Tech Lead

Clera; United States; Remote; USD 220,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive equity package

Job summary

Clera in the United States is hiring a Tech Lead to scale its engineering team, balancing hands-on coding (20–30%) with technical leadership. This on-site role is based in New York City, NY or San Francisco, CA, working closely with the CTO and senior leadership to shape architecture and delivery.

You will manage daily engineering operations, own roadmaps and prioritization, review code, and raise the team's productivity.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience, with leadership as Staff Engineer or Tech Lead.
• Experience managing an engineering team of 4+ members.
• Hands-on experience designing software architecture and full-stack apps with LLM integrations.
• Experience with conversational AI / voice AI and NLP/LLM applications.
• Production deployments of cloud-based apps; Microsoft Azure experience preferred.
• Ability to own engineering roadmap execution and prioritization.
• Strong cross-functional communication to present technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience in fast-growing startups or scale-ups and shipping under pressure.
• US work authorization required; no visa sponsorship available.

Responsibilities

• Manage the engineering team day-to-day, removing blockers and keeping delivery on track.
• Guide architectural decisions and system design across the product.
• Own task prioritization and delivery tradeoffs with final say on engineering decisions.
• Review code and RFCs to maintain quality, consistency, and engineering standards.
• Establish and enforce engineering best practices, processes, and operational workflows.
• Serve as a technical liaison and thought partner to executive and cross-functional leadership (CEO, CTO, Sales, Customer Success).
• Contribute actively to the production codebase alongside your leadership responsibilities.
• Raise the overall productivity and maturity of the engineering organization.

Skills

Team management

Architectural design

Full-stack development

LLM integration

NLP/LLM expertise

Azure cloud

Roadmap ownership

Cross-functional communication

Startup experience

US work authorization

Tools

Microsoft Azure

Job description

About the Role

A fast-growing, seed-funded conversational AI startup — backed by Y Combinator and other top-tier investors — is hiring a Tech Lead to scale its engineering team and operations. The company builds voice and text AI agents that automate customer service, lead qualification, appointment scheduling, and operational workflows for businesses in the home improvement and related industries.

This is a high-ownership role that sits at the intersection of hands-on engineering and technical leadership. You'll partner closely with the CTO and senior leadership to drive architecture, team productivity, and delivery — while remaining an active contributor to the codebase (~20–30% of your time). The role is on-site in either New York City, NY or San Francisco, CA.

What You'll Do

• Manage the engineering team day-to-day, removing blockers and keeping delivery on track.

• Guide architectural decisions and system design across the product.

• Own task prioritization and delivery tradeoffs with final say on engineering decisions.

• Review code and RFCs to maintain quality, consistency, and engineering standards.

• Establish and enforce engineering best practices, processes, and operational workflows.

• Serve as a technical liaison and thought partner to executive and cross-functional leadership (CEO, CTO, Sales, Customer Success).

• Contribute actively to the production codebase alongside your leadership responsibilities.

• Raise the overall productivity and maturity of the engineering organization.

What We're Looking For

Must-haves (dealbreakers apply):

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience, with the most recent role as a Staff Engineer or Tech Lead.

• Proven experience managing an engineering team of 4+ members with day-to-day operational responsibility.

• Hands-on experience designing software architecture and building production full-stack applications integrated with LLMs.

• Hands-on experience with conversational AI and/or voice AI technology, including NLP/LLM applications.

• Production experience deploying and managing cloud-based applications — Microsoft Azure experience strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated ability to own engineering roadmap execution and technical prioritization.

• Strong cross-functional communication skills, including the ability to advocate technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders.

• Experience in fast-growing startups or scale-ups; comfortable shipping under pressure.

• US work authorization required — no visa sponsorship available.

Nice-to-have:

• Prior leadership experience at a conversational AI, voice AI, or AI agent company.

• Familiarity with the home improvement, real estate, healthcare, insurance, or airline verticals.

• Experience collaborating with distributed teams across North American and European time zones.

• Strong business acumen with a clear sense of how technical decisions impact revenue and customer outcomes.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $220,000 – $250,000 annually

• Competitive equity package at an early-stage, well-funded company

Location

• On-site role — candidates must be willing and able to work in-office in New York City, NY or San Francisco, CA.

• No fully remote option available for this position.