Technical Lead (AI Focus)

Optix; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading tech startup in Vancouver is seeking a Technical Lead to guide the engineering team towards AI-first development practices. The ideal candidate has over 8 years of software engineering experience and a proven track record in building production AI features. This hybrid role involves hands-on development and technical mentorship, contributing to the transformation of a SaaS platform. Competitive salary and comprehensive benefits are offered.

Benefits

Competitive salary compensation

Employee Stock Option Plan

Health and dental coverage

Professional growth opportunities

Team lunches and socials

Annual health and fitness credit

Flexible hybrid workplace plan

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2 years building production AI features.
• Proven experience at a SaaS company navigating ambiguity.
• Deep hands-on expertise with AI APIs and prompt engineering.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Head of Product for technical AI solutions.
• Mentor engineering team to drive adoption of AI practices.
• Design and build AI-powered features.

Skills

Building production AI features

Mentorship skills

Full-stack engineering fundamentals

Hands-on expertise with AI APIs

Architectural decision-making

Tools

PHP

Laravel

MySQL

AI frameworks (LangChain, Pydantic)

ETL pipelines

Job description

Optix is seeking a Technical Lead to guide our engineering team through the shift to an AI-first product and development culture—serving as both a hands-on builder and technical mentor.

In this role, you'll split your time between building AI-powered features yourself and establishing the technical foundation for how AI integrates across our product and team practices. You'll make architectural decisions, mentor engineers, and partner directly with our Head of Product to translate product vision into technical reality. You’ll collaborate directly with the leadership team to ensure Optix not only builds world-class AI capabilities but also does so with asustainable, scalable engineering culturewhere AI-first thinking becomes second nature.

This is a unique opportunity to shape transformation in a profitable SaaS company as we evolve from a rules-based automation platform into a conversational, agentic workspace management system.

Note: This is a hybrid opportunity for someone based in Vancouver, BC (60% in our beautiful waterfront Gastown office, 40% from home).

Who you are:

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 2 years building production AI features that customers actually paid for (not just prototypes)
• Proven experience at a SaaS company, navigating ambiguity and establishing AI best practices
• Strong full-stack engineering fundamentals; experience with PHP/Laravel and MySQL is a significant plus
• Deep hands-on expertise with AI APIs, prompt engineering, RAG implementation, and evaluation frameworks
• Experience mentoring engineers and driving adoption of new technical practices across a team
• Demonstrated ability to make architectural decisions that balance innovation with pragmatism
• You can clearly articulate when not to use AI and how to evaluate whether AI features are actually working.

AI technical expertise:

• Production experience integrating LLMs into existing application architectures
• Knowledge of AI frameworks like LangChain, Pydantic, LlamaIndex for building reliable AI features
• Deep understanding of prompt engineering, context management, and structured output for business applications
• Experience with model evaluation, A/B testing, performance monitoring, and quality assurance for AI features
• Knowledge of when to use RAG vs fine-tuning vs prompt engineering

Bonus points for:

• Experience leading the cultural shift to AI-first development practices within an existing team
• Data engineering background: ETL pipelines, vector databases, embedding management
• Deployment expertise: Containerization, cloud platforms (AWS/GCP), monitoring AI systems in production
• Prior experience in B2B SaaS platforms serving enterprise customers

What You'll Do:

Technical Leadership:

• Partner with our Head of Product to translate business objectives into technical AI solutions and architectural decisions
• Establish evaluation frameworks and quality standards for AI feature development
• Mentor our engineering team, building their AI capability and driving adoption of AI-first development practices
• Guide technical decisions on model selection, integration patterns, and system architecture

Hands-On Development:

• Design and build AI-powered features including intelligent sales widgets, automated message generation, and predictive workflow optimization
• Architect scalable AI systems that integrate seamlessly with our existing automations platform
• Implement monitoring and evaluation infrastructure to continuously improve AI feature performanceIdentify opportunities to leverage AI across our platform for maximum customer impact

We take care of our teammates

This is a unique opportunity to join a rapidly growing technology startup. Taking care of our team on this journey is a priority. We offer:

• Competitive salary compensation and commission structure
• Strong Employee Stock Option Plan offering
• Excellent health and dental coverage program provided by Sunlife
• Mission-driven workplace experience with a positive, collaborative and supportive team culture
• Personal and professional growth opportunities
• Healthy snacks and locally roasted coffee – slow pour is our jam
• Team lunches and socials
• Annual health and fitness credit
• Fun offsite activities that allow us to reconnect as a team
• A beautiful, waterfront Gastown office and a flexible 60/40 hybrid workplace plan

About Optix

By 2030, up to 30% of all workspaces will be flexible. As the world undergoes this monumental shift, flex space operators are leading the charge towards a new way of working - characterized by community, connection, and creating exceptional experiences.

Optix is the first and only flex space automation software, enabling coworking and flex operators to thrive. We provide operators with a proven B2B SaaS platform that automates their operations, engages their community, and helps them grow their business.

We welcome applicants from all walks of life. Even if you don’t feel you meet every requirement listed, we would still love to hear why you think you would be an awesome addition to our team, and we encourage you to apply.

Join us as we build theAI-powered future of flexible workspaces.