Hands-on Technical Lead for AI-First SaaS

Vendilabs; Fatih; Hybrid; TRY 300,000 - 540,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity-based long-term incentive

Job summary

VendiLabs is seeking a hands-on Technical Lead to own the technical direction and build the engineering foundation from scratch. You will work closely with the Founder and the team on architecture, implementation, and critical decisions, balancing speed with quality.

The role emphasizes practical ownership, a builder-first mindset, and potential equity incentives for the right candidate. Previous executive experience is not required.

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering and backend fundamentals.
• Excellent system design and architectural judgment.
• Experience shipping products used by real users.
• Strong understanding of web and mobile product development; evaluate frontend, backend, and mobile systems as a whole.
• Experience with APIs, relational databases, authentication, security, cloud infrastructure, and deployment.

Responsibilities

• Design the technical architecture of our products.
• Lead decisions across backend, APIs, databases, cloud, and deployment.
• Take products from idea to secure, scalable production systems.
• Guide web and mobile development integration.
• Lead AI and LLM capabilities integration into products.
• Establish standards for code quality, testing, security, performance, observability, and reliability.
• Remain hands-on and contribute to production code.
• Make pragmatic engineering decisions without over-engineering.
• Support technical hiring and help shape the engineering team.
• Collaborate with Founder on product and technology decisions.

Skills

Backend fundamentals

System design

Production code

Web and mobile

APIs & databases

Cloud infrastructure

Security

Leadership potential

English proficiency

Hybrid Istanbul

Education

Degree in Computer Engineering/Software Engineering/CS or equivalent practical experience

Tools

React/Next.js/React Native

Job description

VendiLabs is seeking a hands-on Technical Lead to own the technical direction and build the engineering foundation from scratch. You will work closely with the Founder and the team on architecture, implementation, and critical decisions, balancing speed with quality.

The role emphasizes practical ownership, a builder-first mindset, and potential equity incentives for the right candidate. Previous executive experience is not required.