Software Engineering Team Lead - Backend / Python

Strativ Group; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Strativ Group is seeking an Engineering Team Lead for backend and Python at a Frontier AI startup, guiding a distributed systems backbone for autonomous coding agents. You’ll lead architecture, standards, and delivery while remaining hands-on on challenging backend problems, shaping roadmap and engineering culture.

You’ll mentor engineers, participate in hiring, and drive scalable, secure production systems, collaborating with researchers to translate cutting-edge AI concepts into robust

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience with Python and backend systems.
• Proven experience leading and developing high-performing engineering teams.
• Strong distributed systems and backend architecture experience.
• Track record of owning technical direction and delivering complex production systems.
• Experience hiring, mentoring and developing engineers.
• Background in compilers, static analysis, or language tooling (desirable).
• Experience in Defense (desirable).
• Exposure to formal methods or verification (a plus).
• Comfortable remaining hands-on and contributing technically.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a growing engineering team.
• Set technical direction, architecture, and delivery standards.
• Collaborate with researchers and leadership to turn ideas into production systems.
• Own hiring, onboarding, and team growth initiatives.
• Contribute technically while guiding critical design decisions.

Skills

Python

Distributed systems

Backend architecture

Leadership

Hiring & mentoring

Tools

Compilers

Static analysis

Language tooling

Job description

Software Engineering Team Lead - Backend / Python

A Frontier AI startup backed by $170m in funding is hiring an Engineering Team Lead to lead the team building the distributed backend systems powering autonomous coding agents. This is a rare opportunity to join at a pivotal stage of growth, working alongside a team that has already assembled some of the most credible technical talent in the industry. The team includes alumni from OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft AI, and NASA, combining deep foundation model work with serious mathematical research.

As Engineering Team Lead, you'll take ownership of a highly technical engineering team responsible for building the infrastructure behind large-scale autonomous engineering. You'll provide technical direction across architecture, engineering standards and delivery, while remaining hands-on with some of the most challenging backend and distributed systems problems in the company. You'll work closely with researchers, engineers and leadership to turn ambitious ideas around autonomous agents into robust, scalable production systems.

This is a role for an experienced engineering leader who enjoys operating at the intersection of people leadership and deep technical execution. You'll help shape the team's technical roadmap, mentor and develop engineers, contribute to hiring, and establish the engineering practices needed as the organisation scales. At the same time, you'll remain close enough to the code and architecture to make meaningful technical contributions and guide critical design decisions.

You'll be joining at a stage where the core infrastructure and engineering organisation are still being defined, giving you significant influence over both the technology and the team that will underpin the company's product for years to come. Day to day, this means leading engineers working on orchestration and execution infrastructure for large-scale code transformation, ensuring systems are reliable, scalable and secure in production, and collaborating closely with research teams to translate cutting-edge AI concepts into battle-tested software.

Experience Required:

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, with deep expertise in Python and backend systems
• Proven experience leading and developing high-performing engineering teams
• Strong distributed systems and backend architecture experience
• Track record of owning technical direction and delivering complex production systems
• Experience hiring, mentoring and developing engineers
• Background in compilers, static analysis, or language tooling (desirable)
• Experience in Defense (desirable)
• Exposure to formal methods or verification (a plus)
• Comfortable remaining hands-on and contributing technically

This is an opportunity to build and lead the engineering team inside a well-funded, research-driven company operating at the cutting edge of AI and systems engineering. You'll have the opportunity to shape not only the architecture of a category-defining product, but also the engineering culture, team and technical direction behind it. If you're an experienced engineering leader who wants to combine people leadership with genuinely difficult technical problems at the frontier of AI, this is it.