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The Role
Lead engineering vision and execution for renter and partner platforms, manage a team of engineers, and drive AI adoption in development workflows.
Summary Generated by Built In
Who We Are
At Apartment List, we’re transforming how people rent—making it smarter, easier, and a lot less frustrating. Our platform has already matched over a 1.4 million renters with their next home, while helping properties fill units with the right residents. Backed by strong growth and a big vision, we’re building the future of renting—and inviting bold thinkers to help us shape it!
We need a seasoned engineering leader who is equal parts technical builder, people mentor, and strategic operator. You’ll own engineering vision and execution for our renter and partner platforms, lead a team of ~60 engineers, and work closely with Product, Design, Data, ML, and Marketing leaders. This is not a steward role. Our Engineering leaders are in the work, not above it. AI is collapsing competitive moats quarter by quarter, and we are rebuilding how we ship, what we ship, and the bar we hold ourselves to. As the engineering leader, you’ll elevate individual contributor growth, accelerate our adoption of AI across development workflows and product experiences, and build the systems and culture that allow engineering to be both fast and exceptional.
What You’ll Do
Accelerate Building with AI
- Drive adoption of AI-powered development tools (AI-assisted coding, automated testing, code review, agentic systems) to multiply engineering velocity.
- Partner with Product and ML to embed AI into core product experiences — search, matching, personalization, and pricing.
- Foster a culture of experimentation; ensure frontier capabilities show up in shipped products, not slide decks.
Define Technical Vision and Strategy
- Lead a clear engineering vision aligned to our product, personalization, and marketplace strategy.
- Ensure architecture enables rapid iteration, scalability, and reliability at scale.
- Partner with the executive team to set strategic priorities through the lens of engineering capability.
Build and Lead a High-Performing Org
- Set a clear performance bar. Run rigorous calibration. Act decisively on underperformance.
- Develop engineering managers and identify future leaders early; invest in succession planning.
- Own recruiting strategy to attract and retain top engineering talent.
- Create systems and rituals that drive velocity, collaboration, and accountability.
Elevate Quality, Velocity, and Individual Growth
- Champion best practices: code quality, testing, CI/CD, observability, incident response, and architectural review.
- Ship fast, fix fast, raise the bar every sprint. Foundations earn their seat by enabling speed, not by slowing it down.
- Evolve our platform and infrastructure for scalable, reliable, performant experiences.
- Build clear career ladders and invest deeply in coaching, mentorship, and skill development across all levels.
- Sweats the details: you believe the gap between a good product and a great one lives in the transitions, the edge cases, and the moments most people skip. You protect that gap.
Strengthen Cross-Functional Alignment
- Serve as a strategic thought partner to Product, Design, Data, and ML leaders.
- Bring technical feasibility and opportunity into every decision-making conversation.
- Bring genuine appreciation for craft, interaction quality, and the details that create user delight. Partner with Design not just as a feasibility check, but as a co-owner of the experience.
What You’ll Bring
- 8+ years leading engineering teams, including managing managers and scaling orgs of 40+ engineers in fast-paced, high-growth environments.
- Strong technical foundation: modern web technologies, iOS & Android apps, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, data-intensive applications.
- AI-native track record: shipped AI-native products to production at consumer scale; drove measurable productivity gains from AI tooling — percent AI-assisted code, cycle time, defect rate — and can cite the numbers.
- Performance management track record: you’ve raised the bar, made hard calls, and can talk about what changed afterward.
- Marketplace or consumer product experience: built and scaled two-sided marketplaces or high-traffic consumer products where conversion, retention, and UX are critical.
- People-first leadership: built cultures where ICs thrive, grow, and retain — and you know retention without a bar is just tenure.
- Business-minded: connects engineering investment to business outcomes; makes smart tradeoffs between speed, quality, and scope.
- Deep design partnership experience: you’ve worked closely with design leaders to ship products where the quality of micro-interactions, motion, and detail were treated as non-negotiable, not nice-to-have.
Why Apartment List
- Lead engineering for a platform that helps millions of renters find homes.
- Profitable, no fundraising pressure — operating with the urgency of a company that needs to win the next 24 months.
- Competitive salary, bonus, and equity aligned to experience and market benchmarks.
- A culture of velocity, calibration, and continuous learning.
At Apartment List, we carefully consider a variety of factors to determine compensation for each position, including the role, level, and work. The US base salary range for this position is:
- Zone 1: $300,000 - $350,000 TTC (including $255,000 - $297,000 base salary) + equity
- Zone 2: $278,000 - $323,000 TTC (including $236,000 - $275,000 base salary) + equity
- Zone 3: $255,000 - $297,000 TTC (including $217,000 - $252,000 base salary) + equity
This reflects the compensation target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Please note, the compensation details provided do not include benefits and perks that we offer.
We also rely on market indicators along with considering your work location, job related skills, experience and relevant education and training, to determine compensation that is fair and competitive for you. Apartment List will consider paying compensation near the higher of the range in exceptional circumstances, where candidates have the experience, credentials or expertise that would warrant such consideration. It is always our goal to hire exceptional talent and we would be happy to share more about compensation during the hiring process.
Here's what's in it for you (full-time US based employees only; does not apply to contract roles):
- Competitive Compensation: Including annual salary, pre-IPO stock options, and other financial compensation (if applicable)
- Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage: 100% of premiums covered for you AND all of your dependents
- Unlimited Flexible Time Off: Unlimited FTO in addition to 12 company holidays per year, quarterly “recharge” days, and a week-long holiday break
- Home Office Reimbursement: To cover home office furniture and supplies, monthly home internet, and monthly cell phone (if applicable)
- Health & Wellness Reimbursement: To cover monthly gym membership or other qualifying expenses
- Parental Support: Generous parental and family leave, fertility benefits, and employer-sponsored stipends towards family forming services
- 401k Plan: To support you in your individual retirement goals
- Team Events: Frequent team-building events, fun team off-sites, and bi-annual company meetups
- Commitment to DEI: To prioritize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within our workplace and to stay true to our values and mission
- Mentorship and Training: To get you onboard quickly, learn new professional skills, and invest in your career development
- Impact and Visibility: To expose you to and provide the opportunity to work on highly strategic initiatives that will transform the business
- Encouragement and Empowerment: To explore and adopt new technologies and drive meaningful decisions and outcomes
- At Apartment List we believe that everyone deserves a home they love AND a career they love. We strive to build a diverse team that is a reflection of the people we serve; this is made possible through our commitment to fostering a culture of diversity, inclusion, equity, and connectedness.
As a proud equal opportunity employer, we celebrate the collection of individual differences, life experiences, ideas, perspectives, knowledge, and talent. We hire candidates of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital or family status, disability, Veteran status, and any other status. #LIRemote
Skills Required
- 8+ years leading engineering teams
- Experience managing managers and scaling organizations of 40+ engineers
- Strong technical foundation in modern web technologies, iOS, Android apps
- Experience with cloud infrastructure and data-intensive applications
- Track record of shipping AI-native products to production
- Experience with building two-sided marketplaces or high-traffic consumer products
- Demonstrated performance management skills
- People-focused leadership experience
- Ability to connect engineering investment to business outcomes
- Design partnership experience with a focus on user experience details
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The Company
What We Do
For us, renting is personal — we’re a company built by renters for renters. We’re here to deliver renters a home they love at the value they deserve. Whether renters are embarking to a new city, in search of a quieter neighborhood, or making the jump to a two-bedroom apartment — we’re here to find them their perfect apartment match. We’ve made it our mission to revolutionize renting by making it a stress-free, simple, and holistic experience, connecting ready-to-move renters with compatible city living. Home is a feeling everyone should own, and we’re on a mission to help renters find it.
Why Work With Us
Want a job that makes a difference? There are over 100 million renters in the US, and at Apartment List, we strive every day to remove the hassle from renting and make the process better for every single one of them. Together, we can change the narrative around what it means to be a renter.
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