Head of Software Engineering

Albert Bow Limited; New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

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Job summary

Albert Bow Limited is seeking a hands-on Head of Engineering to take our tech function to the next level. You will stay close to the code, product and founders while shaping architecture and the roadmap as we scale with AI, data and automation.

You will hire and mentor engineers, balance fast delivery with robust systems, and work directly with customers on technical strategy. This is an owner-level role at an early-stage tech company.

Qualifications

• Experience in an early-stage or high-growth technology business.
• Experience hiring and building engineering teams.
• Strong architecture and system design experience.
• Experience building production-grade AI systems—not just prototypes.
• Knowledge of LLM orchestration, RAG and evaluation frameworks.
• Experience working with large volumes of structured and unstructured data.
• Strong understanding of enterprise software security, compliance, integrations and multi-tenancy.
• You move between coding, architectural decisions and leading people with ease.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical direction and architecture as the platform scales.
• Stay hands-on with engineering and technical decision-making.
• Build and lead the engineering team from an early stage.
• Hire exceptional engineers and set the technical bar.
• Collaborate with founders on product and technical strategy.
• Build scalable AI, data and automation systems.
• Shape the roadmap as product and customers grow.
• Ensure the engineering org can scale without sacrificing velocity.
• Engage with customers and senior stakeholders when needed.

Skills

Early-stage experience

Hiring teams

Architecture & design

Production AI systems

LLM orchestration

RAG & eval frameworks

Data handling (structured/unstructured

Enterprise software security

Code, architecture, leadership

Node.js

TypeScript

PostgreSQL

Elasticsearch

AWS/GCP

Tools

Node.js

TypeScript

PostgreSQL

Elasticsearch

AWS/GCP

Job description

I’m working with a fast-growing technology business that is building genuinely useful software around some pretty complex problems - bringing together contracts, documents, invoices and financial data and using AI to automate processes that are still heavily manual across large enterprises.

The product is already live, commercially proven and being used by major customers.

Now they’re looking for the person who can take the engineering function to the next level.

The Opportunity

This is a hands-on Head of Engineering role.

You won’t be coming in to simply manage a large team or spend your days in meetings. The engineering team is still small, which means you’ll be close to the technology, close to the product and close to the founders.

You’ll own the technical direction while continuing to build yourself.

That means:

• Setting the technical vision and architecture as the platform scales.
• Staying hands-on with engineering and technical decision-making.
• Building and leading the engineering team from an early stage.
• Hiring exceptional engineers and setting the technical bar.
• Working closely with the founders on product and technical strategy.
• Building scalable systems around AI, data and automation.
• Helping shape the roadmap as the product and customer base grows.
• Making sure the engineering organisation can scale without losing speed.
• Working directly with customers and senior stakeholders when the technical conversation requires it.

There is a lot of ownership here.

You'll have a genuine say in what gets built, how it gets built and who you build it with.

What We’re Looking For

The background is more important than the job title.

You might be a:

Staff Engineer. Founding Engineer. CTO. VP Engineering. Head of Engineering.

What matters is that you've been close to the technology and have built things from the ground up.

We’re looking for someone who has:

• Experience working in an early-stage or high-growth technology business.
• Experience hiring and building engineering teams.
• Strong architecture and system design experience.
• Experience building production-grade AI systems — not just prototypes.
• Knowledge of areas such as LLM orchestration, RAG and evaluation frameworks.
• Experience working with large volumes of structured and unstructured data.
• Strong understanding of enterprise software, including security, compliance, integrations and multi-tenancy.
• The ability to move comfortably between writing code, making architectural decisions and leading people.

From a technical perspective, experience across Node.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch and AWS/GCP would be highly relevant.

You don't need to tick every box.

We're more interested in what you've actually built and owned.

The Person

It’s an early-stage business, so you’ll need to be happy getting stuck in.

One day you could be working through an architecture problem, the next interviewing an engineer, then sitting down with the founders to work through the roadmap - before getting back into the code yourself.

That’s really the shape of the role.

It’s not about having a big title and a big team underneath you. It’s about having real ownership, making decisions and being close to what’s being built.

You’ll need to be comfortable with a bit of ambiguity, move quickly and have high standards, but without overcomplicating things.

Most importantly, you should still enjoy being hands‑on and actually building things.

Why This Role?

The company has reached the point where the technology works, customers are there and the opportunity is getting significantly bigger.