Founding Engineering Lead

Clera getclera.com Open

Remote New York Full-time Senior Engineering Leadership

At a glance

Senior Engineering Leadership role at Clera. Remote, United States · full-time · $200,000–$400,000 base.

SalaryStated by Clera

$200,000 – $400,000

Base salary for this role, in USD per year, as published in the posting.

This role, from CleraOur estimate for the market: $204,000–$274,321Median $234,500

The range includes the market median of $234,500 for senior engineering leadership roles in New York, compared against the New York market.

Worked out from 161 postings that stated pay, median $234,500. Last updated Nov 13, 2026.

RoleEngineering Leadership

SenioritySenior

LocationNew York

WorkplaceRemote

EmploymentFull-time

Base pay$200,000–$400,000

PostedNov 9, 2026

Role brief

remoteroles summary, based on the employer's posting.

What you'll do

Lead a small engineering team, hiring and developing people while contributing code to important projects
Shape platform architecture and decide what to build, buy, and run on infrastructure
Set team practices for code reviews, releases, quality standards, and on-call work
Design and begin building new technical initiatives, then assess which machine learning research can run in production
Work with the CTO on product direction and choices about models and machine learning methods

What you bring

You have typically five to eight years of engineering experience; candidates with four to five years may also be considered
You have built and supported an engineering team at an AI-focused company, with technical ownership or leadership
You have trained and deployed machine learning models in commercial products, beyond connecting language model APIs
You have owned architecture, infrastructure, and engineering practices, and recently shipped production software yourself

Who this fits

This is a senior, hands-on leadership role for someone comfortable developing software while guiding a small team through ambiguity and inherited code. The role is on-site in New York, and visa sponsorship is unavailable.

From the employer

About the Role

Lead hands-on engineering and applied machine learning at an early-stage B2B SaaS company. You will shape the platform architecture and technical roadmap with the founders while leading a small engineering pod.

What You'll Do

Build and lead a pod of engineers, supporting their growth, performance, and hiring while shipping critical work yourself.
Own platform architecture and make build-versus-buy and infrastructure decisions.
Set engineering standards, code review criteria, release practices, definitions of done, and on-call policies.
Lead technical design and initial implementation of new initiatives.
Assess applied machine learning research and determine what is suitable for production systems.
Partner with the CTO on product direction, model strategy, and machine learning approaches.

What We're Looking For

Typically 5 to 8 years of engineering experience, with exceptional candidates considered from 4 to 5 years.
Experience in an AI-native company, with technical leadership or ownership that helped build and support an engineering team.
Hands-on experience training and deploying machine learning models in commercial production products, beyond integrating language model APIs.
End-to-end ownership of technical architecture, infrastructure decisions, and engineering standards.
Recent experience personally shipping production software, plus a record of stable engineering tenure.
Strong applied machine learning judgment, including classical methods and current approaches to transformers and agent applications.
Comfort with ambiguity, inherited code, hands-on development, and AI-assisted engineering workflows.