Founding Engineering Lead
About this role
About the Role
Lead engineering for an early-stage SaaS team building applied AI products for enterprise software. You will own architecture and technical direction while staying hands-on, partnering with company leadership on product and machine learning strategy.
What You'll Do
Build and lead a pod of three to four engineers, supporting their growth, performance, and hiring while shipping critical work yourself.
Own platform architecture and make build-versus-buy and infrastructure decisions.
Set engineering standards for AI-assisted development, including review criteria, definition of done, release cadence, and on-call practices.
Lead technical designs and initial implementations for new initiatives.
Assess applied machine learning approaches and distinguish research that can support live systems from more speculative ideas.
Partner with company leadership on product roadmap, model strategy, and machine learning direction.
What We're Looking For
At least 5 years of engineering experience, ideally as a technical founder, founding engineer, staff-level individual contributor, or technical lead.
Recent experience as the primary author of shipped software, with end-to-end ownership and minimal oversight.
Experience leading engineers and setting technical standards, architecture, and infrastructure practices.
Applied machine learning judgment, including classical methods, transformers, world models, and AI agents.
Strong practical use of AI coding agents, comfort with ambiguity and inherited code, and a willingness to take on unglamorous work.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary range: $200,000 to $400,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.
Location
On-site in New York City.
Originally posted on Himalayas
