Software Engineer (Tech Lead)

Kobalt Labs; New York (NY); On-site; USD 230,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lunch provided in-office

Employer-paid medical, dental, vision

Paid time off & company holidays

Job summary

Kobalt Labs is seeking a Staff+ Tech Lead to own a major product module end-to-end from customer problem to production. You will steer technical direction, make architectural decisions, and lead other engineers while staying hands-on with code.

You will work with customers to understand problems, drive execution, and raise the bar through mentorship and strong engineering practices as the product and team scale.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience or equivalent Staff+ ownership.
• Experience owning a substantial product or technical area end-to-end and setting its technical direction.
• Proven ability to lead complex multi-engineer projects from problem to production.
• Exceptional hands-on engineering skills with time spent writing and reviewing code.
• Strong product instincts and ability to translate customer problems into what should be built.
• Comfort operating across the stack and tackling high-leverage problems.
• Experience as Staff/Principal Engineer, tech lead, founding engineer or CTO is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical direction and execution of a major product module end-to-end.
• Understand customers, workflows, and problems to shape what we build.
• Turn ambiguous problems into technical strategy, architecture, and execution plans.
• Lead complex projects across engineers and make tradeoffs to ship quickly.
• Design and build critical backend systems, data models, and customer-facing UX.
• Set a high technical bar through architecture, reviews, and mentorship.
• Identify and address technical and product problems before they become scoped projects.
• Shape Kobalt's engineering architecture and culture as the team grows.

Skills

Staff+ ownership

Hands-on coding

Architectural leadership

Mentorship

System design

Cross-functional

Customer insight

Job description

About Kobalt Labs

Kobalt is the AI-native compliance operating system for financial institutions (FIs). Compliance is critical for FIs to get right, but most of their work still happens manually, in legacy technology or Excel.

Banks, credit unions, and fintechs across the country use Kobalt to run third party due diligence, screen marketing collateral, and stay current with the ever-changing regulatory landscape. Since our Series A, we've grown revenue more than 5x and work with some of the most notable names in financial services, including Chime, Upstart, and affirm.

The Role

Engineers at Kobalt own products end-to-end, from understanding the customer problem and shaping the technical approach through building, shipping, and operating the solution in production.

As a Tech Lead, you'll own and drive a major area of Kobalt's product. You'll be responsible for its technical direction and execution, working closely with customers to deeply understand the problems we're solving, determine what we should build, make the architectural decisions behind it, and lead other engineers in getting it shipped.

This is a Staff+ level role, but a highly hands-on one. We're looking for exceptional engineers who want broad ownership and technical leadership while continuing to spend significant time building.

What You'll Do

• Own the technical direction and execution of a major Kobalt product module end-to-end.

• Develop a deep understanding of the customers, workflows, and problems within your product area and use that context to shape what we build.

• Turn ambiguous product and customer problems into technical strategy, architecture, and concrete execution plans.

• Lead complex projects spanning multiple engineers, making the technical decisions and tradeoffs necessary to ship quickly without sacrificing the foundations we’ll need as we scale.

• Personally design and build critical parts of the product, from backend systems and data models to customer-facing experiences.

• Set a high technical bar through architecture, code reviews, engineering practices, and mentorship of other engineers.

• Identify and address technical and product problems before they become neatly scoped projects.

• Help shape Kobalt's broader engineering architecture and culture as both our product surface area and engineering team grow.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, or equivalent experience demonstrating Staff+ level technical ownership.

• Track record of owning a substantial product or technical area end-to-end and setting its technical direction.

• Experience leading complex projects across multiple engineers and driving them from ambiguous problem through production.

• Exceptional hands-on engineering skills; you still want to spend a significant portion of your time writing and reviewing code.

• Strong product instincts and the ability to understand customer problems, make tradeoffs, and determine what should be built rather than waiting for a detailed specification.

• Comfortable operating across the stack and going wherever the hardest or highest-leverage problem requires.

• Experience as a Staff or Principal Engineer, technical lead, founding engineer, or technical founder/CTO is a plus.

Compensation and Benefits

• $250k base salary + equity, with equity based on experience and scope

• Lunch provided in-office

• 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision premiums for employees and dependents

• Paid time off and paid company holidays