Head of Software Engineering

Stealth Company; Redwood City (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Stealth Company is building the next generation of a TV operating system, combining streaming and discovery. We seek a player-coach engineering leader to scale a high-performing team while staying close to the work and shipping with speed.

You will set engineering standards, own delivery, partner with product and design, recruit aggressively, and serve as the bridge between engineers and company leadership, building culture from scratch in a well-funded, fast-moving environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering.
• 3+ years managing engineering teams.
• Experience shipping consumer-facing software.
• Fluent in AI/ML-integrated systems.
• Strong people management and feedback skills.
• Execution-oriented with ambiguity management.
• Credible technical leader respected by engineers.

Responsibilities

• Lead, grow, and retain a world-class software engineering team across consumer software and AI.
• Own engineering execution, sprint planning, resourcing, delivery, and team health.
• Set and enforce engineering standards: code quality, architecture patterns, review culture, and on-call practices.
• Partner with product and design to scope work, surface tradeoffs, and hit milestones.
• Recruit aggressively, you'll be a key part of building the team around you.
• Serve as the connective tissue between individual engineers and company leadership.

Skills

8+ years software engineering

3+ years managing teams

consumer-facing software

AI/ML-integrated systems

people management

execution-oriented

technical credibility

Job description

About Us

We’re building the next generation of the TV operating system, reimagining the experience at the intersection of television, streaming, and how people discover and search.

The Role

This is a player-coach role at a critical moment. You'll manage and scale a high-performing team while staying close to the work, setting engineering standards, unblocking execution, and ensuring we ship fast without accumulating debt that slows us down later.

What You'll Do

• Lead, grow, and retain a world-class software engineering team across consumer software and AI
• Own engineering execution, sprint planning, resourcing, delivery, and team health
• Set and enforce engineering standards: code quality, architecture patterns, review culture, and on-call practices
• Partner with product and design to scope work, surface tradeoffs, and hit milestones
• Recruit aggressively, you'll be a key part of building the team around you
• Serve as the connective tissue between individual engineers and company leadership

You

• 8+ years in software engineering, with 3+ years managing engineering teams
• Deep experience shipping consumer-facing software — you know what a polished, high-quality product takes
• Fluent in AI/ML-integrated systems — you've worked on products where models are core to the experience, not a bolt-on
• Strong people manager: you develop engineers, give direct feedback, and build team culture
• Execution-oriented — you keep things moving, resolve ambiguity, and protect the team from noise
• Technically credible enough to earn respect from strong engineers without needing to be in every design decision

Why Join

You'll be building and leading the engineering team behind a product that's genuinely new. Small team, real ownership, close to the decision-making, and the opportunity to set engineering culture from scratch. We're well-capitalized and moving fast.