Head of Software Engineering - AI-Native Systems

Tacit; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Unlimited PTO

Visa sponsorship

401k matching

Medical benefits

Job summary

Tacit, an early-stage hardware startup in San Francisco, is seeking a Head of Software Engineering to lead a small, highly technical team and scale software across consumer apps, real-time inference, cloud infra, and R&D platforms.

Reporting to the CTO, you will hire, mentor, set engineering priorities, champion AI-native practices, and collaborate with ML, hardware, firmware, and product teams to translate breakthroughs into usable experiences.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading software engineering teams that deliver ambitious goals.
• Strong hands-on experience with frontier AI models and AI-native development workflows.
• Experience architecting complex systems balancing rapid execution with long-term quality.
• Excellent communication and organizational leadership skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow the software team, recruiting and mentoring across product, infra, and systems engineering.
• Pioneer AI-native engineering and practical adoption of frontier AI models and workflows.
• Translate product strategy into engineering priorities, ensuring reliability and security.
• Accelerate delivery of consumer apps, real-time AI systems, and internal platforms.
• Partner with ML, hardware, firmware, and product teams to turn breakthroughs into user experiences.

Skills

AI-native engineering

People leadership

Recruiting

Systems architecture

Job description

Tacit, an early-stage hardware startup in San Francisco, is seeking a Head of Software Engineering to lead a small, highly technical team and scale software across consumer apps, real-time inference, cloud infra, and R&D platforms.

Reporting to the CTO, you will hire, mentor, set engineering priorities, champion AI-native practices, and collaborate with ML, hardware, firmware, and product teams to translate breakthroughs into usable experiences.