Senior Lead Engineer

Taroko.io is a dynamic venture studio dedicated to building innovative products that disrupt industries and redefine the way people and businesses do things. Our team of visionary technologists build innovative solutions from the ground up, creating scalable and impactful businesses. Our latest venture is a new pre-MVP product designed to provide essential services to startups — helping entrepreneurs navigate crucial steps like brand creation, trademark clearance, business incorporation, and more. As a key player in our venture studio, you’ll have the chance to shape a product that empowers founders and supports their growth journey.

We are seeking an exceptional Senior Lead Engineer to take charge of the technical development of this new, high-impact product, blending cutting-edge technologies with a product-focused approach to deliver exceptional user experiences. You’ll be hands-on, diving into full-stack development while driving the technical direction and architecture of the product. 

With a focus on delivering a robust MVP, you’ll work closely with cross-functional teams to bring the product to life, all while balancing speed, scalability, and quality. This is a unique opportunity to join early, build from the ground up, and take ownership of the technical aspects of a product poised for huge growth. The role also offers the potential to evolve into a CTO position as the product matures and the team expands.

Technical Leadership

• Make architectural decisions, choose tech stack, and set up cloud infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines ensuring that architecture decisions align with overarching business goals and product strategies.
• Set high standards for engineering excellence, ensuring rigorous code reviews, automated testing, and adoption of performance best practices.
• Continuously optimize CI/CD pipelines to enable frequent, reliable releases and rapid iteration cycles.
• Monitor and measure engineering KPIs, leveraging data to drive strategic improvements in productivity, code quality, and user satisfaction.
• Prioritize features and ensure a balance between speed and long term scalability.
• Drive efforts to scale the product and ensure long-term success.

Team Leadership

• Demonstrated people management experience, including leading teams and scaling engineering teams through effective hiring.
• Mentor junior engineers, foster a culture of ownership, and grow the team as the product scales.
• Lead technical efforts, ensuring the product evolves to meet timeline, user and business needs.
• Facilitate agile/scrum practices, ensuring sprints are well planned and team members are empowered to deliver their best.

Collaboration & Communication

• Act as a critical liaison between engineering, product, and executive stakeholders, influencing decision-making with clear, concise insights on technical feasibility and product priorities.
• Work closely with product and design teams to set expectations around feature scope, timelines, and deliverables, keeping user experience at the forefront.
• Shape and reinforce engineering culture by actively engaging in thought leadership, knowledge sharing, and championing initiatives that align with the company’s strategic vision.

Product Strategy & Cultural Leadership

• Collaborate with executive teams, product managers, and designers to define strategic product roadmaps for the Hue line.
• Engage in high-level UX and business discussions, demonstrating deep understanding of user needs and translating them into actionable product plans.
• Champion a culture of innovation and excellence, introducing latest tech trends/releases, best practices, fostering collaboration, and ensuring continuous improvement throughout the engineering organization.
  

Hands-on Development

• Build and ship production-ready code quickly, owning full-stack development (backend and frontend).
• Maintain clean, efficient code and uphold development standards across the team.

• Proven experience with full-stack development (JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Node.js, Python, etc.) and cloud platforms (AWS, Google Cloud).
• Strong knowledge of software architecture and scalable system design.
• Experience in AI-Driven Development: Proven experience working with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Cursor.ai, Builder.io) to enhance the development process.
• Familiarity with AI APIs: Hands-on experience integrating AI APIs such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or similar into applications to drive innovation.
• Interest in AI Evolution: Strong interest in the evolving role of AI in software architecture, including areas like prompt engineering, and staying ahead of trends in AI-driven development.

• 3-5 years in early-stage startups with hands-on product development.
• Comfort with fast-paced environments and owning product execution.

• Ability to lead, mentor, and grow a team.
• Motivated to transition into a CTO role as the company expands.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to distill complex technical ideas into actionable insights for diverse audiences.

• Passion for building products in an agile setting that support startup success.
• Ambition to grow within the company and take ownership of the product.
• Enthusiastic about exploring the intersection of AI and software development to create cutting-edge solutions.

• Comfortable and confident in communicating in English, both written and spoken, in a fully English-speaking work environment.