Tech Lead

Title: Technical Project Manager - UI / Frontend Development

Position: Contract

Mode of Work: HybridLocation: Hyderabad / Bangalore

We are seeking an experienced Technical Project Manager (UI Frontend) with 12+ years of experience managing large-scale technology programs and enterprise application delivery. The ideal candidate should possess a strong technical background in modern frontend technologies, along with proven expertise in leading cross-functional teams and driving end-to-end project execution.

• Responsibilities:Lead and manage multiple technology programs from planning to successful delivery, ensuring adherence to scope, timelines, budget, and quality standards.
• Drive end-to-end delivery of large-scale UI/Frontend applications built using React.js, Angular, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3.
• Collaborate closely with Engineering, Architecture, Product Management, QA, DevOps, UX/UI Design, and Business teams to ensure seamless execution.
• Provide technical leadership and oversight for modern frontend architectures, design patterns, and component-based application development.
• Manage program dependencies, risks, issues, and stakeholder expectations across multiple projects and teams.
• Define program roadmaps, delivery plans, milestones, success metrics, and governance models.
• Drive Agile delivery practices and lead Scrum ceremonies to ensure high-performing development teams.
• Partner with architects and engineering leaders to build scalable, responsive, secure, and high-performing web applications.
• Ensure adherence to frontend engineering best practices, coding standards, accessibility guidelines, security, and quality benchmarks.
• Monitor project progress and communicate status updates, risks, mitigations, and key decisions to senior leadership.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on development processes, automation, productivity, and operational efficiency.
• Support release management, production deployments, post-production stabilization, and ongoing enhancements.
• Mentor and guide frontend engineering teams while fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and technical excellence.

Requirements: 12+ years of overall IT experience with significant experience in Technical Project/Program Management.

• Strong knowledge of Agile/Scrum methodologies and project delivery frameworks.
• Strong hands-on understanding of React.js and Angular ecosystems.
• Experience working with JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML5, CSS3, REST APIs, and modern frontend frameworks.
• Experience managing distributed teams and multiple stakeholders.
• Excellent communication, leadership, planning, risk management, and stakeholder management skills.
• Exposure to Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure) and CI/CD practices is preferred.

Sapical  is looking for an experienced Full Stack Technical Lead to provide technical leadership, engineering governance, delivery management, and people leadership across multiple software development projects.

The role combines hands-on full-stack technical expertise with project delivery and team management responsibilities. You will be responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of scalable, secure, and high-quality enterprise applications.

The ideal candidate should have strong experience across React.js, Node.js, MongoDB, APIs, integrations, cloud technologies, and microservices, along with proven experience leading engineering teams.

Experience Required

• 8+ years of overall software engineering experience
• At least 3 years of experience in a Technical Lead, Engineering Lead, or Delivery Lead role
• Experience managing teams of 10+ members
• Strong experience in full-stack application development and technical leadership

Key Responsibilities

• Lead technical design, architecture reviews, and engineering governance across multiple projects.
• Provide technical oversight for React.js, Node.js, MongoDB, APIs, integrations, and cloud-based solutions.
• Manage multiple project streams, delivery plans, risks, dependencies, and resource allocation.
• Drive Agile delivery practices including sprint planning, estimation, tracking, and release management.
• Conduct code reviews and ensure adherence to engineering standards and best practices.
• Mentor development teams and support technical and professional growth.
• Collaborate closely with stakeholders, business users, architects, QA, and DevOps teams.
• Monitor project progress and provide regular status reporting to leadership.
• Support hiring, onboarding, performance management, and team development.
• Ensure successful delivery within agreed scope, schedule, quality, and budget expectations.

AI & Automation

• Drive the strategic adoption of AI and automation technologies across engineering teams.
• Identify opportunities to improve engineering productivity and delivery efficiency through AI and automation.
• Help reduce development effort and time-to-market through effective adoption of emerging technologies.

Technical Requirements

Frontend Technologies

• Strong hands-on experience with React.js
• JavaScript (ES6+) and TypeScript
• Modern JavaScript frameworks and state management libraries
• Experience building responsive and performance-optimized web applications

Backend Technologies

• Strong experience with Node.js
• Express.js and/or NestJS
• REST APIs and GraphQL
• Microservices architecture
• API integrations and enterprise application development

Databases

Experience with one or more of:

• MongoDB
• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• MS-SQL

Cloud & DevOps

• Docker
• CI/CD pipelines
• AWS and/or Azure
• Monitoring and observability tools

Leadership & Delivery Competencies

• Project planning and delivery management
• Agile/Scrum methodologies
• Stakeholder management
• Risk and issue management
• Resource planning and team allocation
• Executive reporting and communication
• Team leadership and mentoring
• Continuous improvement and process governance

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline
• Experience delivering enterprise-scale digital transformation projects
• Experience managing distributed teams
• Experience working in client-facing engagements

What Success Looks Like

• Successful delivery of multiple concurrent projects
• High customer and stakeholder satisfaction
• Strong engineering quality and governance
• Effective team leadership and retention
• Consistent adherence to project timelines and delivery commitments

Why This Role?

This is an opportunity to take ownership of full-stack engineering and technical delivery, while leading teams and driving engineering excellence across enterprise projects.

You will play a key role in shaping technical solutions, improving engineering processes, mentoring teams, and driving the adoption of AI and automation across engineering.

Key Skills

React.js | Node.js | TypeScript | JavaScript | Express.js | NestJS | MongoDB | PostgreSQL | REST API | GraphQL | Microservices | Docker | CI/CD | AWS | Azure | Agile | Technical Leadership | Team Management | AI & Automation

About us

EDMO is an AI-powered company that provides enrollment-centric solutions to universities,

colleges, and higher education institutions. By streamlining repetitive tasks—such as document verification, transcript evaluation, SOP/essay reviews, and applicant matching.

EDMO enables its clients to process student applications faster and more accurately. Its intelligent workflows

not only reduce administrative workload but also empower admission advisors to focus on personalized guidance and student engagement.

With features like AI-powered chatbots, Photo ID verification, GPA calculator, and transfer credit evaluation, EDMO ensures transparency and efficiency across the enrollment journey. Institutions using EDMO services report significant time savings, improved decision-making, and

enhanced student satisfaction.

At its core, EDMO is built to reimagine & streamline admissions—making them smarter, quicker, and more human-centric.

Website - https://goedmo.com/

Position Overview

We're seeking an exceptional Lead Software Engineer / Senior Tech Lead who can energize and guide a team of brilliant engineers while driving rapid, high-quality product development using AI and innovative technologies. The ideal candidate brings deep full-stack and backend

engineering expertise combined with strong leadership capability and a hands-on approach to architecture and delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of 5–8 senior engineers across AI, Salesforce, and full-stack development

• Drive technical strategy and architectural decisions — including backend, API design, and system design — for EDMO's product portfolio

• Own and evolve backend architecture using Node.js / NestJS and front-end solutions in React or Angular

• Define and implement telemetry, observability, and monitoring standards (logging,tracing, alerting) across services

• Foster a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and technical excellence

• Manage sprint planning, code reviews, and technical delivery timelines

• Collaborate closely with product management and design teams

• Guide technical hiring and team scaling decisions

• Ensure code quality, security, and performance standards

• Lead technical discussions with university clients and stakeholders

• Drive adoption of best practices, tools, and development methodologies

Required Qualifications

Experience & Leadership

• 8+ years of software development experience with 3+ years in technical leadership roles

• Must have: Proven track record of leading high-performing technical teams

• Must have: Experience energizing and motivating senior engineers to achieve exceptional results

• Experience with Agile/Scrum methodologies and DevOps practices

• Excellent communication skills with ability to translate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders

• Experience with performance management, career development, and team building

• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to make decisions under pressure

Technical Stack — Must Have

• Node.js and NestJS — production-grade backend services, microservices, and API design

• TypeScript — Good Have

• React or Angular — front-end development and component architecture

• Backend and system architecture — designing scalable, maintainable, distributed

systems

• Telemetry & monitoring — hands-on experience with logging frameworks, distributed tracing (e.g. OpenTelemetry, Datadog, New Relic, or similar), and alerting pipelines

• Cloud platforms — GCP preferred; AWS or Azure acceptable

• Databases — PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or equivalent; Redis for caching/queuing

• CI/CD — GitHub Actions, Cloud Build, or equivalent pipelines

Additional Technical Background

• Strong background across multiple domains: AI/ML integration, web development, cloud- native architecture• Microservices patterns, API gateway design, event-driven architectures

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in EdTech, SaaS, or B2B technology companies

• Background in AI/ML or emerging technologies

• Experience scaling engineering teams from startup to growth stage

• Knowledge of the Salesforce ecosystem and integrations

• GCP certifications or demonstrated GCP production experience (Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, BigQuery, GKE)

• Experience building and operating observability stacks (dashboards, SLOs, on-call runbooks)

• MBA or advanced degree in technology or business

• Track record of successful product launches and customer implementations

• Experience working with US-based clients and distributed teams

Leadership Philosophy We Seek

• Servant Leadership: Empowering team members to achieve their best work

• Technical Excellence: Setting high standards while maintaining development velocity

• Growth Mindset: Continuously learning and helping others grow

• Results-Oriented: Delivering measurable business outcomes through technology

• Cultural Builder: Creating an inclusive, innovative, and collaborative team environment

Growth Opportunities

• Path to VP of Engineering

• Opportunity to build and scale EDMO's India engineering organization

• Lead major strategic partnerships and technical initiatives

• Drive innovation in AI-powered educational technology

ROLE SUMMARY:

In this role, you will be responsible for supporting people, technical processes, and engineering execution to ensure projects are delivered as per scope, budget, and timelines.

This role includes developing detailed project plans and comprehensive technical documentation, managing project Engineers and their availability, measuring engineering performance, tracking progress, and communicating project status to clients and internal stakeholders. You will work directly with Solutions Architects, Tech Leads, and Engineering teams to evaluate technical trade-offs, drive system design feasibility, and unblock engineering bottlenecks.

You will be a reliable and crucial team member who can anticipate client needs and translate complex technical requirements into actionable project milestones.

As a Technical Project Manager, you will be the point of contact for all stakeholders from initiation to closure and will be responsible for leading the technical delivery team to achieve project objectives. You will work towards balancing technical constraints, technical debt, and Engineer availability on the project. You will report project status to client and internal stakeholders, escalate technical and operational issues as needed, and perform risk management to identify and mitigate architectural and delivery risks while maintaining strong advocacy within your spheres of influence.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Technical Project Manager with 7+ years experience: Including minimum 3 years of IT (Mobile/Web) project management experience and a prior background as a Software Engineer, Tech Lead, or Developer.

Strong expertise in Agile methodologies (Scrum/Kanban).

Must have handled end-to-end SDLC projects as a Technical Project Manager or Scrum Master.

WHAT WILL YOU NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS ROLE?

Handle a portfolio of technical projects and clients in parallel and across geographies.

Develop an execution plan for projects, release schedules, CI/CD milestones, and team allocation.

Partner with technical leads to review high-level system designs, break down complex requirements into epics and user stories, and challenge technical estimates effectively.

Maintain strong relationships with product delivery, engineering leads, sales teams, clients, and account managers.

Expertise in project estimation, planning, tracking, scope control, technical risk and issues management, as well as engineering status reporting.

GOOD TO HAVE:

Hands-on or architecture exposure to.NET/Java/AWS/Azure or microservices architectures.

PMP / PMI-ACP / CSM (Certified ScrumMaster) certification.

Jira/Confluence project management tools expertise, Git workflows, and strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office.

COMPETENCIES:

Strong commitment to professional client service and engineering excellence.

Excellent communication (written, verbal, and presentation), persuasive, and negotiating skills—with the ability to bridge technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Encourage, motivate, and mentor team members on agile practices and technical ownership.

Proactive can-do and technical problem-solving approach to the job.

Regards

About the company

The client is the home base for hardware engineers. They give the teams building robots, rockets, medical devices, and the next generation of physical products a single place to move fast without breaking things, turning CAD chaos into a system of record engineers actually love to work in. We're profitable, post-Series A, and growing our Hyderabad engineering team.

About the role

We're looking for a tech lead to set the technical direction for a growing team and raise the bar for everyone around them. This is a hands-on leadership role: you'll still write production code, but your largest impact comes through architecture, mentorship, and the standards you instill. You own outcomes for a team, not just your own commits. 

What you'll do

• Lead the technical direction of a team building across our TypeScript/React + Node.js + AWS stack
• Drive architecture decisions, document tradeoffs, and align the team on a clear technical path Mentor engineers through code review, pairing, and guidance, growing them toward strong production ownership
• Set and uphold standards for code quality, testing, and operational rigor
• Stay hands-on: write production code on the highest-leverage and hardest problems
• Partner with product and leadership to scope work, manage technical risk, and deliver predictably
• Be accountable for the reliability and maturity of the systems your team owns in production

What we're looking for

• Demonstrated technical leadership: you've set direction for a team and elevated those around you
• Strong full-stack proficiency in TypeScript, React, and Node.js, plus solid AWS depth
• A track record of shipping to production and owning systems in operation, and of holding a team to that same standard
• Strong architectural judgment: you decompose ambiguous problems, weigh tradeoffs, and make decisions others can build on
• Excellent communication: you keep your team aligned and stakeholders informed, and you surface risk early
• Comfort leading in a fast-paced, high-ownership early-stage environment 

Why choose us?

• The teams building advanced hardware and the robots, machines, and devices shaping the future run
• Direct access to founders; you'll help shape product and engineering direction, not just execute tickets
• Fast feedback loops: what you build is in front of customers in days, not quarters
• Profitable at Series A, so you get startup upside without the constant fundraising-survival anxiety
• Competitive compensation and meaningful equity
• Bi-yearly appraisal cycles
• Upto 20% Bonus based on performance
• Monthly Swiggy vouchers
• Flexibility with work hours

Technical Project Manager.

Run delivery for 15–25 backend, frontend, and AI engineers building construction

tech and CAD drawing-automation software — with structural engineers on one

side of you and the codebase on the other.

FULL-TIME

MANAGER · 7+ YRS

Engineering — Delivery & Program Management

TEAM YOU’LL RUN

15–25 engineers · Backend · Frontend · AI

LOCATION

India

EXPERIENCE

6–7 yrs min · 4+ yrs managing engineers

WORK MODE 

Hybrid

DOMAIN

ENGAGEMENT

AEC · CAD / BIM automation · Multi-tenant SaaS

About BuildTwin

BuildTwin is a multi-tenant SaaS platform that runs the day-to-day operations of construction

and infrastructure companies — their workforce, projects, commercials, and documents — on a

single system. Alongside it we build an AI drawing-automation platform that turns structured

element data into production-ready technical drawings and exports them to PDF and DXF.

Both products are built by a small, senior engineering group in India: backend engineers on an

AWS serverless platform, frontend engineers on Angular and React, and AI engineers working

on drawing generation and data extraction. Sitting next to them — not in another building, not

in another timezone — are the structural and detailing engineers who define what a correct

drawing actually is.

That adjacency is our biggest advantage and our hardest coordination problem. This role exists

to make it work.

 Role overview

We are hiring one Technical Project Manager to own delivery across our engineering teams in

Bengaluru. You will run 15–25 engineers across backend, frontend, and AI workstreams, and

you will be the person who turns requirements originating with our structural and detailing

engineers into scoped, sequenced, shipped software.

This is a technical role. You will not be handed a groomed backlog and asked to move cards

across it. You will sit in the design discussion and have a view on how and when — you will

push back on an approach that will not scale, ask why a trade-off was made, and know the

difference between a two-day change and a two-sprint one. You are not expected to write

production code. You are expected to read it, understand the system, and never be the least

informed person in a technical conversation you are chairing.

The centre of gravity of this job is the floor, not the calendar. Most of your day is

spent with the people building and the people specifying — closing the gap between what a

domain expert means and what an engineer can implement deterministically. Status

reporting is a by-product of doing that well, not the job itself.

What you’ll own.

 Delivery ownership

Own the end-to-end delivery plan for every active workstream — scope, sequence,

dependencies, capacity, and dates that actually hold.

Break large, ambiguous product intent into engineering-sized increments with explicit

acceptance criteria, agreed with the people who will build them.

Run the operating cadence: planning, standups, refinement, demos, and retrospectives that

change something the following week.

Maintain one honest view of status — on track, at risk, slipped, and why — visible to the

founders and to the team at the same time.

Manage cross-team dependencies between backend, frontend, AI, and drawing-automation

workstreams so no team idles waiting on another.

Surface risk early, quantify it, and arrive with options — never an escalation without a

proposal.

Protect the team from thrash: absorb changing priorities, re-plan properly, and say no or not

now when a plan cannot take more.

Drive releases to genuinely done — QA, UAT with domain experts, documentation, and post

release verification included.

Own and improve the delivery metrics that matter: cycle time, predictability of committed

scope, defect escape rate, and rework.

Run the release calendar across two products so neither becomes the permanent second

priority.

Technical partnership

Participate substantively in technical discussions on design, sequencing, and trade-offs —

and hold your own with senior engineers.

Understand the architecture well enough to reason about blast radius: what a schema

change touches, why a migration is risky, why an API contract must be agreed before two

teams start.

Challenge estimates that look wrong in either direction, and recognise when an estimate is

uncertain because the problem is still unclear.

Translate technical constraints into decisions leadership can act on, and business constraints

into direction engineers can act on.

Keep testing, observability, and debt-reduction work on the plan instead of losing to features

every single quarter.

Insist that decisions get written down — architecture choices, drawing rules, API contracts,

and the reasoning behind each.

Stay close to the artefacts: read the tickets, the design docs, the PR titles, and the incident

write-ups.

Chair technical discussions where the outcome is a decision with an owner and a date, not a

longer discussion.

Strong Engineering Manager / Lead Profiles

2

Mandatory (Experience 1) – Must have minimum 8+ years of overall Software Engineering / Development experience with a strong IC foundation.

3

Mandatory (Experience 2) – Must have 2+ years of formal Engineering Manager experience with direct people-management responsibility (informal Senior Engineer / Tech Lead experience managing a team does not count)

4

Mandatory (Experience 3) – Must have directly managed 4–6+ engineers, including 1:1s, performance management, growth plans, promotions, mentoring, and team development.

5

Mandatory (Experience 4) – Must own technical direction and delivery for an engineering team/pod, including architecture, system design, code/PR reviews, execution planning, and engineering quality.

6

Mandatory (Experience 5) – Must have strong backend/software engineering experience with hands-on technical depth in building APIs, services, integrations, and scalable systems; specific language/framework can vary.

7

Mandatory (Experience 6) – Must have experience owning production operations, including on-call, incident management, debugging, and postmortems for their area.

8

Mandatory (Experience 7) – Must have experience driving cross-functional alignment with Product and Design and translating ambiguous business/product requirements into scalable technical solutions.

9

Mandatory (Company) – Must be from a Product Company / Startup, particularly B2B SaaS, Fintech, Payments, or similar technology product environments. (Refer Target Company List)

10

Mandatory (Role Fit) – Role is 80% people/team management and 20% technical/IC involvement;

11

Preferred (Education) - Tier 1 engineering college

Strong Engineering Manager / Lead Profiles

2

Mandatory (Experience 1) – Must have minimum 8+ years of overall Software Engineering / Development experience with a strong IC foundation.

3

Mandatory (Experience 2) – Must have 2+ years of formal Engineering Manager experience with direct people-management responsibility (informal Senior Engineer / Tech Lead experience managing a team does not count)

4

Mandatory (Experience 3) – Must have directly managed 4–6+ engineers, including 1:1s, performance management, growth plans, promotions, mentoring, and team development.

5

Mandatory (Experience 4) – Must own technical direction and delivery for an engineering team/pod, including architecture, system design, code/PR reviews, execution planning, and engineering quality.

6

Mandatory (Experience 5) – Must have strong backend/software engineering experience with hands-on technical depth in building APIs, services, integrations, and scalable systems; specific language/framework can vary.

7

Mandatory (Experience 6) – Must have experience owning production operations, including on-call, incident management, debugging, and postmortems for their area.

8

Mandatory (Experience 7) – Must have experience driving cross-functional alignment with Product and Design and translating ambiguous business/product requirements into scalable technical solutions.

9

Mandatory (Company) – Must be from a Product Company / Startup, particularly B2B SaaS, Fintech, Payments, or similar technology product environments. (Refer Target Company List)

10

Mandatory (Role Fit) – Role is 80% people/team management and 20% technical/IC involvement;

11

Preferred (Education) - Tier 1 engineering college

Lead Product Engineer - Pod Captain 

A Little Bit About the Role

There is a version of this role that attracts the wrong person: a senior engineer who wants a title upgrade and a slightly bigger scope. That person will struggle here. The Lead PE is not a promotion for being a great individual engineer. It is a fundamentally different job.

Your success at this level is measured entirely by what your Island delivers — not by the quality of your own code. You will still write code, often the hardest and most risk-laden on the project: auth systems, payment integrations, data migrations, the things nobody else should touch. But that is a fraction of the role. The majority is managing delivery, owning the client relationship on the technical side, unblocking engineers before problems compound, and making scope calls under pressure with incomplete information.

You are also the technical and commercial bridge between your Island and the client. You own every piece of technical communication that goes to them — what is being built, what risks exist, what the honest timeline is. When a client pushes for something technically unsound, you push back directly and professionally, always with an alternative. When something breaks in production, you own the post-mortem process and the client receives it within 24 hours. You protect your team from unfiltered client pressure; you translate it into clear, actionable direction instead.

On top of delivery and client management, you are the AI operating standard for your Island. Every engineer on your pod uses Cursor and Claude within the rules you define. You set those rules before the first line of code is written, govern how they evolve, and you are accountable when AI-generated code ships without being understood.

If you are energised by all of that — by the accountability, by owning outcomes rather than tasks, by the combination of technical depth and people management — this role will suit you well. If you want to spend most of your time in code, this is not the right level.

AI Governance Expectation

You set the AI standard for your entire Island. If an engineer on your pod is shipping AI-generated code they do not understand, or underusing AI tools entirely, both are your problem to fix — not theirs alone.

At Lead level, AI governance means:

• Authoring the .cursorrules file before the first PR is opened. This defines how every engineer on the team writes code, uses Cursor, and structures prompts. You update it as the team learns, and you submit it to the Fountane Mainland at the close of every engagement.
• Evaluating new AI tools before they reach client code. You are the gate. A tool that looks useful in a demo can create untraceable technical debt in production. You decide what enters the workflow.
• Governing prompt discipline across the team: scoped prompts, codebase context hygiene, no AI-generated code that the author cannot explain line by line.
• Using Claude for architecture reasoning, sprint planning, risk documentation, and client-facing technical communication — not just Cursor for code generation. AI works at every layer of the Lead role, not just the coding layer.
• Staying ahead of the Golden Stack. You should know what Cursor and Claude can and cannot do at the codebase level better than anyone on your Island. When the Mainland updates the standard toolchain, you integrate the change into your Island’s workflow first.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Architecture & Standards Ownership

Design the full-stack architecture for every engagement before the first sprint starts: service boundaries, API contracts, database schema, state management strategy across web and mobile surfaces, and the security baseline. Author the .cursorrules file that governs how the entire Island writes code and uses AI. Own the highest-risk code personally — auth systems, payment integrations, live data migrations — these are not delegated regardless of workload. Enforce Mainland security standards across the entire codebase: input validation, correct auth scoping, safe data handling. If a security issue reaches production that was visible in a PR, that is a failure you own.

CE Prototype Gatekeeping

Review every Concept Engineer prototype before any engineer touches it. This is not a courtesy review — you have veto authority. If the scope is technically unrealistic for the sprint, the architecture is unbuildable as specified, or the prototype makes promises the codebase cannot keep, the sprint does not start until those are resolved. The time to surface a structural problem is before it is built, not after it is demoed. Produce a written checklist verdict for every prototype review — approved, approved with conditions, or blocked with reasons.

Client Technical Communication & Scope Ownership

Own all technical communication with the client directly. This means: what is being built each sprint, what risks exist and what is being done about them, honest timelines when estimates change, and clear explanations of technical decisions in plain language. Push back on risky or scope-expanding requests professionally and always with an alternative — “we cannot do X because Y; here is what achieves the same outcome.” Manage scope creep actively: every request that expands the engagement goes through you, gets assessed for impact, and is either absorbed, priced, or declined with a rationale. Renewal conversations are yours to lead in coordination with the CE.

Island Integration Audit

When a prospective client wants fractional augmentation — one or two roles rather than a full Island — you conduct the Island Integration Audit. This means evaluating their existing engineering team against Fountane Mainland SOPs: coding standards, AI tool usage, deployment practices, and documentation quality. If they pass, fractional deployment proceeds. If they do not, you produce a written audit report that either recommends full Island deployment or a Mainland upskilling programme. You are protecting your team’s velocity — a fractional deployment into a dysfunctional team destroys it.

Delivery & Velocity Management

Review the work cycle board every morning. Flag anything stuck, stale, or at risk before it becomes a client problem — not after. Communicate risks to the CE proactively with options, not just problems. Track every engineer’s billing hours: a shortfall spotted on Wednesday is a Thursday conversation, not a Friday surprise. If an engineer is consistently under-billing, that is either a workload problem, a capability problem, or a motivation problem — each has a different resolution and you are responsible for diagnosing which one it is.

Production Incident Ownership

When something breaks in production, you own the resolution process end to end: take technical lead, make the call on rollback vs. hotfix, communicate status to the client directly if the incident affects them, and own the post-mortem. The client receives the post-mortem within 24 hours of resolution — this is a hard commitment, not a target. The post-mortem covers: what happened, why it happened, what was done to fix it, and what structural change prevents recurrence. You produce it; it is not delegated to the engineer who caused the issue.

Automation & Infrastructure Boundary Arbitration

The Automation Engineer owns the test gates within the CI/CD pipeline. The Infrastructure Engineer owns the pipeline configuration itself. When these overlap and conflict — which they will — you arbitrate. The resolution must be documented in the Island’s .cursorrules and SOP onboarding document so the boundary does not need to be relitigated every sprint. This is not optional housekeeping; an unresolved boundary between these two roles is one of the most common sources of deployment failures on Islands.

Full Stack Ownership — Web & Mobile

You review and own work across the entire application layer: React / Next.js web frontends, React Native or Flutter mobile apps, Node.js / Python backends, and database schema. You cannot delegate a review of mobile code because you do not know mobile, or backend code because your background is frontend. If there is a gap in your full-stack depth, that is something to resolve before taking this role, not on the job.

People Management & Mentoring

Hold bi-weekly 1:1s with every engineer on the Island — focused on growth, blockers, and career direction, not status updates. Status belongs on the board; 1:1s are for the person. Address performance gaps early, directly, and specifically: a pattern spotted in week two is a conversation in week two, not month three. Protect the team from unfiltered client anxiety — absorb it, process it, and give the team clear direction instead of noise. If an engineer is struggling, that is your problem to solve before it becomes the client’s problem to notice.

Network Contribution

At the close of every engagement, submit to the Fountane Mainland: the .cursorrules file, all prompt templates used, a short retrospective on what worked and what did not, and any reusable patterns or scripts developed during the engagement. This is a Lead-level obligation, not a nice-to-have. The network’s collective capability grows through what Leads bring back from the field. An engagement that ends without a Mainland submission has left the network no smarter than it was before.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with at least two years in a role where you were accountable for delivery outcomes — not just your own code. You should be able to describe an engagement where something went wrong on your watch, what you did about it, and what you would do differently. If your experience is entirely individual-contributor, this role will be a difficult fit.
• Genuinely full stack across web and mobile: React / Next.js, React Native or Flutter, Node.js or Python, and database architecture including schema design and migrations. You review and own work across all of these surfaces — not just the ones you are most comfortable in.
• Hands-on, daily Cursor and Claude usage with the ability to set and enforce standards for how a team uses them — not just personal proficiency. You should be able to describe the .cursorrules file you would write for a standard SMB engagement and explain the decisions behind it.
• Proven ability to communicate technical risk and decisions directly to non-technical clients — not through a PM, directly, in plain language. You should be able to describe a client pushback you navigated and how you handled it.
• Experience managing scope on a real engagement: a client who wanted more than was in the contract, and how you resolved it without damaging the relationship or the team’s velocity.
• Has conducted security-aware architecture design: auth systems, input validation, safe data handling. You should be able to describe a security decision you made and why.
• Has led or coordinated a small engineering team — run 1:1s, addressed performance gaps, made scope calls under pressure. Management experience at a staffing agency or outsourcing firm counts if the accountability was real.
• Comfortable having direct, specific performance conversations early — not after the situation has compounded. You should be able to describe a time you addressed a performance issue at the first sign rather than waiting.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience.

About Fountane

Fountane is a technology ventures lab - one part product studio, one part startup engine. We build high-quality software and AI products for clients ranging from fast-moving startups to large enterprises, and we co-build and invest in new companies when we see the right opportunity.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Minneapolis, we have grown to 60+ people across four continents and were recognised as one of America’s fastest-growing companies, ranking No. 699 on the Inc. 5000 with 595% three-year growth.

We are serious about craft, direct about expectations, and operate at the frontier of AI-assisted engineering. Lead PEs here carry real authority and real accountability — over delivery, over people, and over client outcomes. If that combination is what you are looking for, this is the place.

Strong Engineering Manager / Lead Profiles

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Mandatory (Experience 1) – Must have minimum 8+ years of overall Software Engineering / Development experience with a strong IC foundation.

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Mandatory (Experience 2) – Must have 2+ years of formal Engineering Manager experience with direct people-management responsibility (informal Senior Engineer / Tech Lead experience managing a team does not count)

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Mandatory (Experience 3) – Must have directly managed 4–6+ engineers, including 1:1s, performance management, growth plans, promotions, mentoring, and team development.

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Mandatory (Experience 4) – Must own technical direction and delivery for an engineering team/pod, including architecture, system design, code/PR reviews, execution planning, and engineering quality.

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Mandatory (Experience 5) – Must have strong backend/software engineering experience with hands-on technical depth in building APIs, services, integrations, and scalable systems; specific language/framework can vary.

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Mandatory (Experience 6) – Must have experience owning production operations, including on-call, incident management, debugging, and postmortems for their area.

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Mandatory (Experience 7) – Must have experience driving cross-functional alignment with Product and Design and translating ambiguous business/product requirements into scalable technical solutions.

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Mandatory (Company) – Must be from a Product Company / Startup, particularly B2B SaaS, Fintech, Payments, or similar technology product environments. (Refer Target Company List)

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Mandatory (Role Fit) – Role is 80% people/team management and 20% technical/IC involvement;

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Preferred (Education) - Tier 1 engineering college