Founding Engineering Lead

ABOUT THE ROLE Join an early-stage B2B SaaS team as its hands-on engineering lead, shaping platform architecture and applied machine learning strategy alongside the technical founders. You will lead a small engineering pod while building and shipping critical product work, helping establish the technical foundation and practices for the team. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Lead a pod of three to four engineers, supporting their growth, performance, and hiring while remaining hands-on with key projects. - Own core platform architecture, infrastructure decisions, build-versus-buy choices, and cost considerations. - Set engineering standards, code review criteria, release practices, definitions of done, and on-call policies. - Lead technical design and initial implementation for new initiatives. - Evaluate applied machine learning approaches and distinguish techniques ready for production from those that are still speculative. - Partner with the technical leadership team on product direction, model strategy, and the engineering roadmap. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - Typically 5 to 8 years of engineering experience, with exceptional candidates who have 4 to 5 years also considered. - Experience training and deploying machine learning models in production, beyond integrating third-party LLM APIs. - End-to-end ownership of technical architecture, including infrastructure and build-versus-buy decisions. - Experience setting engineering practices and holding a team accountable as a technical or people lead. - Recent experience personally shipping software end-to-end, along with strong hands-on coding skills. - Applied ML judgment across classical methods and newer approaches, plus experience using AI coding agents effectively. - Comfort working through ambiguity, existing code, and practical delivery challenges. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Base salary is $200,000 to $400,000 annually, with equity. Visa sponsorship is not available. LOCATION On-site in New York City.