About this role
About the Role
Lead hands-on engineering for an applied AI and enterprise software team, shaping the technical architecture and product direction alongside the CTO and founders. You will guide a small engineering pod while personally building critical systems and helping turn machine learning into production products.
What You'll Do
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Build and lead a pod of three to four engineers, supporting their growth, performance, and hiring while remaining hands-on with key projects.
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Own platform architecture and make build-versus-buy and infrastructure decisions.
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Establish engineering standards for AI-assisted development, including code review, completion criteria, release cadence, and on-call practices.
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Lead technical design and initial implementation of new initiatives.
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Evaluate applied ML research and determine what is ready for production systems.
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Partner with the CTO on product roadmap, model strategy, and the engineering approach.
What We're Looking For
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Typically 5 to 8 years of engineering experience, with exceptional candidates considered from 4 to 5 years.
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Experience shipping applied machine learning products, including training and deploying models in production, not only integrating LLM APIs.
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Experience owning technical architecture end-to-end, including infrastructure and build-versus-buy decisions.
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Track record as a technical lead, pod lead, or manager who has set engineering standards and held engineers accountable.
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Recent hands-on software delivery, strong applied ML judgment, and practical experience using AI agents in development.
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Experience at an AI-native company and in attracting technical talent; a stable employment history is expected.
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Comfort with ambiguity, inherited code, and hands-on work.
Compensation & Benefits
Base salary: $200,000 to $400,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.
Location
On-site in New York City, United States.