaged. His empathy, approachability and excellent communication skills set an example and inspire other leaders to follow a similar path.Manuela Bujtas - Director People Business Partnering
Anybody who knows Joe is aware of his enthusiasm, it’s infectious!
One of the best managers that I’ve worked for.
The depth & breadth of Joe’s technical knowledge is a blessing & gives confidence to those he manages within clearly defined processes.
He was my manager! But seriously, any team would be pleased to have Joe as manager.Jonathan Parker - Senior Backend Engineer
I had the pleasure to work alongside Joe Mathews as we led our engineering teams at GoStudent for almost two years.
His expertise in technical leadership coupled with his ability to support scaling both technology and operations made him an invaluable asset to the company's growth.
Joe excelled at fostering a positive work environment that promoted creativity, collaboration and innovation among the engineering team.
He was instrumental in implementing new processes, streamlining workflows, and mentoring developers and team leads - all while maintaining a focus on delivering high-quality products and services to the end users.
If you're looking for an exceptional technical leader with a proven track record of success, I highly recommend Joe Mathews without any reservation.Stanimir Dimitrov - Head of Engineering
STRATEGIC COLLABORATION 🤝🏽
I proactively identify friction between stakeholders and teams to reduce or eliminate it.
I know how to work closely with peers, include teams in
decision-making, and help stakeholders feel they have a hand in creating an excellent solution.
Together, we innovate, solve problems within budget, meet deadlines, and address risks and tech debt before they become emergencies.
I work hard to earn the respect of team members across departments and organizations, enabling things to get done collaboratively with a high level of technical quality and shipping frequently.
My approach to collaboration has allowed my teams to ship frequently, remove silos to create delightful user experiences and resulted in an 84 point improvement in eNPS over an 18 month period.
CODING 💻
I’ve programmed in a dozen languages over the years and helped architect systems with 99.9% uptime with excellent SEO, UX, and localisation. While I primarily manage these days, my skills are still sharp enough to help unblock my teams and provide mentoring.
I've helped harden systems against hackers, bots, and DDOS attackers.
I’m fluent in JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and Java.
I've worked in many dev environments and can learn new languages and frameworks quickly.
I've architected and maintained internal and external APIs.
I've optimized systems at scale to find and resolve bottlenecks.
I've improved individual and team documentation practices.
That's a lot of hats!
While my roots are in technology, I thrive in helping solve the multi-disciplinary challenges that cross-functional teams face. I’ve made a habit of focusing my time and talents on where I could make the biggest impact at each stage of growth for the organization, the team, and the product.
I believe strongly in committing to excellence for the long haul, helping steer the team and products that I’ve been entrusted with to sustained growth and success.
I'm currently looking for the opportunity to help companies that share my core values continue to succeed as they scale their software teams
Email joe@abovethewater.co.ukOne final note ☀️
CVs are not a place for humility, but rest assured, when we’re working together, it will be our team that shines.
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Huge thanks to Kevin Conroy for the bones of the site