About the Role

As Superficial's Founding Engineering Lead, you will be instrumental in building and scaling the core technology that powers our AI auditing and hallucination elimination platform. This is a unique opportunity to shape the engineering culture, architecture, and product from the ground up, working on some of the most challenging and impactful problems in AI safety and reliability. You will lead a talented team, drive technical strategy, and ensure our systems are robust, scalable, and capable of delivering on our mission to make AI trustworthy.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of Superficial's core platform and APIs.
• Build and mentor a high-performing engineering team, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence.
• Define and own the technical roadmap, making critical decisions on architecture, technology stack, and engineering processes.
• Collaborate closely with product, research, and design teams to translate requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Ensure the reliability, scalability, and performance of our systems as we grow.
• Champion best practices in software development, including code quality, testing, CI/CD, and security.
• Stay at the forefront of advancements in AI, MLOps, and distributed systems to inform our technical strategy.
• Contribute to hands-on development, particularly in early stages and for complex features.

Qualifications

• Proven experience (10+ years) in software engineering, with significant experience (5+ years) in a leadership or principal engineering role.
• Demonstrated success in building and scaling complex, distributed systems and APIs.
• Strong expertise in modern backend technologies (e.g., Python, Go, Node.js) and cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Experience with MLOps, data pipelines, and integrating machine learning models into production systems.
• Excellent leadership and team-building skills, with a track record of mentoring and growing engineers.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to make sound technical decisions in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong communication skills, capable of articulating complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• Passion for AI safety, ethics, and building reliable AI systems.

Nice to Haves

• Experience in a startup environment, particularly in a founding or early engineering leadership role.
• Familiarity with large language models (LLMs), natural language processing (NLP), and AI auditing techniques.
• Contributions to open-source projects or active participation in the tech community.
• Experience with data security and privacy best practices.

Why Join Superficial?

• Shape the future of trustworthy AI and solve critical industry challenges.
• Work on cutting-edge technology with a high-impact mission.
• Be a foundational member of a passionate, expert team.
• Competitive salary, equity, and benefits in a flexible remote environment.
• Opportunity for significant professional growth and leadership.