Tech Lead (AI-First Product)

Job Description This is a remote position. We are looking for a highly capable Tech Lead to design and deliver an AI-enabled product from scratch in an environment where requirements may initially be unclear or incomplete. This role requires someone who combines strong software engineering fundamentals, product thinking, and hands-on experience building systems powered by LLMs or other AI technologies. The ideal candidate is comfortable operating in a small company environment, working directly with stakeholders to transform ambiguous business needs into scalable technical solutions. This is a highly hands-on role requiring strong autonomy, pragmatic decision-making, and the ability to structure messy problem spaces. Job Activities Design and implement scalable architectures for AI-enabled products, including LLM integrations, structured workflows (e.g., classification, extraction, reasoning), and RAG or embedding-based solutions. Define technical direction and make pragmatic technology decisions, balancing speed, quality, cost, and reliability, while ensuring maintainability and strong engineering standards. Evaluate and improve AI system performance through structured feedback loops, guardrails, and fallback strategies. Collaborate closely with stakeholders to translate ambiguous business needs into clear technical solutions, influencing product roadmap and prioritization. Own delivery by breaking down complex initiatives, coordinating team efforts, and ensuring timely execution of key milestones. Lead by example through hands-on development, code reviews, and mentorship, fostering a high-quality and scalable engineering culture. Continuously improve processes, documentation, and development workflows to support team efficiency and growth. Requirements Strong experience as a Tech Lead or Senior Engineer, with the ability to design scalable systems from scratch across modern web architectures (frontend and backend). Solid expertise in API design, database modeling, software architecture patterns, and scalability fundamentals. Hands-on experience integrating LLM APIs into production systems, with a strong understanding of prompting strategies, structured AI workflows, and concepts such as RAG, embeddings, semantic search, and tool/function calling. Ability to evaluate and optimize trade-offs between model performance, cost, and latency, while ensuring reliability through guardrails and structured output strategies. Strong product and problem-solving mindset, with the ability to identify gaps, structure ambiguous problems, and make decisions with incomplete information. Excellent communication skills, able to simplify complex technical concepts and effectively align with non-technical stakeholders, including negotiating scope and priorities. Nice to Have Experience with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot) and proven ability to increase development velocity using AI. Experience in early-stage startups or small teams, including launching v1 products and improving undefined or unstructured processes. Experience working closely with founders or executive stakeholders.