Lead Engineer

About the role

Ande is a Series A startup building an AI-native platform that connects Enterprises and Hospitality across the entire booking experience, backed by top-tier investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Sierra Ventures, and Bain Capital, and led by a serial entrepreneur with offices in NYC and SF. We help companies turn every dinner, event, and offsite into something effortless to plan and a breeze to manage, plugging right into the tools they already use.

We are looking a Lead Full-Stack Engineer to lead the design, development, and deployment of our next-generation intelligent applications. This role bridges robust full-stack architecture with smart AI integrations, building scalable Node.js services, crafting intuitive React interfaces, and embedding AI capabilities (LLM APIs, autonomous agents, smart workflows) to solve complex user problems. As a senior member of the team, this person will champion technical excellence, mentor junior developers, and influence the product roadmap.

Responsibilities

• AI Integration & Engineering: Architect and implement backend systems that interface with LLMs and other AI services via APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, or custom internal model endpoints); Build middleware to handle prompt engineering, context orchestration, and structural parsing of AI responses into application logic; Implement guardrails, caching layers, rate-limiting, and evaluation metrics for AI model outputs to ensure reliability, security, and cost-efficiency; Stay current on emerging generative AI patterns, model capabilities, and integration techniques to drive product innovation.
• Full-Stack Development: Build, scale, and maintain highly performant, secure, production-ready RESTful APIs and GraphQL services using Node.js (TypeScript/Express); Develop responsive, state-managed, visually seamless user interfaces using React.js and modern state management libraries (Redux Toolkit, Zustand, React Query); Optimize application performance across the stack, from database query optimization to frontend rendering bottlenecks.
• Architecture & Leadership: Lead architectural decisions, promoting modular design, code reusability, and scalable system infrastructure; Enforce high engineering standards through rigorous code reviews, automated testing (unit, integration, E2E), and comprehensive documentation; Mentor and coach junior and mid-level engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and technical growth; Partner with Product Managers, UX Designers, and stakeholders to translate ambitious product visions into concrete technical execution.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional software development experience, with a proven track record of shipping production-grade SaaS applications.
• Deep expertise in backend development using Node.js and TypeScript, including asynchronous programming, event-driven architecture, and services.
• Advanced proficiency in React, hooks, state management, and modern build tools (Vite, Webpack).
• 1–2+ years of practical experience integrating LLM APIs and cognitive workflows into customer-facing applications.
• Strong proficiency with relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL databases (MongoDB).
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), Docker, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Exceptional problem-solving skills and a proactive ownership mindset.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical or AI concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven ability to thrive in a fast-paced, iterative environment.

Pay

Compensation Range: $190K - $240K