Engineering Lead/ Manager

Akino Labs; Vadodara; On-site; INR 2,000,000 - 3,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Akino Labs in Vadodara is seeking an experienced Engineering Lead/Manager to drive design, development, delivery and technical direction of AI-powered software products.

The role blends hands-on coding with leadership, architecture, people management and product thinking across MERN/MEAN/MEVN stacks, AWS cloud, and modern DevOps practices.

You will mentor engineers, review code, solve complex problems and ensure scalable, reliable software while aligning with product goals.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of software engineering experience.
• Experience leading teams and mentoring engineers.
• Hands-on full-stack development across modern JS stacks.

Responsibilities

• Lead software engineers, AI/ML engineers and developers.
• Own technical execution across products/streams.
• Establish engineering standards, practices and guidelines.
• Review code for maintainability, security, and scalability.

Skills

JavaScript/TypeScript

Node.js

React

Angular

Vue.js

MongoDB

REST APIs

AWS

Git

AI/ML basics

Education

B.Tech/B.E. in Computer Science/IT

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Linux

CI/CD

Job description

Position:EngineeringLead/EngineeringManager

Department:Engineering/Technology

Location:Vadodara/Onsite

EmploymentType:Full-Time

Experience:4+Years

AbouttheRole

WearelookingforanexperiencedEngineeringLead/EngineeringManagertoleadthedesign,development,delivery,andtechnicaldirectionofmodernsoftwareproductspoweredbyAI,MachineLearning,full-stackJavaScripttechnologies,andAWScloudinfrastructure.

Theidealcandidatewillcombinestronghands-onengineeringcapabilitywithtechnicalleadership,architecture,peoplemanagement,deliveryownership,andproductthinking.

Youshouldbecomfortableworkingacrossthetechnologystack,makingarchitecturedecisions,reviewingcode,mentoringengineers,solvingcomplextechnicalproblems,andensuringengineeringteamsconsistentlydeliverreliable,scalableproducts.

KeyResponsibilities

EngineeringLeadership

• Leadandmentorateamofsoftwareengineers,AI/MLengineers,anddevelopers.
• Owntechnicalexecutionacrossoneormoreproductsorengineeringworkstreams.
• Establishengineeringstandards,developmentpractices,andcodingguidelines.
• Conductcodereviewsandensuremaintainability,security,andscalability.
• Identifytechnicalrisksanddrivetheirresolution.
• Mentorengineersandsupporttheirtechnicalgrowth.
• Participateinhiring,technicalinterviews,onboarding,andperformanceevaluations.
• Buildacultureofownership,engineeringquality,andcontinuousimprovement.

Architecture&TechnicalStrategy

• Designscalablearchitecturesforweb,mobile,SaaS,AI,andenterpriseapplications.
• Maketechnologyandarchitecturedecisionsbasedonproductrequirementsandbusinessconstraints.
• Defineserviceboundaries,APIs,databases,integrations,andinfrastructure.
• Evaluatebuild-vs-buydecisionsandthird-partytechnologies.
• Identifytechnicaldebtandestablishplanstoaddressit.
• Ensurearchitecturesupportsscalability,reliability,security,andmaintainability.
• Createandmaintaintechnicalarchitectureandsystem-designdocumentation.

AI&MachineLearning

• LeadthedevelopmentandintegrationofAI/MLcapabilitiesintoproducts.
• Workwithtechnologiesincluding:
  • GenerativeAI
  • LLMs
  • RAG
  • AIagents
  • Embeddings
  • Vectordatabases
  • MachineLearningmodels
  • AIAPIs
• IntegratemodelsandAPIsfromproviderssuchasOpenAI,Gemini,Anthropic,andotherplatforms.
• Guideengineersinbuildingproduction-gradeAIapplications.
• EstablishapproachesforAIevaluation,reliability,observability,andcostoptimization.
• EvaluateemergingAItechnologiesanddeterminepracticalusecases.
• EnsureAIimplementationsmeetproduct,security,andperformancerequirements.

Full-StackEngineering

LeadandcontributetoapplicationsbuiltusingmodernJavaScripttechnologies.

Preferredexperiencewithoneormoreof:

MERN

• MongoDB
• Express.js
• React
• Node.js

MEAN

• MongoDB
• Express.js
• Angular
• Node.js

MEVN

• MongoDB
• Express.js
• Vue.js
• Node.js

Additionalexperiencewith:

• TypeScript
• Next.js
• RESTAPIs
• GraphQL
• Microservices
• Event-drivenarchitecture
• WebSockets
• Redis
• PostgreSQL

ishighlydesirable.

Hands-OnDevelopment

Thisisaleadershiprole,butthecandidateshouldremaintechnicallyhands-on.

Responsibilitiesmayinclude:

• Designingandimplementingcriticalfeatures.
• Reviewingandimprovingexistingcode.
• Troubleshootingcomplexproductionissues.
• BuildingprototypesandtechnicalPOCs.
• Reviewingarchitectureandimplementationapproaches.
• Supportingengineerswithdifficulttechnicalproblems.
• Contributingdirectlytohigh-priorityengineeringinitiatives.

Theexpectationisnottomanageexclusivelythroughmeetings;theEngineeringLead/Managershouldbecapableofunderstandingandcontributingtotheunderlyingtechnology.

AWS&CloudEngineering

• Designandmanagecloud-nativeapplicationsonAWS.
• Workwithservicessuchas:
  • EC2
  • S3
  • RDS
  • Lambda
  • ECS/EKS
  • VPC
  • IAM
  • CloudWatch
  • APIGateway
  • CloudFront
  • Route53
• Defineappropriatecloudarchitectureforscalabilityandreliability.
• Optimizeinfrastructureperformanceandcost.
• WorkcloselywithDevOpsengineersonCI/CDanddeploymentinfrastructure.
• Ensureappropriatesecurityandaccess-controlpractices.

DevOps&EngineeringPractices

• EstablishandimproveCI/CDpipelines.
• Promoteautomatedtestinganddeployment.
• Implementdevelopment,staging,andproductionenvironments.
• SupportcontainerizationusingDocker.
• WorkwithKuberneteswhereapplicable.
• Establishmonitoring,logging,andalertingpractices.
• Improvedeploymentfrequencyandreliability.
• Supportincidentmanagementandroot-causeanalysis.

Product&DeliveryCollaboration

• WorkcloselywithProductManagersandProjectManagerstotranslaterequirementsintotechnicalsolutions.
• Breakcomplexrequirementsintoengineeringinitiativesanddeliverables.
• Providetechnicalestimatesandidentifydependencies.
• Balanceproducttimelineswithengineeringquality.
• Communicatetechnicalrisksandtrade-offstoleadership.
• Ensureengineeringexecutionalignswithproductpriorities.

EngineeringQuality

Establishstrongengineeringpracticesaround:

• Codereviews
• Testing
• Security
• Performance
• Documentation
• Versioncontrol
• CI/CD
• Observability
• Technicaldebtmanagement

Drivecontinuousimprovementinengineeringprocessesandproductquality.

RequiredTechnicalSkills

Core

• 4+yearsofprofessionalsoftwareengineeringexperience.
• StrongJavaScript/TypeScriptexperience.
• StrongexperiencewithNode.js.
• Strongexperiencewithatleastonemodernfrontendframework:
  • React
  • Angular
  • Vue.js
• StrongexperiencewithMongoDBoranotherproduction-gradedatabase.
• StrongunderstandingofRESTAPIsandbackendarchitecture.
• StrongGit/GitHubexperience.
• Hands-onAWSexperience.

AI/ML

Strongpracticalunderstandingofatleastsomeof:

• GenerativeAI
• LLMs
• Promptengineering
• RAG
• Embeddings
• Vectordatabases
• AIAPIs
• AIagents
• MachineLearningfundamentals
• AIevaluation

Cloud

• AWSarchitectureandservices.
• Docker.
• CI/CD.
• Linux.
• Cloudsecurityfundamentals.
• Monitoringandlogging.

GoodtoHave

• Python.
• PyTorch/TensorFlow.
• LangChain/LlamaIndex.
• PostgreSQL.
• Redis.
• Kafkaorothermessagingsystems.
• Kubernetes.
• Terraform.
• GraphQL.
• Microservicesarchitecture.
• Serverlessarchitecture.
• Event-drivensystems.
• ReactNative/Flutter.
• Elasticsearch/OpenSearch.
• APIgateways.
• OAuth/JWT.
• Automatedtestingframeworks.

PeopleManagement

TheEngineeringLead/Managerwillberesponsiblefor:

• Mentoringengineers.
• Assigningtechnicalownership.
• Conductingtechnicalone-on-ones.
• Settingengineeringgoals.
• Reviewingindividualperformance.
• Identifyingskillgaps.
• Creatingdevelopmentplans.
• Supportingrecruitmentandtechnicalinterviews.
• Buildinghigh-performingengineeringteams.
• Managingtechnicalconflictsanddependencies.

EngineeringMetrics

Trackandimprovemeaningfulengineeringmetricssuchas:

• Deliverypredictability
• Deploymentfrequency
• Leadtimeforchanges
• Productiondefectrate
• Meantimetorecovery
• Codequality
• Testcoverage
• Systemavailability
• Infrastructurecost
• Technicaldebt
• Engineeringproductivity

Metricsshouldbeusedtoidentifysystemicproblemsratherthansimplymeasureindividualdevelopers.

CandidateProfile

Wearelookingforsomeonewho:

• Canmovecomfortablybetweenarchitecture,coding,debugging,andpeopleleadership.
• Understandsbothbusinessrequirementsandtechnicalconstraints.
• Makespragmatictechnologydecisionsratherthanchoosingtechnologiesbasedontrends.
• CanevaluateAItechnologiescriticallyratherthantreatingAIasasolutiontoeveryproblem.
• Understandsthedifferencebetweenaprototypeandaproductionsystem.
• Canidentifywhenasystemneedsoptimization,redesign,orsimplification.
• Takesownershipofengineeringoutcomes.
• Cancommunicatecomplextechnicaldecisionsclearlytobothengineersandbusinessstakeholders.
• Iscomfortableworkinginafast-movingproductenvironment.

PreferredEducationalBackground

• B.Tech/B.E.–ComputerScience/IT
• MCA/M.Tech
• Equivalenttechnicaleducationordemonstratedprofessionalexperience

Relevantexperienceandtechnicalcapabilityaremoreimportantthanthespecificdegree.