Full Stack Team Lead

Required Full Stack Team LeadAbout the Role:We're building a cutting-edge, AI-powered conversation platform that lives in the browser, real-time audio, WebSockets, and everything that comes with it. We're looking for a Full Stack Team Lead, backend-oriented, someone who can go deep on Python and distributed systems, stay comfortable enough in React to guide a team that owns both ends of the stack, and help shape how a small, fast-moving engineering team works and grows.Key Responsibilities:Own backend architecture, APIs, and infrastructure end to end, with hands-on involvement in frontend work where needed.Lead and grow a small team of engineers across different experience levels, from technical mentoring to career development.Set the tone for incident response, on-call availability, and production reliability.Adapt the team's direction as the company grows, and take the lead in shaping how the team works rather than just reacting to change.Build a culture of open feedback, where the team's input genuinely shapes the roadmap.Represent the team's needs to company leadership, including on how and where people work.Participate in code reviews and design discussions, and mentor team members directly.Requirements: 8 years of hands-on development experience, with deep expertise in Python and backend architecture.Strong working knowledge of React and modern frontend practices, comfortable owning full stack features when needed.Experience with distributed, async systems.Real startup experience, ideally more than one company, including exposure to production incidents.A track record of developing engineers at different levels, not just excelling as an individual contributor.A people-first leadership style.

Explicitly not a fit: someone purely focused on output who doesn't see the people behind the work.Bonus Points:Django and/or FastAPI experience.Production observability and performance debugging: Datadog, tracing, root-causing issues across the stack.Exposure to cloud platforms (AWS/GCP), Docker, or Kubernetes.Comfortable making hybrid and remote calls case by case.This position is open to all candidates.