Product & Engineering Lead

DataDrone Inc.; Cheyenne, Northern (WY, KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

DataDrone Inc. in Cheyenne, WY is looking for a Cluster Lead to own the Product & Engineering rhythm. You will remove blockers, ensure teams ship quality work, and maintain scalable playbooks across engineering, QA, DevOps, and product management.

This is a non-coding leadership role focused on coordination, process, and governance. You’ll drive cadence, enforce gates, and escalate when decisions exceed scope, building a resilient, predictable delivery machine.

Qualifications

• You’ve shipped software in production, with real users and consequences.
• You can read code well enough to ask the right questions, even if you’re not writing it daily.
• You can hold a sprint cadence without someone holding yours.
• You’ve managed cross-functional dependencies — engineering + QA + infrastructure.
• You communicate in writing with clarity and conciseness.

Responsibilities

• Run the daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly operating rhythm for your cluster.
• Ensure sprint commitments are met and features ship with tests.
• Enforce quality gates — no release without QA sign-off.
• Monitor operational health of systems and infrastructure.
• Maintain playbook health — reviews within 90 days.
• Manage cross-role dependencies within your cluster.
• Coordinate cross-cluster handoffs with Growth & Revenue Lead.
• Escalate to founders when decisions exceed scope.
• Run quarterly architecture reviews and technical debt assessments.
• Hire and onboard new roles in your cluster.

Skills

Code literacy

Cross-functional leadership

Sprint cadence

Documentation

Communication (written)

Tools

CI/CD

Monitoring

CRM/CDP

Slack

Google Drive

Job description

DataDrone builds 0-1 SaaS products and the team that ships them. No bosses, no managers — the playbook manages, the copilot tracks. Every role owns a small, defined space with extreme accountability. We don't talk about building. We build. We ship. We measure. Binary outputs, no status theater.

What You'll Do

You'll own the question: "Is the product getting better?" — and make sure the answer is yes, every week.

You'll lead the Product & Engineering cluster — the roles spanning engineering, QA, DevOps, systems infrastructure, product management, and web. You won't write code. You won't configure systems. You'll ensure the people who do are unblocked, aligned, shipping quality work, and maintaining the playbooks that make their work repeatable.

This is a rhythm role, not a heroics role. You run the operating cadence. You enforce quality gates. You keep handoffs clean. You surface problems before they become crises. The playbook manages. You ensure the playbook runs.

Daily Rhythm (How You Operate)

• Daily: scan cluster status — what shipped, what's blocked, what's at risk. Clear blockers before they compound.
• Weekly: run the cluster sync. Confirm sprint commitments are on track and quality gates are holding.
• Monthly: review playbook health across the cluster and the engineer QA DevOps pipeline.
• Quarterly: run the architecture review and technical-debt assessment.
• Always: coordinate cross-cluster handoffs and elevate only what exceeds your cluster's scope.

Key Responsibilities

• Run the daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly operating rhythm for your cluster
• Ensure sprint commitments are met — features ship with tests, on cadence
• Enforce quality gates — no release without QA sign-off, no exceptions
• Monitor systems health — the operational infrastructure stays operational
• Maintain playbook health — every playbook in your cluster reviewed within 90 days
• Manage cross‑role dependencies within your cluster — engineer QA DevOps pipeline runs clean
• Coordinate cross‑cluster handoffs with the Growth & Revenue Lead
• Escalate to the founding team when decisions exceed your cluster's scope
• Run quarterly architecture reviews and technical debt assessments
• Hire and onboard new roles in your cluster (with People Operator support)

What We’re Looking For

• You’ve shipped software in a production environment. Not side projects — real users, real consequences.
• You can read code well enough to ask the right questions, even if you’re not writing it daily.
• You can hold a sprint cadence without someone holding yours.
• You’ve managed cross‑functional dependencies — engineering + QA + infrastructure, not just one track.
• You communicate in writing. Status updates, decisions, blockers — written, clear, concise.

Bonus Points For

• Experience with CRM/CDP systems
• Experience with automation platformsExperience working with junior teams and structured onboarding
• Comfort with AI copilots as daily work tools

The Mindset We Hire For

• Rhythm over heroics. You’d rather prevent a crisis with a consistent process than be the hero who fixes one at 2am.
• Playbooks over tribal knowledge. If it’s in your head and not in a document, it’s fragile. You write it down.
• Quality is non‑negotiable. "Ship fast" never means "ship broken."
• Small teams, big ownership. You’re comfortable with a junior team that owns their space with extreme accountability.
• Clean handoffs, not warm bodies. You measure your cluster’s health by the quality of handoffs between roles, not by how busy everyone looks.
• The system runs without you. Your goal is to build a cluster that doesn’t need you in the room for every decision.

Success in This Role

• 30 Days — You’ve read every playbook in your cluster. You’ve met every role. You’ve identified the top 3 friction points. You’ve run your first weekly sync. The founding team knows you understand the landscape.
• 60 Days — Friction points are being resolved. Playbooks are current. Sprint rhythm is consistent. You have a working relationship with the other two leads. The founding team doesn’t need to check your work.
• 90 Days — First quarterly audit completed. Architecture review done. Technical debt inventoried. The founding team’s confidence is earned. You can answer "Is the product getting better?" with evidence.

Tools You’ll Use

Project management, code repository, CI/CD, monitoring, CRM, CDP, automation tooling, Slack, Google Drive, AI copilot loaded with full product context.

Why Join Us

You won’t sit in meetings all day. You won’t write status reports nobody reads. You won’t manage up.

You'll run a cluster of people who own their space, ship real work, and maintain the playbooks that make the work repeatable. The product is live. The customers are real. The team is junior, sharp, and hungry. Your job is to make the machine run — not be the machine.

5 hours of focused work per day. No tension threshold. No burnout culture. Sustainable pace, compounding quality.

Self‑Check Before You Apply

• Can you hold a weekly operating rhythm for an engineering cluster without someone reminding you?
• When a release breaks production, is your first instinct "what failed in our process?" not "who wrote that code?"
• Can you read a PRD and a codebase well enough to ask the right questions in a sprint review?
• Are you comfortable not writing code? Your value is in the rhythm, not the repo.
• Can you work with a junior team and trust the playbook to carry them — without hovering?
• When a playbook is stale, does it bother you enough to fix it within the week?

If three or more are yes, that’s you — apply.