Tech Lead Manager (Platform)

Distributed Spectrum•New York, NY

5d•Onsite

About The Position

DS creates systems that power the next generation of radio spectrum intelligence. We collect radio data from all over the world, train neural networks to decipher it, and run them on the smallest chips we can. We’re solving a new, technically hard problem where nothing from other fields works out of the box, and along the way, we’ve built our own stack from scratch, including entirely new embedding model architectures, custom GPU kernels, and much more. Joining DS means owning major parts of a fast-growing AI research organization, joining a collaborative, talent-dense team with decades of experience in probabilistic ML, accelerated computing, embedded systems, and signal theory, and growing your career in the areas that interest you. You’ll fit in if you want to come to work for the problem itself and don’t want to choose between technical rigor, business value, and real-world impact. We work with high ownership and trust, and we do it together in the office 5 days/week. The Role We are hiring a Tech Lead Manager (Platform) to lead our platform engineering function — building the shared services, data paths, tooling, and technical foundations that directly shape customer experience. This is a staff-level role for someone who is full-stack but systems aware . You write and review real code. You make decisive technical calls. You lead a small, high-ownership team. And you understand enough about how networks, operating systems, and real-world constraints work to build software that behaves reliably when things get hard. Our product operates where software meets the physical world. That means decisions about data paths, pub/sub architecture, map rendering, offline behavior, and networking surface directly in the customer experience. The best person for this role doesn't just work above these constraints — they understand why they exist.

Requirements

Thinks in systems, not just frameworks
Has strong full-stack engineering experience and can make confident calls across the stack
Understands how operating systems, memory, and networks affect real software behavior — even if you haven't spent your career writing embedded code
Can take messy customer deployment feedback and turn it into a clear technical plan
Is comfortable leading through ambiguity and startup-paced change
Wants to stay hands-on while growing engineers and influencing the broader org
Python and/or a systems-aware backend language (Go, C++, Rust exposure valued)
Typescript/Javascript & React or comparable frontend frameworks
Linux-based systems
Networking fundamentals — DNS, DHCP, pub/sub, data flow, queues
Backend service architecture — APIs, microservices, data pipelines
Build systems, CI/CD, packaging, and deployment
How to design and build reliable data paths through a system
How systems fail under memory or networking pressure
How to make software that doesn't assume constant connectivity
How to evaluate and select libraries, tools, and architectural patterns decisively
To conform to U.S. Government technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Responsibilities

The architecture and evolution of our platform and shared services layer
The data path from sensor processing through to customer-facing web and Android experiences
Technical decisions across the stack — from library selection to system design to deployment
Translating customer deployment learnings into a clear, decisive development plan
Engineering practices that raise the bar for quality, reliability, and execution
A small team of engineers you'll coach, develop, and hire alongside