Platform Lead

Stellic • San Mateo, CA

1d

About The Position

Stellic is seeking a Platform Lead to guide the technical direction of its core architecture systems. This role involves significant investment in AI capabilities, search infrastructure, and shared platform primitives. The ideal candidate will be a technical leader responsible for shaping both the development of these systems and how other engineering teams build upon them. Stellic's mission is to transform the student experience by providing tools for degree planning, progress tracking, and career path development. The company is a fast-growing startup backed by social impact investors, partnering with major institutions like Cornell, Columbia, UVA, and Ohio State, supporting over 1 million students in 7 countries. Stellic engineers are characterized by their curiosity, creativity, business acumen, and ability to deliver high-quality solutions rapidly, always with the student mission in mind. The Platform team is crucial, responsible for foundational infrastructure and key product surfaces, including search, AI-driven capabilities, AI Analytics, and the AI platform. They also develop shared primitives like workflow infrastructure and AI systems used across the product. This role offers the opportunity to have a broad impact across teams and the product, influencing both system development and how other teams leverage platform capabilities.

Requirements

• 8+ years of backend engineering experience operating at scale, with a track record of leading complex implementations as a technical lead.
• Expertise building scalable AI platforms that enable product teams to develop AI-powered features.
• Experience designing and maintaining ElasticSearch-powered search platforms at scale.
• Expertise building observable, testable systems at scale, considering reliability and debuggability from the start.
• Strong ownership mindset and the ability to autonomously lead and drive complex implementations end-to-end.
• Experience with asynchronous / event-based architectures and strong API design skills.
• Clear and effective communication skills for collaborating with product, design, and customer-facing teams.
• Deep curiosity, customer empathy, and commitment to engineering as a craft.
• Desire to mentor junior developers.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical direction and evolution of Stellic's search infrastructure and AI platform, including end-user features and internal systems for AI-powered capabilities.
• Design and evolve shared building blocks, such as workflow infrastructure and AI systems, used broadly across engineering.
• Own consistency and quality across shared systems with broad usage and impact, establishing clear patterns and abstractions.
• Partner on prioritization of engineering-driven and product priorities as a peer to product leadership.
• Drive engineering excellence by defining and mentoring on best practices, design patterns, and code quality.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Meaningful equity
• Health insurance with Stellic covering 99% of your premium and 75% for dependents
• 401(k)
• Commuter benefits
• Annual international retreats

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 11-50 employees