Engineering Manager

Celeco Labs is hiring a hands-on Head of Engineering on behalf of a confidential client in the housing-finance sector.

This is a role for an engineer who wants to own delivery, not only manage it. You will set the technical direction, build and maintain production systems, and work closely with the business team. You should be comfortable taking a requirement from the first discussion through technical planning, implementation, release, and production support.

What you will do

• Own the engineering roadmap and help decide what should be built first.

• Design, build, and maintain reliable customer-facing products and internal systems.

• Write production code and review code written by others.

• Turn business requirements into clear technical plans and releases.

• Choose practical architecture, tools, and vendors that fit the company's needs.

• Set working standards for testing, deployment, monitoring, backups, and access control.

• Protect customer and company data through practical security controls.

• Investigate production issues and make sure the same problems do not repeat.

• Help hire and guide a small engineering team as the company grows.

What we are looking for

• 3–5 years of professional software-engineering experience.

• Experience building and running production systems.

• Strong backend skills, including APIs, databases, and cloud services.

• Enough frontend knowledge to work across a product when needed.

• Good judgment about system design, security, reliability, and cost.

• The ability to explain technical choices in simple language.

• Comfort working independently and taking full ownership of delivery.

Experience in lending, housing finance, fintech, or another regulated industry is useful, but not required. Experience leading engineers or working directly with founders and business leaders is also useful.

How to apply

Please share your CV or LinkedIn profile and two short examples of production systems you have owned. This is a confidential search. More information about the company will be shared with shortlisted candidates during the interview process.

About the role

You'll join a growing engineering team as a Lead Engineer / Architect, leading a small team in India and working closely with engineering teams in the US and Mexico. You'll be responsible for driving technical execution, solving complex engineering problems, and leading a team to build, deliver, and maintain reliable software.

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone with strong backend engineering expertise who can also contribute across the stack when needed.

Location: Hyderabad

Work Mode: Hybrid

What you'll do

• Lead a small engineering team in India, driving day-to-day technical execution and delivery
• Work closely with teams in the US and Mexico to plan, develop, and deliver software
• Design and build robust, scalable backend systems using .NET
• Own technical decisions around architecture, implementation, and engineering best practices
• Contribute across the full stack when needed.
• Break down complex technical problems and drive them through to implementation and delivery
• Mentor engineers and help maintain a high standard of engineering quality
• Collaborate with distributed teams and communicate technical decisions clearly

What we're looking for

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with experience in a lead-level role
• 2+ years of experience leading a team
• Strong, hands-on expertise in .NET and backend engineering
• Strong understanding of software architecture and scalable backend systems
• Full-stack experience is preferred, with React being a plus
• Experience leading a small engineering team and driving technical delivery
• Excellent communication skills, particularly when working with distributed teams
• Strong problem-solving skills and a hands-on approach to engineering
• AI expertise is a plus
• Experience with payment systems or payment-related products is a plus

Who you are

• You take ownership and drive work through to completion
• You're hands-on and enjoy solving challenging engineering problems
• You're curious, resourceful, and always looking to learn
• You communicate clearly and work well with teams across different locations
• You lead by example and help the team deliver high-quality work

About the Company

As the world moves toward AI-native applications, one element matters more than anything: data.

We are building a platform that helps organizations unlock the value hidden within customer feedback. By centralizing data from multiple sources—including CRM platforms, support systems, collaboration tools, surveys, community forums, and customer conversations—into a unified intelligence layer, we enable teams to understand customer needs and make better product decisions.

Built on top of this foundation is an AI-powered platform that allows teams to query, monitor, and act on customer intelligence directly within their workflows. Our customers include some of the fastest-growing product-led technology companies as well as large global enterprises.

Backed by leading global venture capital firms, our engineering culture is AI-native from the ground up. Agents, LLMs, and applied machine learning are not side projects—they are central to how we build products. We operate at the cutting edge of agentic systems and continuously push the boundaries of what modern AI applications can achieve.

What You Will Do

• Convert product direction into phased technical plans, including estimates, milestones, dependencies, and risk assessments.
• Make thoughtful trade-offs across correctness, latency, user experience, AI/model behavior, reliability, cost, and delivery speed.
• Define clear ownership boundaries across frontend applications, BFF layers, backend services, agent workflows, ML platforms, and data contracts.
• Review ERDs, PRDs, design documents, and implementation plans to identify gaps before they become execution challenges.
• Drive planning and execution for complex initiatives while empowering area leads and senior engineers to maintain ownership.
• Partner closely with Product, Design, Engineering, and GTM teams to turn ambiguous problem statements into executable solutions.
• Influence technical direction through strong engineering judgment, architectural leadership, and hands-on involvement.
• Mentor senior engineers and contribute to engineering excellence through reviews, incident analysis, and proactive risk management.

What It Takes

• 9+ years of experience as a Senior Engineer, Technical Lead, or equivalent role.
• Demonstrated experience owning architecture and execution for large-scale product or platform initiatives spanning multiple teams.
• Strong foundation in distributed systems and modern software architecture.
• Exposure to agentic AI systems, machine learning engineering, MLOps platforms, and frontend/BFF architectures.
• Ability to own end-to-end product and technical problems rather than specializing exclusively in a single layer of the stack.
• Proven track record of converting ambiguity into actionable engineering plans.
• Excellent written communication skills, including design documentation, architectural reviews, trade-off analyses, and RCA documentation.
• Ability to challenge requirements constructively and collaborate effectively across Product, Design, Engineering, and GTM functions.
• High ownership mindset, attention to detail, and a low-ego, collaborative approach.