Product Technical Lead

Ready to play a key role in building the future of living? Join Samara in tackling California’s housing shortage and expanding access to sustainable, thoughtfully designed housing without compromising quality. Our newest product, Locale, is reshaping infill development in the California communities that need housing most. Building on the foundation of Backyard, our fully turnkey, premium ADU, Locale marks an important next chapter for Samara as we expand our product portfolio and scale our in-house capabilities. Together, Locale and Backyard allow us to leverage factory-built construction to deliver high-quality homes and intentionally designed communities at scale. Backed by top-tier investors, including Airbnb, Thrive Capital, and 8VC, Samara is well positioned to make a meaningful impact on the housing market. To support this next phase, we are looking for a Product Technical Lead to join our Engineering team and serve as the technical owner for new product programs from early concept through production. In this role, you will translate architectural design intent into a coordinated, code‑compliant, and manufacturable product. You will lead the technical integration of structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and building envelope systems, ensuring that each product is technically sound, constructable, and ready for production. Reporting to the Director of Product Engineering, you will work within Samara’s broader technical standards and direction while taking direct ownership of the technical execution for your product program. You will serve as the primary engineering partner to the Design team and work closely with the Technical Program Manager to resolve technical challenges, coordinate across disciplines, and drive the technical work required to bring new products to market. What You’ll Do Lead the technical development of the product from concept through production, ensuring the engineering solution is coordinated, code‑compliant, manufacturable, and complete across all disciplines. Ensure structural, MEP, and envelope designs are integrated into a coordinated, multi‑discipline engineering model that matures from early layouts through clash‑free, construction‑ready documentation. Develop and optimize BIM workflows that enable efficient collaboration across internal teams, including factory manufacturing drawing development, and external engineering and design consultants. Translate architectural intent and product requirements into clear engineering requirements and system‑level design narratives, and maintain them as the design evolves. Maintain accountability for the engineering bill of materials as it develops from early estimates through final production release. Establish the product’s configuration framework and ensure revision control and engineering changes are fully evaluated, considered, coordinated, and managed consistently throughout the program. Oversee technical risk and reliability analysis across the product, ensuring key requirements are identified, risks are addressed, and verification evidence is maintained. Ensure system‑level interfaces, tolerances, and critical technical requirements are clearly defined and that the engineering package provided to manufacturing is complete and buildable. Establish engineering quality criteria and oversee the engineering scope of code and regulatory approvals, third‑party technical reviews, and requirements for lifting, handling, and transport. Guide engineering through prototyping and first‑article builds, ensuring findings are evaluated, resolved, and incorporated into the production design. Represent engineering in cross‑functional design reviews and ensure manufacturability feedback from the manufacturing engineering team is appropriately resolved. Make program‑level technical trade‑off decisions within established technical standards, escalating decisions that establish new technical direction or have broader implications across Samara’s products. Provide technical input to product requirements owned by the Design team and ensure technical constraints or trade‑offs that may require a change are surfaced clearly and early. What We’re Looking For 8+ years of technical experience on complex physical products requiring coordination across structural, MEP, and envelope systems - ideally in prefabricated construction, modular housing, industrialized building systems, or a comparable environment. BS/MS in architecture, architectural engineering, structural engineering, mechanical engineering, building systems, or a related technical discipline; professional licensure preferred. Demonstrated accountability for technical development from early design through fabrication, including design‑for‑manufacturability iteration, prototyping, and risk and reliability analysis with manufacturing teams. Experience with BIM and/or CAD workflows and tools, including Onshape, Revit, BIM 360/Autodesk Construction Cloud, or comparable platforms. Experience managing engineering BOMs, product configuration, milestone‑based releases, and formal change control. Strong working knowledge across structural, MEP, and envelope engineering, with the judgment to resolve cross‑discipline conflicts while partnering effectively with architectural design teams. Ability to operate within established technical standards and direction while exercising sound engineering judgment at the product‑program level. Comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and adapting quickly as new information emerges. Strong communicator across both technical consultants and manufacturing teams, equally comfortable reviewing drawings and working directly on the factory floor. Experience with multi‑discipline BIM and federated model coordination, using Revit or comparable tools alongside architectural models. Familiarity with building code approvals for factory‑built or modular construction and third‑party engineering review. #J-18808-Ljbffr Samara