Founding Engineering Lead
Clera · New York · remote
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
- Build and lead a pod of three to four engineers, supporting their growth, performance, and hiring while remaining hands-on with key projects.
- Own platform architecture and make build-versus-buy and infrastructure decisions.
- Establish engineering standards for AI-assisted development, including code review, completion criteria, release cadence, and on-call practices.
- Lead technical design and initial implementation of new initiatives.
- Evaluate applied ML research and determine what is ready for production systems.
- Partner with the CTO on product roadmap, model strategy, and the engineering approach.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
- Typically 5 to 8 years of engineering experience, with exceptional candidates considered from 4 to 5 years.
- Experience shipping applied machine learning products, including training and deploying models in production, not only integrating LLM APIs.
- Experience owning technical architecture end-to-end, including infrastructure and build-versus-buy decisions.
- Track record as a technical lead, pod lead, or manager who has set engineering standards and held engineers accountable.
- Recent hands-on software delivery, strong applied ML judgment, and practical experience using AI agents in development.
- Experience at an AI-native company and in attracting technical talent; a stable employment history is expected.
- 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.