Founding Engineering Lead

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

Job summary

Meeno, based in New York, is seeking a Technical Lead to own the technical foundation and build innovative voice-based products. Responsibilities include developing core AI features and setting high engineering standards. Ideal candidates are strong builders with experience in shipping consumer products, excited by interaction design, and eager to impact Gen Z's social landscape. The position offers a competitive salary of $180,000 – $220,000 annually and is full-time on-site.

Qualifications

• Strong builder who has shipped consumer products.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and moving quickly.
• Excited by voice, interaction design, and behavior change.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical foundation of Meeno end‑to‑end.
• Build core AI product features for voice capture.
• Set the engineering standards for quality and reliability.

Skills

Product design

Voice interaction design

AI development

Consumer product shipping

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.

We are not a dating app, not a companion, not therapy. We provide IRL reps to help Gen Z meet people IRL.

Location: New York. Type: Full‑time. On‑site.

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.
• 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.

Salary: $180,000 – $220,000 a year.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.