Founding Engineering Lead

Wwshemi; New York (NY); On-site; USD 200,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

Wwshemi is seeking an engineering lead to shape platform architecture and applied ML strategy alongside the technical founders. You will lead a small engineering pod, shipping critical work and establishing technical foundations for the team.

You will own core architecture, set standards, and drive build-versus-buy decisions while evaluating ML approaches for production. Base salary ranges with equity, on-site in NYC.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years engineering experience with leadership exposure.
• Experience training and deploying ML models in production.
• End-to-end ownership of technical architecture and infra.
• Ability set engineering practices and lead a team.

Responsibilities

• Lead a pod of 3–4 engineers, growing the team while remaining hands-on.
• Own core platform architecture and infrastructure decisions.
• Define release practices, definitions of done, and on-call policies.
• Lead technical design and initial implementation for new initiatives.
• Evaluate ML approaches and production-readiness judgments.
• Partner with leadership on product direction and engineering roadmap.

Skills

Team leadership

Hands-on coding

Machine learning

Production ML deployment

Architectural design

Build-vs-buy decisions

Release practices

Cost optimization

Delivery in production

Job description

About the Role

Join an early-stage B2B SaaS team as its hands-on engineering lead, shaping platform architecture and applied machine learning strategy alongside the technical founders. You will lead a small engineering pod while building and shipping critical product work, helping establish the technical foundation and practices for the team.

What You'll Do

• Lead a pod of three to four engineers, supporting their growth, performance, and hiring while remaining hands-on with key projects.
• Own core platform architecture, infrastructure decisions, build-versus-buy choices, and cost considerations.
• Set engineering standards, code review criteria, release practices, definitions of done, and on-call policies.
• Lead technical design and initial implementation for new initiatives.
• Evaluate applied machine learning approaches and distinguish techniques ready for production from those that are still speculative.
• Partner with the technical leadership team on product direction, model strategy, and the engineering roadmap.

What We’re Looking For

• Typically 5 to 8 years of engineering experience, with exceptional candidates who have 4 to 5 years also considered.
• Experience training and deploying machine learning models in production, beyond integrating third-party LLM APIs.
• End-to-end ownership of technical architecture, including infrastructure and build-versus-buy decisions.
• Experience setting engineering practices and holding a team accountable as a technical or people lead.
• Recent experience personally shipping software end-to-end, along with strong hands-on coding skills.
• Applied ML judgment across classical methods and newer approaches, plus experience using AI coding agents effectively.
• Comfort working through ambiguity, existing code, and practical delivery challenges.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary is $200,000 to $400,000 annually, with equity. Visa sponsorship is not available.

Location

On-site in New York City.