Tech Lead Manager

Nectar; Palo Alto (CA); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, vision, and dental benefits

401(k) match

ClassPass membership

Housing stipend $1,000/month

Mobile stipend $50/month

Commuter benefits

Free lunch in Palo Alto

Career growth opportunities

Job summary

Nectar is seeking a Tech Lead Manager to own the technical vision for core engineering teams in a fast-growing social-commerce environment. You will shape architecture, drive delivery, and mentor engineers while partnering with Product and Design to build AI-enabled insights for customers.

You will sit in customer conversations, influence product strategy, and scale practices as the team grows from ~50 people to the next phase of expansion, with a hybrid work schedule in Palo Alto and nearby

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with 2+ years in people management.
• Strong architectural intuition and hands-on full-stack skills.
• Experience collaborating with Product and Design in fast-paced environments.
• Familiarity with AI workflows and LLMs is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical roadmap and architecture for product domains.
• Lead by example with production code and comprehensive reviews.
• Partner with Product and Design to scope features and requirements.
• Mentor engineers and raise the technical bar across the team.
• Participate in customer calls to build technical intuition and guide direction.
• Drive engineering standards, RFCs, testing, CI/CD, and monitoring.
• Lead technical interviews and assess senior talent.
• Manage a team of 2–5 engineers with regular 1:1s and growth plans.

Skills

Technical leadership

Architectural design

Full-stack engineering

AI literacy

Product collaboration

Effective communication

People management

Code reviews

Tools

React

TypeScript

AWS

Pulumi

Postgres

ClickHouse

Turbopuffer

Job description

About Us

We're living through a fundamental shift in how people discover, evaluate, and purchase products. The next generation doesn't respond to traditional marketing -- they build relationships with brands through authentic social interactions, seek recommendations from communities they trust, and expect personalized experiences that feel human, not corporate.

About Us

We're living through a fundamental shift in how people discover, evaluate, and purchase products. The next generation doesn't respond to traditional marketing -- they build relationships with brands through authentic social interactions, seek recommendations from communities they trust, and expect personalized experiences that feel human, not corporate. At Nectar Social, we're building the AI-native social operating system that enables this new era of commerce. We believe every social interaction should deepen the relationship between brands and their communities while creating genuine value for both sides. Founded by ex-Meta product and engineering leaders, we've raised over $30M in total capital from investors including GV and True Ventures. We work with brands like Oura Health, Caraway, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Kosas, OLIPOP, and many more. We're building the future of social commerce -- where community, conversation, and commerce converge.

The Role

We are looking for a Tech Lead Manager who thinks like a product builder to own the technical vision and execution for one or more of our core engineering teams. Our engineering organization includes multiple core teams with a strong product-facing focus, as well as a Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team that moves fast across the full stack on high-priority initiatives. Your team will build products that ingest large volumes of social data, run AI agents on that data in real time, and deliver insights to customers through analytics and automation. You will be deeply involved in what gets built and how it gets built. You’ll sit in customer calls, develop strong opinions about product strategy, and partner with Product and Design as a technical peer. At the same time, you’ll drive systemic code quality, establish system architecture, mentor senior technical talent, and guide technical direction as we scale from ~50 people into our next phase of growth.

What You'll Be Doing

• Technical Architecture & Strategy: Define the technical roadmap, system design, and architectural standards for your product domain to ensure high performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Hands-On Execution & Delivery: Lead by example. Write production code, conduct thorough code reviews, solve complex technical bottlenecks, and own critical path architecture for key initiatives.
• Product & Design Partnership: Partner closely with Product and Design to evaluate feasibility, scope features, and refine requirements. Bring a strong technical perspective to user problems and product direction.
• Technical Mentorship & Quality: Coach and mentor engineers across the team. Raise the technical bar through pair programming, architecture reviews, and fostering best practices in software craftsmanship.
• Customer Empathy: Sit in customer calls regularly to build direct technical intuition for how social and brand teams use our products and where system performance or UX falls short.
• Engineering Standards & Process: Drive technical excellence across the lifecycle—refining RFC processes, testing strategies, CI/CD pipelines, system monitoring, and post-mortem resolutions.
• Hiring & Technical Assessment: Help scale the engineering team by conducting technical interviews, reviewing system design assessments, and evaluating top-tier engineering talent.
• People Management: Own formal management responsibilities for a team of 2-5 — regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and career growth planning.

What We're Looking For

• Experience Level: 8+ years of total software engineering experience, with 2+ years formally managing direct reports (people management, not just technical leadership) on a high-performing engineering team.
• Deep Technical Mastery: Strong architectural intuition and hands-on proficiency across the full stack. Comfortable digging into deep system bottlenecks, reviewing complex PRs, and driving architectural consensus.
• Product Instincts: Strong product acumen with a track record of forming technical opinions on product direction, pushing back on unclear specifications, and prioritizing technical work based on customer impact.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Proven experience working alongside Product Managers and Product Designers, particularly in fast-paced startup environments where roles cross over seamlessly.
• Startup Agility: A strong bias toward action and comfort operating in high-growth, ambiguous environments with changing priorities.
• Communication: Exceptional, direct written and verbal communication skills with a track record of translating complex technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders.
• AI Literacy: Active hands-on experience or deep technical interest in incorporating LLMs, AI agents, and modern AI workflows into software architecture.

Bonus Points

• Startup Experience: Prior experience working at an early or growth-stage startup, comfortable with the ambiguity and pace that comes with it.
• AI-Powered Systems: Hands-on experience architecting, deploying, or operating AI-powered or agentic software platforms at scale.
• Tech Stack Familiarity: Hands-on experience with React, TypeScript, AWS, Pulumi, Postgres, ClickHouse, or Turbopuffer.
• Mobile Experience: Prior technical leadership on teams shipping mobile products, ideally using React Native.

What we offer

• Competitive compensation and early equity
• Health, vision, and dental benefits + 401(k) match
• ClassPass membership for fitness and wellness classes
• Hybrid schedule: 4 days in office, plus 3 remote flex days per quarter (after your first 3 months)
• Comprehensive stipends: $1,000/month housing stipend for living near the office, $50/month mobile stipend, and commuter benefits (train stipend or Palo Alto parking reimbursement)
• Free lunch in the heart of University Ave. in Palo Alto
• Clear career growth opportunities as the company scales

Compensation Range: $200K - $275K