Technical Lead
About The Position
We're a small team within Blackboard building a new AI-native product. This is not a feature team, and it's not an enhancement to an existing product — we're building something new. We use Claude Code, Cursor, and AI-assisted tooling to generate the majority of our code. Our engineers are architects, reviewers, and product thinkers — people who direct AI coding agents effectively rather than writing every line by hand. As Technical Lead, you set this culture. You will establish the norms, the workflows, and the standards for how AI-native development actually works at scale on a small team. The person we're looking for is excited by this model, not threatened by it. You are the technical leader. You will design, architect, and build the core system — a stateful, multi-layer architecture spanning data ingestion, decision logic, and AI-powered delivery — and recruit a small senior team to build alongside you. This is a builder role first. If you're looking to step into a seat where you primarily direct others, this isn't the right fit. We need someone who still loves building — and is exceptional at it. You will own the full technical vision and be accountable for it.
Requirements
- Proven track record shipping complex, stateful AI or data-driven systems in production — not just prototypes
- Fluency in LLM application development: orchestration, RAG pipelines, prompt engineering, guardrail design
- Experience designing multi-agent systems with shared state, async architectures, and observability infrastructure
- Strong architectural judgment — you understand why rules should decide and AI should assist, and you build accordingly
- Demonstrated ability to ship at startup velocity: high ownership, weekly cycles, bias toward action
- You work natively with AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, or equivalent) — this is how you actually build, not a checkbox
- Experience recruiting and mentoring engineers
- Fluency in written and spoken English
Nice To Haves
- Prior experience at an AI-native startup or as a technical co-founder
- Familiarity with LMS ecosystems: LTI 1.3, xAPI/SCORM, platform APIs
- Background in domains where explainability and institutional trust are non-negotiable (EdTech, health tech, fintech)
Responsibilities
- Design, architect, and build the core system — a stateful, multi-layer architecture spanning data ingestion, decision logic, and AI-powered delivery
- Recruit a small senior team to build alongside you
- Establish an AI-native development culture: AI tools as the default, human judgment as the filter
- Hire and mentor a small senior team (2–3 Product Engineers) as the product scales from v1 to v2
- Stay on the bleeding edge of the AI ecosystem — Claude Code, Cursor, OpenAI Agent SDK, MCPs, and whatever comes next. Make the call on what we adopt, when, and why.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Education Level
No Education Listed
