Tech Lead — Backend & Platform

We need to output HTML fragment with sections: About the role? Actually the posting includes "About Basta", "THE OPPORTUNITY", "About The Tech Lead Role", "What Success Looks Like", "What You Bring", "THE TANGIBLE GOOD". We need headings for sections like About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule. We must only include sections when posting has real specific content. We need to map content to these headings. We have no explicit Pay or Schedule details. There's mention of compensation and benefits package, time off details, sabbatical, etc. That's benefits. No explicit pay amount. So we should not include Pay section because no specific pay. Schedule: mention remote-first hybrid, NYC strongly preferred, ability to commute at least 1x/week OR remote eligible, travel to NYC 4-6 times/year. That's schedule/location info. Could be considered Schedule? The instruction: Use

for section headings (e.g. About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule). So we can include Schedule if there is specific content. The posting includes location/hybrid expectations. That's schedule/location. We'll include Schedule section. Responsibilities: we have "Own the architecture, end to end", "Build and operate, hands-on", "Technical Leadership". That's responsibilities. Requirements/Qualifications/Skills: The "What You Bring" section includes experience, leadership, AI fluency, communication, excitement about mission. Could be qualifications/requirements/skills. We need to decide how to split. Could combine into Requirements (or Qualifications) and Skills. But we must not create thin sections. Perhaps we can have Requirements (including experience, leadership, AI fluency) and Skills (communication, project management). But we need to avoid filler. Let's see content: "8+ years building production software, with deep backend and platform experience. You've designed systems and lived with the consequences of your designsExperience leading, as an engineering manager, tech lead, or staff+ engineer, and a deliberate choice to be hands-on nowYou've operated real systems in production: deployments, incidents, monitoring, the unglamorous work that separates builders from prototypersFluency with modern AI development, LLM APIs, embeddings, agentic tools, grounded in engineering fundamentals; AI makes you faster because you already know what good looks likeExcellent communication skill and enough project management experience to run workstreams and explain technical tradeoffs to non-technical colleaguesExcitement about Basta's mission and about building in a small, high-trust, high-autonomy environment. Lived experience of the students we serve a big plus" That's qualifications/requirements. Could treat as Requirements. Skills could be communication, project management. But we can also combine into a single "Requirements" section and omit Skills if not enough distinct content. However instruction: Prefer a few substantive sections over many thin ones. So maybe we have About the role (maybe we can include a brief summary), Responsibilities, Requirements, Benefits, Schedule. That's five sections. We must not repeat job title as heading. The page already shows it, so we don't add a heading for "Tech Lead". We'll start with About the role? The posting includes "About Basta" and "THE OPPORTUNITY" and "About The Tech Lead Role". Could combine into About the role section summarizing the role and mission. We'll include substantive content: description of Basta mission, opportunity, role overview. Responsibilities: bullet list of duties. Requirements: bullet list of qualifications. Benefits: bullet list of benefits (medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, retirement matching, paid parental leave, time off details, sabbatical, etc.) Schedule: bullet list of location/hybrid expectations. We must not include boilerplate like EEO, scam warning, etc. Not present. We must not include duplicated lines. We must preserve all substantive information. Let's extract details: About Basta: "Basta helps first-generation students turn college degrees into strong careers by transforming how they enter and advance in the workforce. Basta's flagship platform, Seekr, is powered by millions of data points from more than 70,000 first-generation career journeys and combines precision matching, personalized guidance, and structured pathways to help students secure strong first jobs. With a presence on 300+ campuses, Basta helps institutions scale career support while connecting employers to high-performing talent that traditional hiring systems often overlook. Basta advances economic mobility for first-generation students nationwide." THE OPPORTUNITY: paragraph about wanting hands-on, etc. About The Tech Lead Role: description of role. What Success Looks Like: bullet-ish paragraphs. What You Bring: qualifications. THE TANGIBLE GOOD: benefits and location. We need to avoid repeating same info. We'll synthesize. Now produce HTML:

About the role

... combined description ...

Responsibilities

• Design and evolve the backend and platform architecture, including APIs, data flows, distributed processing, AI/LLM integrations, and infrastructure, balancing velocity today against maintainability at scale.
• Make foundational technical decisions and own their consequences, with autonomy and accountability.
• Partner with the CPTO on technical strategy and roadmap, translating ambiguous product direction into buildable systems.
• Ship production code weekly across the stack (backend‑weighted: Python/FastAPI, Postgres, plus Next.js/Celery frontend), integrating LLMs, embeddings, and agentic workflows.
• Own DevOps end‑to‑end including CI/CD, AWS cloud infrastructure, observability, and operational discipline that keeps a small team’s platform reliable without a dedicated SRE.
• Use AI development tools to multiply outcomes, knowing when not to trust them.
• Mentor engineers through architecture reviews, pairing, and code review, raising the bar by example.
• Collaborate with the Product Manager on project‑management and product delivery to keep workstreams visible, scoped, and moving.
• Model senior engineering judgment in an AI‑native codebase, explaining the why behind every how.

Requirements

• 8+ years building production software with deep backend and platform experience, including designing systems and living with the consequences of those designs.
• Experience leading as an engineering manager, tech lead, or staff+ engineer, with a deliberate choice to be hands‑on now.
• Proven operation of real systems in production: deployments, incident response, monitoring, and the unglamorous work that separates builders from prototypers.
• Fluency with modern AI development, LLM APIs, embeddings, agentic tools, grounded in engineering fundamentals; ability to leverage AI to move faster while knowing what good looks like.
• Excellent communication skills and sufficient project‑management experience to run workstreams and explain technical trade‑offs to non‑technical colleagues.
• Excitement about Basta’s mission and about building in a small, high‑trust, high‑autonomy environment; lived experience of the students served is a plus.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits package including medical, dental, vision, short‑ and long‑term disability, life insurance, and retirement matching.
• Paid parental leave.
• Time off: 19 paid holidays (including a full end‑of‑year shutdown and a floating holiday), 15 vacation days (20 after year one), and summer Friday half‑days from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
• Sabbatical after 7 years of service.
• Employment supported in NY, NJ, MA, CT, PA, and FL (case‑by‑case consideration for other states).
• No visa sponsorship at this time; relocation costs not covered.

Schedule

• Remote‑first hybrid organization based in NYC.
• NYC strongly preferred; ability to commute to NYC at least 1×/week required.
• Remote eligible candidates must be able to travel to NYC 4–6 times per year.

We should not include Pay section. Ensure no markdown fences. Output only HTML. Check for any repeated content: we included mission description in About the role; we didn't repeat the "About Basta" paragraph verbatim but summarized. Need to preserve ALL substantive information; we must not invent or summarize away detail. Summarizing may be okay if we keep all details? The instruction: "Preserve ALL substantive information; do NOT invent or summarize away detail." That suggests we should not omit details; we should keep them as is, maybe using bullet points but not losing info. Summarizing could be considered summarizing away detail. Safer to keep the original sentences, maybe as paragraphs. We can include the original text blocks as

under About the role. Let's include the exact paragraphs from the posting (excluding boilerplate). We'll combine About Basta, THE OPPORTUNITY, About The Tech Lead Role into About the role section as multiple paragraphs. We must not repeat job title as heading; fine. Let's extract the exact text: About Basta: "Basta helps first-generation students turn college degrees into strong careers by transforming how they enter and advance in the workforce. Basta's flagship platform, Seekr, is powered by millions of data points from more than 70,000 first-generation career journeys and combines precision matching, personalized guidance, and structured pathways to help students secure strong first jobs. With a presence on 300+ campuses, Basta helps institutions scale career support while connecting employers to high-performing talent that traditional hiring systems often overlook. Basta advances economic mobility for first-generation students nationwide." THE OPPORTUNITY: "You've led engineering teams, maybe as a manager, maybe as a tech lead who ran the whole show, and you've watched AI change what one excellent engineer can do. Now you want your hands back on the keyboard, building end-to-end, owning architecture decisions instead of attending meetings about them. You know the why behind the how: you've designed systems, operated them in production, and mentored the people who came after you. You're not looking for a bigger team to manage. You're looking for a platform to own and a mission worth owning it for." About The Tech Lead Role: "You'll be the most senior permanent engineer at Basta, the technical anchor of our Seekr platform and the person our engineers, product team, and leadership trust with the decisions that matter most. This is a high-trust, high-ownership role: our platform serves thousands of first-generation college students, and you'll hold real responsibility for its architecture, reliability, and evolution. Own the architecture, end to end Design and evolve the backend and platform architecture, including APIs, data flows, distributed processing, AI/LLM integrations, and infrastructure, with durable choices that balance velocity today against maintainability at scaleMake foundational technical decisions and own their consequences: you'll have the autonomy of a lead and the accountability that comes with itPartner with the CPTO on technical strategy and roadmap, translating ambiguous product direction into buildable systems Build and operate, hands-on Ship production code weekly across the stack (backend-weighted: Python/FastAPI, RDBMS Postgres, plus our Next.js/Celery frontend), integrating LLMs, embeddings, and agentic workflows iOwn DevOps end to end including CI/CD, AWS cloud infrastructure, observability, and the operational discipline that keeps a small team's platform reliable without a dedicated SRE near termUse AI development tools to multiply your outcomes, and know exactly when not to trust them Technical Leadership Mentor our engineers through architecture reviews, pairing, and code review, and raising the bar by exampleCollaborate with Product Manager on project-management and product delivery to keep workstreams visible, scoped, and