Jonathan Clarke’s world has no limits. Whether founding new businesses or learning nearly a half-dozen languages, he’s always up for blazing new trails, personally and professionally. (He even takes this literally: Trekking the mountains of Nepal is on his 2024 to-do list.) And as director of engineering at Houzz, this father of twin 3-year-old girls leads engineering teams that push the limits of what’s possible for the pros who use Houzz.

In one sentence, how would you describe what you do at Houzz?
Talking to people; it’s communication more than anything else these days. My background is in software engineering, and I’ve been coding since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I still am, but my focus now is helping engineers become the engineers that they want to be through mentoring and training, but also just discussing their challenges.

I oversee multiple teams, including managing engineering on the Takeoffs team, and now I work quite closely with the QA, Mood Board and the Website Services teams. 

How did you discover that engineering was such a passion of yours?
When I was a kid, my grandmother bought a ZX Sinclair Spectrum. Once that came into the house, I was never off of it! I think my parents saw it first as a toy, and then they could see me taking it apart and trying to fix it when it broke. And then I did the same with other computers and systems, and ultimately made a career out of it. I’m the first software engineer in my family.

Tell us a little bit about your career path. How did you go from tinkering on your computer at home to where you are now?
I always wanted to be an engineer and studied computer and software engineering through graduate school. There was a time when I wasn’t sure if that was my path, so I taught and managed hundreds of students at a French school, and then worked at a French bank in network operations. After I finished my master’s, I was recruited for a position in a Chinese software company, went back to Ireland and then moved to Australia to follow my now-wife, who I met in China, and work for the country’s largest media operation. 

I left to start an e-commerce company, which helped a group of women in Nepal sell their products internationally for much more than they would get on the local market. I worked out of a coworking space next to a woman who was working on a job website. She knew I was a software engineer and would often ask me for help. After a while, we ended up co-founding a company called ConX, which was acquired by Houzz in 2021.

What would you say is the best part about working here?
I’m really happy to see customers use our tools to save time, which they can then spend with their families and to improve their business. I also really love seeing engineers coming in on their first day feeling a little bit overwhelmed (there’s a lot to learn!), but then becoming really strong in their chosen areas.

I also love managing a Nepal-based team. Houzz is a global company that allows our team to work remotely, which is very unique in Nepal. As long as our team members have an internet connection and a laptop, they can live near their families instead of relocating to another country to find an engineering role with a great tech company.  

Are the primary teams you work with in Nepal, or does your team span into other countries?
In the last week, I’ve had calls with product managers in Australia, engineers in Taiwan and Japan, and colleagues in the U.S. I have Houzzers reporting to me from Japan and Australia, and engineers and QA in Nepal, as well as the Takeoffs team, which also is in Nepal. 

With such a dispersed team, what’s your approach to managing?
You have to trust the people that you work with. If somebody is good enough to work for Houzz, you have to believe in them and empower them to do their job.

Is it possible to choose a favorite thing you’ve worked on?
I’m completely biased: Takeoffs. Pros have said we’ve literally saved days of their time just using this product. I’ve seen directly that it’s empowered people within the industry and saved them so much time, which is brilliant. 

Our superpower is how often we speak with our customers and support them through product testing. Quick feedback means we are able to hear from a customer and be able to come back to them with a solution equally fast. 

What’s something that surprised you about working here?
I’ve worked in larger companies and was apprehensive about going back into that environment. What I found, which did surprise me, was Houzz has a very flat reporting structure, which I liked. I saw that you aren’t bogged down in policies, process and procedure. You are very much empowered to make the change and be the change you wanted to see. 

I have also been just completely astounded by how nice everyone is in this company across the board, which is the first thing I say to people when I talk about working here. You work with nice people who you want to work with, that you like to work with. And there are no egos, which is a sign of a good culture – and it’s brilliant.

What excites you most about the future of Houzz?
The sky’s the limit. The construction industry is enormous, and we’ve just scratched the top. And when it comes to solutions that people in our industry need, I think Houzz is probably one of the best-placed companies in the world for it. Our software has improved dramatically over the last two years, and I can see things are getting faster, better, stronger. That said, we still have the opportunity to constantly evolve and recognize that there are new methods and ways of doing things. Change is good!

If you’re interested in joining our team, we’re hiring! Check out available opportunities at houzz.com/jobs.