Technical Lead

USA Tech Recruit; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

USA Tech Recruit seeks a Technical Lead – Applications to own the core architecture that connects AI systems with real-world user experiences. This hands-on leadership role focuses on scalable backend services, APIs, and client integrations across mobile and desktop platforms.

You will guide engineering strategy while staying close to code, making architectural decisions, and ensuring fast, reliable systems as the product grows.

Qualifications

• Experience leading application or product engineering teams.
• Design and build complex production backend systems.
• Develop backend services, APIs, and scalable architectures.
• Design system across services, data flows, and integrations.
• Balance rapid product iteration with strong engineering fundamentals.
• Collaborate with ML teams to translate AI into production UX.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture decisions and engineering strategy.
• Own core application architecture powering AI features.
• Ensure systems are fast, reliable, and scalable.
• Lead small team of senior engineers and set best practices.

Skills

Technical leadership

Backend systems

APIs

Distributed systems

System design

AI integration

Mobile integrations

Desktop integrations

Cloud infrastructure

Performance optimization

Security

Observability

Code reviews

Architecture reviews

Cross-functional collaboration

Production reliability

Job description

A fast-growing AI-first technology company is looking for a Technical Lead – Applications to own the core application architecture that connects advanced AI systems with real-world user experiences. This is a hands‑on technical leadership role focused on designing scalable backend services, APIs, and client integrations that power next‑generation AI products across mobile and desktop platforms.

Successful candidates will lead the application engineering strategy while staying close to the code, making critical architectural decisions, and ensuring systems remain fast, reliable, and scalable as the product grows. You will work across backend, mobile, and desktop environments, partnering closely with machine learning teams to translate AI capabilities into reliable, production‑ready user experiences.

You will lead a small team of senior application engineers, establish strong engineering practices, and drive technical decisions across architecture, reliability, security, latency, cost, and user experience. This role requires someone who can balance rapid product iteration with strong engineering fundamentals, ensuring AI‑powered workflows are robust, observable, and built for long‑term scale.

Ideal candidates will have knowledge of:

• Technical leadership of application or product engineering teams
• Designing and building complex production backend systems
• Backend services, APIs, distributed systems, and scalable architectures
• System design across services, clients, data flows, and integrations
• AI-powered product development and model integration trade-offs
• Building reliable production systems with monitoring, observability, retries, and fallbacks
• Designing architectures for AI workflows and user-facing applications
• Mobile and desktop application integrations
• Cloud-based application infrastructure and production operations
• Performance optimization including latency, scalability, and cost efficiency
• Security, privacy, and production readiness considerations
• Leading code reviews, architecture reviews, and technical decision-making
• Working effectively across engineering, product, and machine learning teams
• Shipping products quickly while maintaining long‑term system quality
• Operating effectively in ambiguous, fast‑moving environments

Key words: Technical Lead / Engineering Lead / Application Architect / Software Engineering Lead / Principal Software Engineer / Staff Software Engineer / Backend Lead / Product Engineering Lead / AI Applications / Generative AI / AI Product Development / Backend Systems / Distributed Systems / API Design / System Architecture / Cloud Architecture / Microservices / Mobile Applications / Desktop Applications / Machine Learning Integration / LLM Integration / Production Systems / Observability / Reliability Engineering / Scalability / System Design / Technical Leadership

By applying to this role you understand that we may collect your personal data and store and process it on our systems. For more information please see our Privacy Notice (https://eu-recruit.com/about-us/privacy-notice/)