Clera is a talent-matching platform that replaces traditional job applications by connecting candidates and hiring teams through curated introductions.
ABOUT THE ROLE A fast-growing, Y Combinator–backed startup building AI voice and texting agents for the home improvement and home services industry is looking for a Tech Lead to scale engineering impact and organizational maturity. This is a high-ownership, high-visibility role that sits at the intersection of hands-on engineering and technical leadership — partnering directly with the CTO and senior leadership to shape architecture, processes, and team productivity. The company is at an early but rapidly scaling stage (seed-funded, ~10 employees), operating in the conversational AI / voice SaaS space. You'll help define how the engineering organization grows and executes from here. This role is on-site in San Francisco, CA. No visa sponsorship is available — candidates must have the right to work in the US. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Manage the engineering team day-to-day: unblock engineers, set priorities, and drive delivery. - Guide the team on architectural decisions and system design across the full stack and cloud infrastructure. - Hold final say on task prioritization and delivery tradeoffs. - Review code and RFCs to maintain quality, consistency, and engineering standards. - Establish and enforce engineering best practices and processes as the team scales. - Act as a technical liaison and thought partner to the CEO, CTO, Director of Sales, and Head of Customer Success. - Contribute actively to the codebase (~20–30% of your time). - Raise the overall productivity and maturity of the engineering organization. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR Required: - 6+ years of professional software engineering experience, with recent roles as a Staff Engineer or Tech Lead. - Proven leadership and people management experience — you've led engineering teams and mentored engineers. - Strong background in software architecture, cloud platforms (Microsoft Azure preferred; AWS/GCP also relevant), and full-stack development. - Hands-on experience with LLMs and conversational AI / voice technology — this is a hard requirement. - Experience working in fast-growing startups or scale-ups and shipping quality product under pressure. - Excellent project management, prioritization, and organizational skills. - Strong people skills and genuine business acumen — you think about how technical decisions affect revenue and customers. - Ability and willingness to work in-office in San Francisco, CA. - Right to work in the United States (no visa sponsorship available). Nice to Have: - Prior leadership experience in a conversational AI or voice technology product. - Experience deploying ML/NLP models in production at scale in cloud-based SaaS environments. - Track record of advocating technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders across go-to-market and customer-facing functions. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS - Salary: $220,000 – $250,000 USD annually - Early-stage equity in a funded, high-growth startup - Direct impact on product, team, and company trajectory from an early stage LOCATION - San Francisco, CA — on-site (in-office) - Remote work is not available for this role - No visa sponsorship; candidates must have existing US work authorization