Tech Lead

About the Role

A fast-growing, Y Combinator-backed startup building AI-powered voice and text agents for the home improvement industry is looking for a Tech Lead to scale engineering impact and organizational maturity. You'll work hand-in-hand with the CTO and senior leadership to set technical direction, drive architectural decisions, and keep a talented team shipping high-quality software at pace.

This is an on-site role based in San Francisco, CA . The company is at the seed stage with strong investor backing and a lean, highly capable team. No visa sponsorship is available - candidates must have existing authorization to work in the United States.
What You'll Do

• Manage the engineering team day-to-day, removing blockers and keeping delivery on track.
• Own architectural decisions and guide the team on system design tradeoffs.
• Have final say on task prioritization and delivery tradeoffs.
• Review code and RFCs to maintain quality, consistency, and engineering standards.
• Establish and enforce engineering best practices, processes, and tooling.
• Act as a technical liaison and thought partner to the CEO, CTO, Director of Sales, and Head of Customer Success.
• Contribute actively to the codebase (~20-30% of your time).
• Raise the overall productivity and maturity of the engineering organization.

What We're Looking For

Required

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience, with most recent roles as a Staff Engineer or Tech Lead.
• Proven leadership: you've managed engineering teams, mentored engineers, and driven engineering strategy.
• Strong background in software architecture, cloud platforms (ideally Microsoft Azure), and full-stack development.
• Hands-on experience with LLMs and conversational AI systems - this is a hard requirement.
• Experience designing and leading AI/ML systems at scale in cloud-based SaaS or startup environments.
• Track record of shipping under pressure in fast-growing startups or scale-ups.
• Excellent project management and prioritization skills with strong business acumen.
• Strong cross-functional communication - you can advocate technical decisions clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability and willingness to work on-site in San Francisco, CA.

Nice to Have

• Prior leadership experience in conversational AI or voice technology specifically.
• Experience with NLP pipelines and production deployment of ML/LLM models.
• Familiarity with telephony, call center automation, or home services industry workflows.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $220,000 - $250,000 USD per year
• Competitive early-stage equity package
• Opportunity to shape the technical foundation and culture of a high-growth AI company

Location

• On-site - San Francisco, CA
• Remote work is not available for this role
• No visa sponsorship available; candidates must have the right to work in the United States