Founding Engineering Lead

Clera; United States; On-site; USD 200,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

Clera in New York City is seeking an experienced engineering leader to own platform architecture and guide ML‑driven product development. You will shape the technical direction while leading a small engineering pod and continuing hands‑on with critical builds.

You will balance hands‑on contributions with strategic leadership, establish standards for AI‑assisted development, and drive architectural choices, cost awareness, and release discipline as the company scales its production ML

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of engineering experience; 4–5 years for exceptional candidates.
• Commercial experience training and deploying ML models in production.
• Experience at an AI-native company with leadership or ownership.
• End-to-end ownership of technical architecture including infra and cost decisions.
• Experience setting engineering standards and delivery practices.
• Hands-on shipping production software and use of AI coding agents.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity and legacy code with hands-on execution.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a pod of engineers, supporting growth, performance and hiring while shipping critical work.
• Own platform architecture and make build-versus-buy and infra decisions.
• Set engineering standards for AI-assisted development, including reviews and release cadence.
• Lead technical designs and initial implementations for new initiatives.
• Assess ML research for production readiness and determine deployment readiness.
• Partner with leadership on product roadmap, model strategy and ML direction.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Platform architecture

Team building / Hiring

Hands-on coding

ML judgment

Tools

ML deployment tooling

Production software tooling

Job description

About the Role

Lead engineering for an early‑stage SaaS company applying machine learning to enterprise software. You will shape technical architecture and product direction while leading a small engineering pod and remaining hands‑on with critical builds.

What You’ll Do

• Build and lead a pod of engineers, supporting their growth, performance, and hiring while personally shipping critical work.
• Own platform architecture and make build-versus-buy and infrastructure decisions.
• Establish engineering standards for AI-assisted development, including review criteria, definition of done, release cadence, and on‑call practices.
• Lead technical designs and initial implementations for new initiatives.
• Assess applied machine learning research and determine what is ready for production systems.
• Partner with technical leadership on product roadmap, model strategy, and machine learning direction.
• Initially spend most of your time building, with leadership responsibilities growing over time.

What We’re Looking For

• Typically 5 to 8 years of engineering experience, with 4 to 5 years considered for exceptional candidates.
• Commercial experience training and deploying machine learning models in production, beyond integrating third‑party LLM APIs.
• Experience at an AI‑native company, with technical leadership or ownership and a record of attracting strong engineering talent.
• End‑to‑end ownership of technical architecture, including infrastructure and cost decisions.
• Experience setting engineering standards and leading delivery practices for a team.
• Recent hands‑on experience shipping production software, strong applied ML judgment, and effective use of AI coding agents.
• Comfort working through ambiguity, inherited code, and hands‑on implementation.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary: $200,000 to $400,000 USD annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.

Location

On‑site in New York City, United States.