We're hiring a Product-Minded Engineering Lead!

Summary

• Flexible Title: Can tailor to reflect your skills & experience.
• Flexible Time: Can do full-time, part-time, side-gig (off-hours), or fractional (contract).
• Flexible Commitment: Can do short-term, long-term, or intermittent.

Why so flexible? We're a FUNDED startup racing to launch end of Q2 2026. That gives us just 3 months to stack features while raising additional working capital. Feel free to jump in, help us ship, then bounce >> or stick around. A successful launch translates into lots of permanent jobs for those that want them. We're also interested in long term "side gig" relationships, if that's what you're into - in our experience, a few expert hours often beat full-time learning-curve hours.

About Us

We're a credible, funded, remote-first startup led by a serial [technical] founder, and backed by a 20-person team. The product is live in private alpha.

Learn more about our founder, team, and comp structures at list-lab.org.

About The Role

Think technical cofounder without the title — we don't use that title because our CEO is a seasoned CTO, but this role carries that same weight.

You'll sit at the intersection of product, architecture, and people — not as a process enforcer, but as the person who genuinely understands what we're building, why it matters, and how to get a team of strong individual contributors pulling in the same direction. You're the person the founder calls when something important is stuck, unclear, or about to go sideways.

This role is less about dashboards and sprint ceremonies and more about judgment. You know when to dig into the code yourself, when to unblock someone with a 10-minute conversation, and when to push back on a feature because it doesn't actually solve the user's problem. You care about the product as much as the engineering — and you understand that the two are inseparable.

We're not looking for someone who manages from a spreadsheet. We're looking for someone the team respects because they've been in the codebase, they understand the domain, and they make everyone around them sharper.

Compensation

Up to $400,000 max total compensation in Tier 1 cities; cash and equity components to be negotiated (amount reflects combined cash and equity components).

What Success Looks Like in 30 Days

• You understand the product deeply enough to have an opinion on what we should build next — and the team trusts that opinion
• You're already using AI tooling to multiply your own output and you're helping others on the team do the same
• You've built real relationships with each developer and understand how they work best
• When something is blocked or confused, you're the person who sees it first and gets it unstuck
• You've started shaping how the team coordinates — not by adding process, but by making communication clearer and decisions faster
• The founder can hand you a complex, ambiguous problem and trust that it'll come back as a clear plan with the right people working on the right things

What You'll Do

• Own the technical vision alongside the founder — understand the product roadmap, the architecture, and the trade-offs well enough to make real calls about what to build and how to build it
• Coordinate the engineering team — help developers stay aligned on priorities, unblock each other, and ship coherent work instead of disconnected features
• Go deep on the product — understand the user, the domain, and the business model. Push back when something doesn't make sense. Propose better solutions when you see them
• Be hands-on — you probably write code most days. You should be deep enough in the codebase to spot architectural issues, review critical PRs, and jump in when something needs a senior eye
• Bridge product and engineering — translate business intent into technical direction without losing nuance in either direction. Make sure the team builds what actually matters
• Build team culture — create an environment where developers do their best work. Run 1:1s, remove friction, champion good ideas, and address problems early
• Make the hard calls — scope decisions, technical trade-offs, and priority conflicts land on your desk. You make them thoughtfully and communicate them clearly
• Grow the team's capabilities — identify gaps, coach developers, and help the team level up through real work rather than abstract training
• Leverage AI as a force multiplier — you use AI tooling daily in your own work and you help the team adopt what actually moves the needle

What We're Looking For

• Deep product sense — you've shipped products, not just features. You understand why something is being built, not just how. You've been the person who shaped what a product became, even if your title was purely technical
• Strong technical foundation in Rails and React — deep enough to evaluate architecture, review complex PRs, and have informed opinions about technical trade-offs (PostgreSQL, Redis, Sidekiq, etc.)
• Early and avid AI adopter — you've been using AI tooling in your own workflow long enough to have real opinions about what works. You see it as a multiplier, not a gimmick, and you naturally pull others toward effective usage
• Natural leadership — people follow you because you're competent, clear, and fair — not because of your title. You've led teams (formally or informally) and made them better
• Ability to hold the whole picture — you can zoom out to see how the pieces fit together across the product and zoom back in to solve a specific problem. You're comfortable operating at multiple altitudes
• Startup fluency — you've worked in environments where the plan changes, the scope shifts, and you have to make good decisions with imperfect information. You find that energizing
• Communication as a superpower — you can explain a technical decision to a non-technical stakeholder and translate a business constraint into something the team can act on. You write clearly and speak directly
• High trust, low ego — you give people room to do great work, you're honest about what you don't know, and you'd rather the team win than be right

Nice to Have

• Experience as a CTO, VP Engineering, or technical cofounder at an early-stage company
• Background building marketplace, SaaS, or consumer-facing products — bonus if you've built networks or community-driven platforms
• Experience working directly with a founder to shape product direction
• Comfort operating without a dedicated product manager — you've been the one who figured out what to build
• Track record of building engineering culture from scratch in a remote-first environment