Senior Engineering Leader - Hands-On, AI & Backend

Recruitment Room; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Paid time off and parental leave

Flexible working hours

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

Recruitment Room seeks a Hands-on Head of Engineering in San Francisco to lead engineering execution while staying connected to software development. You will guide architecture, build backend, data, and AI systems for enterprise deployments, establish standards, and mentor a growing team.

Close collaboration with the CTO and customers shapes direction and delivery. The role blends technical leadership with individual contribution (70% engineering, 30% leadership) and requires owning engineering

Qualifications

• Substantial hands-on experience developing and maintaining production software.
• Experience leading engineers or coordinating complex technical projects.
• Strong architecture and system-design capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership: Own architecture and technical direction across backend services, data systems, and AI-powered applications, making sound build-versus-buy and infrastructure decisions.
• Hands-on Development: Write and review production code, investigate complex technical issues, and contribute directly to system design, implementation, and delivery.
• Engineering Execution: Translate business priorities into technical plans, assign ownership, identify delivery risks, and remove blockers to maintain execution quality.
• Engineering Standards: Establish practical standards for code quality, security, testing, observability, reliability, and production operations.
• Customer Collaboration: Work directly with enterprise customers to understand requirements, communicate technical trade-offs, and deliver successful implementations.
• Team Development: Recruit, manage, and mentor engineers, provide actionable feedback, and maintain clear performance expectations.
• Platform Scalability: Convert customer‑specific implementations into reusable components and systems that support future deployments and reduce engineering overhead.
• Technical Decision‑Making: Evaluate architectural alternatives and make decisions that balance immediate delivery needs with long‑term maintainability.

Skills

Hands-on leadership

Architecture & system-design

Backend engineering

AI systems

Team leadership

Job description

Recruitment Room seeks a Hands-on Head of Engineering in San Francisco to lead engineering execution while staying connected to software development. You will guide architecture, build backend, data, and AI systems for enterprise deployments, establish standards, and mentor a growing team.

Close collaboration with the CTO and customers shapes direction and delivery. The role blends technical leadership with individual contribution (70% engineering, 30% leadership) and requires owning engineering