About the Role

A fast-growing, seed-stage voice AI company in San Francisco is looking for a Tech Lead to step in as a CTO-like engineering leader. You'll own day-to-day engineering operations, raise the technical bar across the team, and play a critical role in driving continued ARR growth — all while working hands-on in a high-intensity, in-person environment. This is an opportunity to join a small but formidable team building AI-powered voice and text agents that automate customer service and operational workflows for businesses at scale.

The company is backed by a top-tier accelerator and a strong group of investors, and operates in the rapidly expanding conversational AI / call center automation space.

What You'll Do

Manage and lead a team of 4 engineers day-to-day — setting roadmaps, running 1:1s, and owning task prioritization
Review code and architectural decisions, ensuring quality standards across speed, performance, and design
Establish engineering best practices, processes, and project management cadences
Act as a sparring partner to senior leadership and cross-functional teams (Sales, Customer Success)
Contribute directly to the codebase (~20–30% of your time as an individual contributor)

What We're Looking For

Required

4–12 years of experience, including formal people management of a team of 4–10 engineers (not just leading side projects)
Strong background as an individual contributor before moving into leadership
Backend development fluency in Python and solid cloud engineering skills (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
Demonstrated ability to evaluate code quality: architecture, performance, and technical trade-offs
Hands-on experience designing and leading AI/ML systems at scale, preferably in cloud-based SaaS or startup environments
Experience with conversational AI, voice technology, and/or NLP/LLM applications
Proficiency deploying ML models in production on cloud platforms
Strong communication skills and executive presence; comfortable advocating technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders
Highly structured, proactive, and excellent at prioritization and project management
Must have the right to work in the US — no visa sponsorship available

Nice to Have

Prior experience at a conversational AI or voice AI company
Management consulting background

Compensation & Benefits

Salary: $240,000 – $260,000 USD annually
Equity participation in a high-growth early-stage company

Location

San Francisco, CA, United States
This role is fully on-site, 5 days per week in San Francisco
No visa sponsorship is available; candidates must have existing US work authorization

Learn more about this Employer on their Career Site