Head of Engineering

Job Title: Head Of Engineering Team: Engineering Location: Onsite - Santa Monica, CA Employment Type: Fulltime, Salaried, Exempt Reports To: CEO About Plug Plug is an automotive fintech startup building the marketplace for electric vehicles. Consumers, dealers, and commercial partners trade in, sell, and auction used EVs through a platform built exclusively for electric, with nothing adapted from legacy automotive. Consumers can get an instant cash offer in minutes, backed by data-driven pricing, battery state-of-health analysis, with pickup, payment, and title transfer handled end-to-end. Franchise and independent dealers across the United States bid in real time on inventory sourced directly from these consumers, dealers, and commercial partners. The result is a single platform that gives sellers a fast, fair exit and gives dealers a dedicated channel for sourcing used EV inventory. Founded in 2023 and led by former Tesla executives, Plug has facilitated $100M in EV sales since launch and is backed by a $20M Series A from Lightspeed Venture Partners. We're building the most AI-native startup team in Los Angeles, full of operators, engineers, and ML researchers laying the transaction rails for the used EV market's exponential growth. Why Plug You'll own a piece of the biggest infrastructure opportunity in automotive. You’ll work on a platform built exclusively for EVs, with nothing adapted from legacy automotive. You’ll be part of an AI-native company. We're rethinking how work gets done at a fundamental level. You’ll work directly with operators who have scaled multi-billion dollar businesses in automotive, EV, and marketplaces. You’ll have real ownership, high autonomy, and a direct line to company outcomes. The Opportunity We are looking for a Head of Engineering to lead our engineering team and help shape the technical foundation of a fast-growing Series A company. You will report to the SVP of Product and Technology and partner closely to align on product vision and how that is executed by engineering. This is a player-coach role. You will spend roughly half your time as an individual contributor - arbitrating architecture decisions, staying close to the systems, and individual contribution across features and tech debt - and the other half leading the team: setting direction, building engineering culture, collaborating on AI-native processes, and growing the organization. The team is small, talented and moves fast. You will be stepping into an organization that has strong individual contributors and real technical momentum. Your job is to raise the ceiling - and to encourage what is working. We are looking to hire additional engineers, so you will be growing the team from day one. We are building a culture that cares about collaboration, encourages intellectual honesty, celebrates technical excellence, and is driven by the company's goals. We believe diversity of perspective and experience are key to building great products and technology and a thriving team. Sounds cool? Let's work together. Key Responsibilities Set the technical vision and engineering direction for the team, working in partnership with the SVP of Product and Technology to ensure engineering strategy is tightly coupled to business goals. Partner with the SVP of Product and Technology on product direction, roadmap sequencing, and technology strategy; own engineering execution and delivery against that plan. Collaborate across functions - product, operations, and business leadership - to ensure engineering work is well-aligned, well-communicated, and measurably impactful. Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing engineering team - setting a high technical bar, building a culture of ownership, and retaining strong individual contributors by keeping them challenged and autonomous. Be an architectural leader - drive the evolution of systems architecture, make sound technology tradeoffs, and help the team navigate the balance between velocity and long-term maintainability. Continue to be an individual contributor roughly half the time - writing code, reviewing pull requests at depth, and staying close enough to the systems to have real technical credibility with the team. Systematically identify and reduce technical debt with a pragmatic, incremental approach. Partner with the SVP of Product and Technology to build an AI-native SDLC - bringing hands-on experience with agentic coding tools, working with product to structure requirements and context that improve agentic results, and iterating on practices over time to get measurably better outcomes. Own engineering team planning, recruiting, and growth. Qualifications 8+ years of experience in software engineering, with 3+ years in an engineering leadership role where you continued to contribute directly to a production codebase. Prior startup experience - has built or materially shaped an engineering function at an early-stage company where process was still being defined and priorities shifted regularly. Currently contributing to a production codebase: writing code, reviewing pull requests at depth, and engaging with architecture decisions at the level of a strong senior engineer. Has joined an existing engineering team with established contributors and a track record of building trust quickly, preserving contributor autonomy and momentum, and raising the bar without disrupting what is working. Proficient in TypeScript with full-stack production experience across backend, frontend, relational databases, and API/webhook integrations. Our stack is TypeScript (Node.js + Next.js + React), Neon (cloud Postgres), Vercel, and AWS (ECS, S3, Redshift, Step Functions, Temporal). Experience with any of these is a strong plus. Has built and managed systems that integrate deeply with HubSpot (or similar CRM) - treating it as a technical platform rather than just a CRM, including designing boundaries between HubSpot automation and application code to maintain system reliability. Production experience with cloud infrastructure including infrastructure-as-code (Terraform), CI/CD pipelines, feature flags, and observability tooling - has made and implemented decisions in these areas without reliance on a dedicated DevOps team. Deep, hands-on experience with agentic AI development - including working closely with product to structure requirements, context, and acceptance criteria that improve agentic coding results, and a track record of iterating on those practices over time to measurably improve outputs. Has hired, grown, and retained engineering teams: a track record of scaling headcount thoughtfully while preserving culture and contributor quality. Strong communication skills - able to represent engineering credibly to technical and non-technical stakeholders and write clearly and concisely. Authorized to work in the US for any employer. Prior experience in automotive, EV, marketplace, or fintech systems is a plus. Compensation And Benefits Annual salary: $250,000 to $280,000 Salary ranges reflect independent, third-party benchmarking against national compensation data. Where an individual's actual offer falls within that range depends on a combination of factors, including relevant experience, specialized skills, training and qualifications, current business needs, and prevailing market conditions. Ranges are reviewed periodically and may be adjusted to reflect changing market conditions. Benefits: Health, vision, and dental insurance Daily lunch stipend Eligibility for equity/stock options, based on role and performance Opportunities for growth and development Equity: Eligible This full-time position is based in Sawtelle (between Santa Monica and West Los Angeles) and is an in-person role. We welcome candidates from all locations to apply, provided they are willing to relocate for the role. Relocation assistance will not be provided for successful candidates. Sponsorship not available at this time. Acknowledgments Plug is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We believe diverse teams build better products - full stop. #J-18808-Ljbffr