Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. STEM Search Group is seeking a Director of Engineering to lead the engineering strategy for a new product build. The role involves a significant hands-on contribution during the initial build phase, transitioning into a leadership position while overseeing the development of high-concurrency backend services and AI infrastructure.
Responsibilities
- Own engineering strategy for the product and partner closely with the Principal Architect on system-level decisions, while driving execution and delivery
- This is not a hands-off leadership role. You will operate as a primary individual contributor (80 to 90 percent hands-on) during the initial build phase, writing and shipping production code while setting the technical foundation and delivery pace
- Over time, transition from a deeply hands-on builder into a leader of a growing engineering organization, balancing technical direction with team development as the product scales
- Build high-concurrency backend services in Go or Python and leverage edge-first engineering with Cloudflare Workers and Durable Objects for global state synchronization
- Architect production-grade AI infrastructure, including RAG pipelines and streaming LLM orchestration, while creating the underlying systems that enable the team to build with AI effectively
- Integrate collaborative primitives such as CRDTs and real-time presence indicators to power a seamless multiplayer editing experience
- Partner with product and design leadership to translate ambiguous product direction into clear technical plans and staged delivery
- Establish and champion engineering excellence across the full stack, covering API design, type safety, testing, observability, and incident response
- Drive build-vs-buy decisions and manage multi-tenant infrastructure using GCP primitives such as Spanner, Pub/Sub, and Cloud Run, ensuring systems are scalable, reliable, and secure
Skills
- 12+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 5+ years in senior leadership roles managing both individual contributors and engineering managers
- A track record of building and scaling products from zero to production, including direct ownership of at least one true zero-to-one B2B product or platform build
- Expert-level capability in Go or Python, along with React and TypeScript/Next.js. Must have written meaningful production code within the last 12 months and be willing to stay hands-on through the initial build phase
- Deep technical fluency in headless CMS architectures and structured content systems (e.g., JSON-based schemas or Portable Text), and how they power flexible frontend applications
- Direct experience building AI systems and developer tooling, including ownership of the underlying infrastructure (not just API integrations)
- Advanced proficiency designing and operating globally distributed systems using GCP and Cloudflare, particularly for real-time data synchronization and shared state
- Strong systems thinking with the ability to balance speed and long-term scalability, and make decisions in ambiguous environments
- Proven ability to build and scale an engineering team from a small founding group, including hiring, developing, and leading engineers and managers
- Strong technical leadership with the ability to set standards, guide architectural direction, and raise the bar across the team
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field
- Master's degree in Computer Science or related field
Benefits
- Quarterly/annual bonus plus equity package.
- Health, dental, and vision insurance.
- Results-oriented PTO, sick days, and paid holidays.
- Parental leave, family planning, and monthly wellness/learning stipends.
Company Overview
STEM Search Group offers recruitment services for tech, engineering, life sciences, healthcare, and startup roles. It was founded in 2020, and is headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, USA, with a workforce of 2-10 employees. Its website is https://stemsearchgroup.com.