Head of Engineering

Our client · Seed-stage · Reporting to the founders · South Africa (remote) or New York (hybrid)

Our client helps residents configure and furnish their homes through an interactive product experience backed by a 3D rendering pipeline. We are seed-stage: two engineers, part-time contractors, a small design team, and founders who are in the product every day.

We are hiring a hands-on technical leader to be the company's technical guide. This is a role for someone with staff or principal-level engineering judgment who still ships production code and has successfully led a small team. Prior CTO experience is welcome but not required — a strong founding engineer or tech lead stepping into their first company-wide leadership role could be an excellent fit.

Location: either South Africa, working remotely, or New York on a hybrid basis.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN:

• Overall platform architecture and strategy.
• Direct individual contributor work on our hardest and most interesting engineering objectives.
• Management of our growing engineering team and contractors.
• Working directly with design and product to establish and refine tickets, and to run successful weekly sprint planning cycles in Linear.
• Liaising with internal business leadership daily, often several times a day.
• Some contact with partners, suppliers and investors.

THE ROLE IN PRACTICE:

Whatever problem shows up, this person frames it or prototypes the first solution themselves, then finishes it or hands it to the team. They turn business goals into scoped engineering work, often before the success criteria are fully defined, and push back when the scope does not earn its cost.

They run weekly sprint planning in Linear, partnering directly with design in Figma without a dedicated PM. They also build the team around them: coaching engineers, establishing clear ownership, managing contractor delivery, guiding future hiring, and reducing dependence on any one person.

WHAT WE ARE SCREENING FOR:

• Runs a team that ships to production every day. Sets the cadence, removes what blocks it, and contributes to it personally.
• Ships the simplest reliable thing fast. Comfortable taking big swings and changing direction as we learn. Does not spend weeks engineering around requirements we do not have.
• Recent, personal, full-stack shipping. Deep TypeScript / React / Next.js and Postgres. Comfortable in Python.
• Has owned a production system end to end: architecture, data model, infrastructure, reliability, cost.
• Has led a small team and contractors — ideally grown one from scratch.
• Uses AI agents daily, with real practices for reviewing and shipping that output. Uses them to give a small team outsized output.
• Communicates clearly with non-technical founders and external partners.

OUR STACK:

Rendering: Python / Blender on GPU infrastructure

Not every tool is required.

STRONG PLUS:

• Prior founder or founding engineer.
• 3D / graphics, rendering, or commerce.

NOT A FIT:

This role is probably not right for you if you:

• Want a management-only role.
• Are no longer actively hands-on.
• Depend on extensive support functions.
• Need fully specified work before moving.

This is an exciting, early-stage business. We are looking for an entrepreneurial builder who will thrive in a fast-paced startup environment.