Tech Lead / Staff Engineer

We're looking for a Tech Lead/Staff Engineer who thrives on building scalable products, making strong technical decisions, and shipping fast. This is a hands-on engineering leadership role where you'll own critical architecture, lead technical execution, and help build a high-performing engineering culture. You'll work closely with the founders to shape the technical roadmap, mentor engineers, and leverage AI-native development practices to build products faster and better.

The core responsibilities for the job include the following:

Technical Leadership and Architecture (40%):

• Drive architecture and system design for scalable, reliable products.
• Build and maintain high-quality backend and frontend systems.
• Make pragmatic technology decisions balancing speed, scalability, and maintainability.
• Improve platform performance, observability, security, and reliability.
• Manage technical debt while enabling rapid product iteration.

AI-Native Engineering (20%):

• Build AI-powered product capabilities using LLMs, RAG, AI APIs, and agentic workflows.
• Leverage modern AI development tools (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, and OpenAI APIs) to maximize engineering productivity.
• Establish best practices around AI-assisted software development and code quality.
• Integrate AI capabilities seamlessly into customer-facing applications.

Engineering Execution (20%):

• Partner with Product and Founders to convert product requirements into technical execution plans.
• Own sprint planning, technical delivery, and engineering execution.
• Build scalable CI/CD pipelines and improve deployment automation.
• Ensure engineering velocity while maintaining high software quality.

Technical Mentorship (20%):

• Mentor engineers through code reviews, architecture discussions, and technical coaching.
• Help define engineering standards and best practices.
• Participate in hiring and technical interviews for engineering talent.
• Foster a culture of ownership, continuous learning, and technical excellence.

Requirements:

• 8-10+ years of software engineering experience. 2+ years leading projects or mentoring engineering teams (tech lead, staff engineer, or similar).
• Strong experience building scalable backend systems. Excellent system design and architecture skills.
• Strong coding skills in Python.
• Experience with Django/FastAPI.
• Experience with React and TypeScript.
• Strong knowledge of PostgreSQL.
• Hands-on experience with AWS.
• Experience building production-grade REST APIs and distributed systems.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD, testing, monitoring, and deployment practices.

Nice to Have:

• Experience building AI-enabled applications.
• Experience integrating LLMs, RAG pipelines, MCP servers, AI agents, or external AI APIs.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, or GitHub Copilot.
• Experience with Shopify or e-commerce platforms.
• Exposure to Docker, Kubernetes, or modern cloud infrastructure.

Tech Stack:

• Backend: Python, Django / FastAPI.
• Frontend: React, TypeScript.
• Database: PostgreSQL.
• Cloud: AWS.
• AI Stack: OpenAI / Anthropic APIs, Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot.
• DevOps: GitHub Actions / CI/CD, Docker (preferred).