Jobs · Engineering · California

Technical Lead Manager

Instabase · San Francisco, CA · 1 wk ago
HybridEngineeringFull-time

About the role

The Technical Lead Manager (TLM) — AI Systems & Agents is a high-impact, low-bureaucracy role designed for a world-class systems engineer and builder. This role serves as a Player-Coach leading a tight, elite squad of 3 to 5 AI systems engineers.

Responsibilities

  • Architect Stateful Agent Loops: Design and implement highly reliable, multi-turn agentic planning and execution state machines capable of self-correction, tool orchestration, and long-context memory persistence.

  • Build Secure Execution Sandboxes: Own the runtime execution layer where model-generated code (such as Python data-analysis scripts) is safely isolated, monitored, and run in real-time without compromising enterprise security boundaries.

  • Pioneer Tool Orchestration & MCP: Expand our agent capabilities by designing composable tool-calling integrations using Model Context Protocol (MCP) and custom API interfaces.

  • Build Evaluation & Trajectory Testing Harnesses: Establish programmatic frameworks (using LLM-as-a-judge and trajectory evaluations) to test if agent loops, tool-calling selections, and error recoveries behave safely and deterministically.

  • Scale High-Performance Systems: Work on deep systems problems including latency optimization, semantic caching, speculative execution, and streaming intermediate agent states for a responsive user experience.

  • Scale the Team: Bootstrap, hire, and mentor a small, elite, high-velocity team of software and AI engineers.

Requirements

  • 8+ Years of Professional Engineering Experience: A strong, proven background in software engineering, with significant tenure building and scaling backend systems, infrastructure, or platform services.

  • Active LLM & Agentic Engineering Experience: Practical, hands-on experience building production-grade LLM applications, multi-agent workflows (using DAGs or state machines), or tool-calling executors.

  • Systems & Infrastructure Rigor: Deep familiarity with building secure sandboxed runtimes, container isolation, API platforms, caching strategies, or high-throughput real-time data streaming.

  • Small-Team Leadership Experience: Proven track record of mentoring senior engineers, driving technical design reviews, and leading high-velocity squads as a Tech Lead, TLM, or hands-on EM.

  • An Active Builder: You love writing code. You are excited about the prospect of coding daily and staying out of the meetings and administrative bloat of traditional big-tech management.

  • Education: BS, MS, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a highly quantitative field.

Qualifications

  • BS, MS, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a highly quantitative field.

Skills

  • Orchestration & Frameworks: LangGraph, LangChain, Go/Python, React, Node, Next.js.

  • Infrastructure & Security: Secure sandboxed runtimes (Docker, gVisor, WebAssembly), GCP, AWS, Kubernetes, Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL, TimescaleDB), Redis, Pub/Sub.

  • AI & Models: Integration with advanced reasoning models (GPT-4o, o3, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, DeepSeek) across custom function-calling, LLM fine-tuning, and hybrid vector-search RAG pipelines.

  • Standards: Model Context Protocol (MCP) tool schemas and APIs.

Benefits

  • Flexible PTO: Because life is better when you actually live it!

  • Comprehensive Coverage: Top-notch medical, dental, and vision insurance.

  • 401(k) with Matching: We’ve got your back for a secure future.

  • Parental Leave & Fertility Benefits: Supporting you in growing your family, your way.

  • Therapy Sessions Covered: Mental health matters— 10 free sessions through Samata Health.

  • Wellness Stipend: For gym memberships, fitness tech, or whatever keeps you thriving.

  • Lunch on Us: Enjoy a lunch credit when you're in the office.

Pay

The base salary range for this role is $230,00 to $270,000 + bonus, equity, and benefits. The actual pay may vary based on factors such as location, experience, and skills.

Schedule

Remote work is available, with occasional in-person meetings in San Francisco or Bengaluru.

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