Tech Lead Manager

Nectar Social • Palo Alto, CA

2d • $200,000 - $275,000

About The Position

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.

Requirements

• 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.
• Strong architectural intuition and hands-on proficiency across the full stack. Comfortable digging into deep system bottlenecks, reviewing complex PRs, and driving architectural consensus.
• 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.
• Proven experience working alongside Product Managers and Product Designers, particularly in fast-paced startup environments where roles cross over seamlessly.
• A strong bias toward action and comfort operating in high-growth, ambiguous environments with changing priorities.
• Exceptional, direct written and verbal communication skills with a track record of translating complex technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders.
• Active hands-on experience or deep technical interest in incorporating LLMs, AI agents, and modern AI workflows into software architecture.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience working at an early or growth-stage startup, comfortable with the ambiguity and pace that comes with it.
• 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.
• Prior technical leadership on teams shipping mobile products, ideally using React Native.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical roadmap, system design, and architectural standards for your product domain to ensure high performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Lead by example. Write production code, conduct thorough code reviews, solve complex technical bottlenecks, and own critical path architecture for key initiatives.
• 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.
• Coach and mentor engineers across the team. Raise the technical bar through pair programming, architecture reviews, and fostering best practices in software craftsmanship.
• 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.
• Drive technical excellence across the lifecycle—refining RFC processes, testing strategies, CI/CD pipelines, system monitoring, and post-mortem resolutions.
• Help scale the engineering team by conducting technical interviews, reviewing system design assessments, and evaluating top-tier engineering talent.
• Own formal management responsibilities for a team of 2-5 — regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and career growth planning.

What This Job Offers

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