Full Stack Tech Lead

About Surf Eye & Snow Eye We are building the world’s largest AI camera network for action sports. Our systems autonomously film, track, edit, and analyze every ride using 6K cameras and proprietary computer vision software. We are already live in 13 countries, serving 90,000+ users across the world’s leading wave pools through our first brand, Surf Eye. We recently partnered with the #1 wave pool manufacturer globally and have expanded into ski resorts with our second vertical, Snow Eye, bringing the same cutting-edge technology to the world’s best ski resorts. Our mission is to revolutionize how action sports are captured and experienced, making professional-quality video, analytics, and insights available to everyone, not just Pros. About the Role We’re looking for an experienced, hands-on Full Stack Tech Lead to take a leading role in our web development team and help us scale our web platform across surf, snow, and future verticals. This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will write code, review pull requests, build features, and work across frontend, backend, and database layers. At the same time, you will help coordinate, mentor, and review the work of our developers, improve engineering structure, and act as the main bridge between the technical team and the co-founders. We are looking for someone who brings structure, ownership, and execution. Someone who can understand the product vision, break it into clear technical work, guide the team, maintain code quality, and make sure we keep shipping at a high standard. You will work directly with the founders, product/design, and developers to turn business needs and customer feedback into reliable, scalable software used by thousands of riders, resorts, operators, and internal teams around the world. Contract Structure This is a long-term contractor role, with the potential to evolve into a formal full-time position as the company grows. ESOP / equity participation may be included for the right candidate. The candidate will provide software development and technical leadership services to Surf Eye under a contractor / B2B arrangement. Candidates must be legally able to work and invoice in Portugal, either through Portuguese recibos verdes or through their own company. Lead day-to-day web development across our Next.js / React, and Postgres database stack Coordinate, mentor, and review the work of our developers Review pull requests and maintain strong code quality across the team Translate product and business priorities into clear technical tasks Act as the main liaison between the web development team and the CEO & CTO Build and maintain frontend features, backend APIs, database logic, and internal tools Help structure development processes, sprint planning, task breakdown, and delivery workflows Identify technical risks, blockers, and quality issues before they become bigger problems Improve testing, CI/CD, deployment, documentation, and engineering best practices Work autonomously from idea → planning → implementation → production 5+ years of professional full-stack development experience At least 2 years of experience as a Tech Lead, Lead Developer, or similar hands-on leadership role Strong experience with React.js / Next.js Strong experience with Node.js Strong experience with JavaScript and TypeScript Experience with PostgresSQL or similar relational databases Comfortable working across frontend, backend, and database layers Experience reviewing code, mentoring developers, and helping teams deliver Experience breaking down projects, planning technical work, and translating product needs into clear development tasks Strong understanding of software quality, testing, CI/CD, and collaborative development workflows Comfortable acting as the communication bridge between developers and founders/product stakeholders Able to bring structure without slowing down a fast-moving startup environment Self-motivated, pragmatic, and comfortable taking ownership Based in Portugal or already legally authorized to work and invoice in Portugal Available for a hybrid role in Lisbon Applications from candidates who are not legally authorized to work and invoice in Portugal will not be considered Bonus Points Passion for sports Experience with Docker, AWS, Cloudflare, or modern cloud infrastructure Experience working with video platforms, media delivery, or streaming technologies Experience with Python and/or computer vision technology Strong product thinking and the ability to work closely with designers Previous experience in early-stage startups or fast-growth environments Real product, real users: Our technology is already live across leading wave pools and ski resorts High ownership: You will play a leading role in our web development and have direct influence on how we build Hands-on leadership: This is not a pure management role. You will still build, ship, and solve problems Small team, big impact: You will work directly with the founders and help raise engineering standards across the team Multi-sport vision: Surf Eye, Snow Eye, and future verticals are all built on the same core platform Global reach: Our products are used by riders, resorts, and operators around the world Portugal-based: Hybrid work from Lisbon, one of Europe’s most exciting startup and surf cities