Founding Engineering Lead

career; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

A forward-thinking tech company in New York is looking for a strong builder to own their technical foundation and shape the product vision. You will build core AI products focused on voice interactions and lead a team of engineers. This role demands creativity, a passion for social connection, and an eagerness to experiment quickly. The company is on a mission to help Gen Z connect socially, offering a salary range of $180,000 to $220,000 per year.

Qualifications

• Strong builder with experience in shipping consumer products.
• Ability to operate in ambiguity and make fast decisions.
• Excited about voice, interaction design, and behavior change.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical foundation end-to-end for web and mobile.
• Co-design product vision with the team.
• Build core AI product primitives including voice capture/playback.
• Hire and mentor engineers as the team scales.

Skills

Product development

Voice interaction design

Software engineering

Consumer product shipping

AI-driven development

Job description

About Meeno

Backed by Sequoia Capital, AI Fund & NEA, and founded by the former CEO of Tinder, Meeno helps people build real-world social courage through voice-based practice: 1‑minute scenes, instant scoring, and personalized feedback.

Not a dating app. Not a companion. Not therapy. IRL reps to help Gen Z meet people IRL.

What You'll Do

• Own the technical foundation of Meeno end‑to‑end: Web + mobile + backend + data + experimentation

Co‑design product vision in close partnership with Meeno’s team:

• Renate Nyborg, founder/CEO (former Tinder CEO, ex Apple/Headspace)
• Josh Knox, product lead (founder of Outright, brand and content expert)
• Andrew Ng, Chairman (AI Fund, founder of Coursera/Google Brain)

Build core AI product primitives:

• Voice capture/playback – low‑latency interactions
• Scene framework (content + branching + scoring hooks)
• Feedback loops and user progression
• Personalization

Architect for speed + iteration (weekly experiments, not quarterly releases).

Set the engineering bar:

• Quality, reliability, security/privacy, and shipping culture.

Hire and mentor engineers as we scale:

• Focus on quality over quantity, leveraging AI and talent to scale while staying lean.

What We're Looking For

• Strong builder who has shipped consumer products.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and moving fast without breaking the soul of the product.
• Product taste: you care about “feel,” not just functionality.
• Excited by voice, interaction design, and behavior change.
• Can operate like a founder: make tradeoffs, set direction, ship.

Green flags (not requirements)

• Hyped about social connection, empathy for Gen Z loneliness.
• Early adopter of AI‑driven development.
• Hungry for rapid career progression and societal impact.
• Experience with audio/voice pipelines, realtime systems, mobile performance.
• History of building unconventional projects (creative tech, experiments, indie builds).
• Interest in human behavior, social dynamics, and product psychology.

You won't pass the vibe check if...

• You are not passionate about our mission.
• You only want to manage, not build.
• You need perfect specs to move.
• You optimize for process over product feel.
• You are not fun.

What success looks like (first 6 months)

• Meeno has a stable foundation, and we can run rapid experiments.
• Our product feels fast, human, and culturally sharp.
• We have a pipeline of world‑class engineering talent.
• We are well‑positioned to raise Series A with clear signal on north star metrics.
• We are having fun.

$180,000 – $220,000 a year