About the Role
This is a CTO-level leadership role embedded within the engineering team of a fast-growing YC-backed voice AI startup. You'll own day-to-day engineering operations — managing a team of four engineers, setting the technical direction, and contributing hands-on to the codebase — while partnering closely with executive leadership to accelerate growth.
What You'll Do
- Manage and lead a team of four engineers, owning roadmaps, 1:1s, and task prioritization.
- Review code and architectural decisions, holding the bar on quality across speed, performance, and design.
- Establish engineering best practices, project management cadences, and team processes.
- Act as a technical sparring partner to the CEO, CTO, and cross-functional leaders in Sales and Customer Success.
- Contribute directly to the codebase, spending roughly 20–30% of your time as an individual contributor.
What We're Looking For
- 4–12 years of experience, with a meaningful portion as an individual contributor before moving into leadership.
- Formal people management experience leading teams of 4–10 engineers.
- Strong backend development skills in Python and hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), including deploying ML models to production.
- Experience designing and scaling AI/ML systems, ideally in cloud-based SaaS or startup environments.
- Hands-on background with conversational AI, voice technology, or NLP/LLM applications.
- Sharp technical judgment — able to evaluate architecture, performance, and engineering tradeoffs.
- Highly structured and proactive, with excellent prioritization and project management instincts.
- Strong communication skills and executive presence; comfortable advocating technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders.
- Fluent English required.
- Background in management consulting is a plus.
- Must have the right to work in the US — no visa sponsorship available.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary range: $240,000 – $260,000 USD annually. No visa sponsorship is available for this role.
Location
On-site, five days per week in San Francisco, CA.