Award-winning recruiting firm delivering exceptional people, faster.
For CompaniesFor Companies
For CandidatesFor Candidates
Founding Head of Product Engineering
ApplyApply
Posted about 2 months ago
Full Time
Seattle, Washington
$230,000 Annually
This team operates in-person to enable fast iteration, tight collaboration, and strong culture building at an early stage.
Early-stage, AI-native consumer platform with a live product already in market. Small, high-caliber team focused on building meaningful, real-world solutions.
This role is designed for someone who can translate strong founder intuition into a structured, high-output product and engineering engine—working with a team of engineers and data scientists in a fast-moving, mission-driven environment.
This is not a fit for someone purely process-oriented, a people-manager removed from execution, or a technical leader who prioritizes code over product and user experience.
This role sits at the intersection of product, engineering, and execution. You will lead engineering, shape product direction, and establish the operating cadence that allows a small team to perform at an outsized level.
The product operates in a space where trust, clarity, and attention to detail are critical. Users are often time-constrained and require thoughtful, high-quality experiences. The expectation is speed with precision.
What you’ll do
You may be a fit if…
You are probably not a fit if…
What you’ve likely done before
Why this role stands out
This is a true ownership role with the opportunity to shape both the product and the team from an early stage. You’ll work alongside a small, highly capable group, building at the intersection of AI and consumer products with immediate feedback loops and real impact.
Compensation includes competitive market salary and meaningful early-stage equity.
Early-stage, AI-native consumer platform with a live product already in market. Small, high-caliber team focused on building meaningful, real-world solutions.
This role is designed for someone who can translate strong founder intuition into a structured, high-output product and engineering engine—working with a team of engineers and data scientists in a fast-moving, mission-driven environment.
This is not a fit for someone purely process-oriented, a people-manager removed from execution, or a technical leader who prioritizes code over product and user experience.
This role sits at the intersection of product, engineering, and execution. You will lead engineering, shape product direction, and establish the operating cadence that allows a small team to perform at an outsized level.
The product operates in a space where trust, clarity, and attention to detail are critical. Users are often time-constrained and require thoughtful, high-quality experiences. The expectation is speed with precision.
What you’ll do
- Build systems that enable product development across both human and AI workflows
- Lead and grow a small, high-performing engineering team
- Partner closely with leadership to translate vision, customer needs, and market signals into shipped product
- Elevate technical quality, execution speed, and decision-making rigor
- Establish a strong operating rhythm across product and engineering
- Collaborate closely with leadership on product direction, user experience, and overall strategy
- Leverage AI to drive efficiency across development, QA, prototyping, and internal tooling
- Partner with design (including early fractional support) and help shape long-term design function
You may be a fit if…
- You’ve operated in both startup and larger-scale environments, or have built meaningful products end-to-end yourself
- You can move seamlessly from user problem to product decision to technical tradeoff
- You earn trust from engineers through strong technical judgment
- You earn trust from founders through strong product instincts
- You know when to go deep and when to stay high-level
- You are a builder at your core and can balance speed with thoughtful scope decisions
- You have a strong perspective on modern, scalable, AI-native engineering practices
- You care deeply about user experience, even if you’re not a designer
- You operate with low ego, high ownership, and adaptability
- You are energized by ambiguity and early-stage environments
- You actively use AI in your workflows and continuously evolve how teams leverage it
- Experience in consumer products or regulated industries is a plus, not required
You are probably not a fit if…
- You require a large team or defined structure to be effective
- You lack hands-on technical experience or haven’t shipped code yourself
- You prefer to stay abstract rather than engage in execution
- You struggle to make decisions in ambiguous environments
- You default to adding process instead of solving problems directly
- You prioritize title over accountability
- You speak about AI conceptually but haven’t applied it meaningfully in practice
- You aim to own product vision rather than enable clarity and execution
- You view design as surface-level rather than foundational
- You are not comfortable balancing speed with quality in trust-sensitive environments
What you’ve likely done before
- Led product engineering in an early-stage company or small, high-performing team
- Operated as a highly product-minded engineering leader or technically strong product leader
- Delivered 0?1 products or systems
- Managed a small team while remaining hands-on
Why this role stands out
This is a true ownership role with the opportunity to shape both the product and the team from an early stage. You’ll work alongside a small, highly capable group, building at the intersection of AI and consumer products with immediate feedback loops and real impact.
Compensation includes competitive market salary and meaningful early-stage equity.
