Member of Technical Staff, Lead

Nectar • Palo Alto, CA

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Nectar is hiring a Tech Lead Manager to own technical vision and execution for one or more core engineering teams. The role combines hands-on software development and technical leadership with formal people management. The engineering teams 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. The position partners closely with Product and Design, participates in customer calls, and helps guide the company's technical direction as it scales.

Requirements

• At least 8 years of total software engineering experience.
• At least 2 years formally managing direct reports on a high-performing engineering team.
• Strong architectural judgment and hands-on full-stack proficiency, including the ability to investigate system bottlenecks, review complex pull requests, and build architectural consensus.
• Strong product acumen, including experience forming technical opinions on product direction, challenging unclear specifications, and prioritizing technical work based on customer impact.
• Experience working with Product Managers and Product Designers, particularly in fast-paced startup environments.
• Bias toward action and comfort working in high-growth, ambiguous environments with changing priorities.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Hands-on experience or deep technical interest in incorporating LLMs, AI agents, and modern AI workflows into software architecture.

Nice To Haves

• Experience at an early-stage or growth-stage startup.
• Hands-on experience architecting, deploying, or operating AI-powered or agentic software platforms at scale.
• Hands-on experience with React, TypeScript, AWS, Pulumi, Postgres, ClickHouse, or Turbopuffer.
• Technical leadership experience on teams shipping mobile products, ideally using React Native.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical roadmap, system design, and architectural standards for the product domain, ensuring performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Write production code, conduct code reviews, resolve technical bottlenecks, and own critical-path architecture for key initiatives.
• Partner with Product and Design to assess feasibility, scope features, refine requirements, and contribute technical perspectives to product direction.
• Coach and mentor engineers through activities such as pair programming and architecture reviews, and promote software craftsmanship.
• Participate regularly in customer calls to understand how social and brand teams use the products and identify performance or user experience shortcomings.
• Improve engineering practices across RFCs, testing, CI/CD, monitoring, and post-mortem follow-up.
• Conduct technical interviews, review system design assessments, and evaluate engineering candidates.
• Manage a team of 2–5 through regular one-on-ones, performance reviews, and career growth planning.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and early equity.
• Health, vision, and dental benefits, plus a 401(k) match.
• ClassPass membership for fitness and wellness classes.
• Hybrid schedule: four days in the office, plus three remote flex days per quarter after the first three months.
• $1,000 per month housing stipend for living near the office.
• $50 per month mobile stipend.
• Commuter benefits, including a train stipend or Palo Alto parking reimbursement.
• Free lunch in the office.
• Career growth opportunities as the company scales.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed