Technical Lead — Hands-on | Early-Stage AI SaaS Startup

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 an early-stage startup building AI-first SaaS products.

We are building a small, ambitious, and highly hands-on core team. We value speed, strong engineering judgment, product-oriented thinking, ownership, and the ability to learn and execute quickly.

We aim to build an agile and collaborative environment where ideas are tested quickly, decisions are made pragmatically, and products are developed from zero to launch through fast iteration.

Joining at this stage means having the opportunity to directly shape the company’s technical foundation, engineering culture, and product direction from the ground up.

IMPORTANT NOTE

This is a builder-first technical leadership role, not a traditional corporate management position.

We are looking for a strong engineer or tech lead who enjoys building from zero, staying close to the product and code, and is ready to take broad technical ownership. Previous executive experience is not required.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are looking for a hands-on Technical Lead who will take ownership of the technical direction of our products and help build VendiLabs’ engineering foundation from scratch.

You will work closely with the Founder and the rest of the engineering team, taking an active role in architecture, implementation, product development, and critical technical decisions.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Designing the technical architecture of our products
• Leading decisions across backend, APIs, databases, cloud infrastructure, and deployment
• Taking products from idea to secure, maintainable, and scalable production systems
• Understanding and guiding both web and mobile development
• Leading the integration of AI and LLM capabilities into our products
• Establishing standards for code quality, testing, security, performance, observability, and reliability
• Remaining hands-on and contributing directly to critical production code
• Making pragmatic engineering decisions without unnecessary over-engineering
• Supporting technical hiring and helping shape the engineering team
• Working closely with the Founder on product and technology decisions

As the company and engineering team grow, this role is expected to evolve into broader technical leadership with increasing ownership over the engineering organization.

An equity-based long-term incentive structure may be considered for the right candidate.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Strong software engineering and backend fundamentals
• Strong technical judgment in system design and application architecture
• Experience building and shipping products used by real users
• Strong understanding of both web and mobile product development, with the ability to evaluate frontend, backend, and mobile systems as a whole
• Experience with APIs, relational databases, authentication, application security, cloud infrastructure, and deployment
• Ability and willingness to write production-quality code
• Ability to independently analyze technical problems and make sound engineering trade-offs
• Ability to balance development speed with technical quality
• Strong product thinking and the ability to evaluate technical decisions from the user perspective
• Strong communication, problem-solving, ownership, and leadership potential
• Professional working proficiency in English
• Ability to work in a hybrid setup in Istanbul
• Degree in Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Management Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

PREFERRED TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

You are not expected to know every technology listed below, but strong experience with several of them will be a significant advantage:

• Frontend / Mobile: React, Next.js, React Native / Expo
• Authentication & Security: OAuth, JWT, role-based access
• AI Systems: RAG, embeddings, pgvector, agent workflows, memory systems
• AI Quality: evaluation, observability, latency and cost optimization

STRONG ADVANTAGES

• Building and shipping your own web/mobile applications, SaaS products, or side projects
• Having a portfolio, GitHub profile, or shipped products demonstrating your technical capabilities
• Taking a product from 0 1 to production
• Experience building or scaling SaaS products, including subscription, billing, or multi-tenant systems
• Building consumer mobile products and shipping them to the App Store / Google Play
• Experience in an early-stage startup or a small, fast-moving product team
• Building production AI / LLM systems using RAG, embeddings, agent workflows, or AI memory systems

Rather than focusing on titles or years of experience, we care about what you can build, how you think, how quickly you learn, the ownership you take, and your leadership potential.

We are currently reviewing applications and starting interviews.