Software Engineering Team Lead

Job description

**This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Software Engineering Team Lead based in the United States.** As Software Engineering Team Lead, you will guide the development of innovative cloud integration features that simplify software development in complex, cloud-native environments. You will lead a talented engineering team while remaining hands-on, contributing directly to production code and key technical decisions. Your work will help developers and AI coding agents test applications against real cloud infrastructure without waiting for lengthy deployment cycles. You will shape the technical direction of a product used by thousands of developers worldwide, including teams at major enterprise organizations. Working across Kubernetes, databases, message brokers, and cloud services, you will solve challenging systems-level problems and improve developer productivity. In a remote-first, asynchronous environment, you will collaborate closely with Product, Solutions Engineering, and customers to deliver impactful features. This is an opportunity to combine technical leadership, engineering excellence, and practical AI adoption within a small, high-caliber team. ### Accountabilities: You will lead the Cloud Integrations Team, balancing hands-on engineering with technical strategy, team development, and cross-functional collaboration. Your responsibilities will include: - **Lead cloud integration development:** Oversee the design, development, and maintenance of features such as queue splitting, database branching, and other integrations that create isolated development environments with minimal resource duplication. - **Contribute directly to engineering:** Remain hands-on in the codebase, delivering production-quality software and helping resolve complex technical challenges. - **Set technical direction:** Define the team's technical approach, establish engineering standards, and ensure the reliability, maintainability, and quality of delivered solutions. - **Work across cloud-native technologies:** Develop solutions involving Kubernetes, cloud services, databases, message brokers, and related infrastructure platforms. - **Drive effective AI adoption:** Identify and promote practical ways to use AI across engineering workflows to improve productivity and development quality. - **Prioritize and deliver the roadmap:** Help determine priorities, remove blockers, support engineers, and ensure consistent progress toward product and business objectives. - **Build and develop the team:** Hire, mentor, and support engineers as the organization grows, fostering a collaborative culture of ownership and continuous learning. - **Collaborate across functions:** Partner with Product, Solutions Engineering, and customers to understand needs, shape features, and support product adoption and expansion. - **Improve the developer experience:** Help deliver capabilities that allow developers and AI coding agents to test code against real services, APIs, schemas, and traffic before deployment. **Requirements:** The ideal candidate is an experienced engineer and emerging or established technical leader who combines strong systems-level expertise with excellent communication skills and a collaborative approach. You should bring: - At least 1 year of experience leading engineering teams. - At least 4 years of professional experience writing production-grade code in Rust, preferably, or C++ or C. - A solid understanding of Kubernetes and cloud-native environments. - Strong systems-level thinking and the ability to troubleshoot complex, distributed systems. - Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain technical decisions and collaborate effectively across teams. - Comfort working asynchronously in a remote-first startup environment. - A hands-on mindset and a willingness to contribute directly to the codebase while guiding technical direction and team performance. - The ability to balance technical quality, roadmap priorities, team development, and customer needs. **Nice to Have:** - Experience building developer tools or platforms that improve engineering workflows. - Experience developing Kubernetes operators or other components that interact with the Kubernetes API. - Familiarity with backend infrastructure technologies, including data stores, message brokers, and GitOps tools. **Benefits:** - **Remote-first work environment:** Flexibility to work remotely within the role's US location scope. - **Competitive compensation:** Competitive salary, with the exact range not specified in the available job description. - **Stock options:** Opportunity to participate in the company's equity program. - **Meaningful technical challenges:** Work at the intersection of local development, cloud infrastructure, and AI-assisted software engineering. - **Direct product impact:** Contribute to an open-source product used by thousands of developers, including teams at major enterprises. - **Small, high-caliber team:** Work closely with talented colleagues in an environment where individual contributions make a meaningful difference. - **Asynchronous collaboration:** Benefit from a meeting-light culture that respects focus time and personal schedules. - **Professional growth:** Develop your technical leadership skills while shaping architecture, engineering practices, and team direction.