Technical Lead

Remote

Company Overview

harpin AI is a high-growth, seed-stage startup on a mission to close the gap between what your data holds and what your business can achieve. We help enterprise teams unlock the revenue potential of their existing CRM, loyalty, and support systems — without replacing a thing.

Built by a proven team with decades of experience in CX, marketing, and data systems, harpin AI was born from a clear market truth: businesses are sitting on massive amounts of valuable data — but most of it goes unused. Fragmented tools, messy data, and dashboards that don’t drive action create a wall between insights and outcomes.

We created harpin AI to tear that wall down.

Instead of another dashboard or CDP, we built a set of modular, AI-powered tools that activate the systems you already use — fueling faster decisions, smarter customer experiences, and measurable ROI. Whether it's identifying at-risk customers, surfacing churn signals, or launching campaigns with validated segments, harpin AI turns data from a liability into a competitive advantage.

Our customers span retail, hospitality, and gaming, and use harpin AI to drive growth in days — not quarters. If you’re excited about joining a sharp, decisive, purpose-driven team that’s redefining what data can do, we’d love to meet you.

Position Overview

The Technical Lead at Harpin AI is a hands-on leadership role that bridges engineering execution with team and task management. This role is accountable for driving successful technical delivery while overseeing distributed development teams across the U.S., Eastern Europe, and India.

As a key member of the project delivery team, you’ll collaborate closely with client stakeholders, architects, QA teams, and offshore developers to ensure solutions are delivered on time, meet functional and performance standards, and reflect Harpin’s AI-driven platform capabilities. You’ll also play a leadership role in advancing Harpin’s 2025 company goal: to improve organizational performance by 40% through adoption of generative AI tools.

This is a role for someone who thrives in a high-growth, fast-moving environment and is motivated by both business impact and engineering excellence.

Key Responsibilities

Project & Task Management

• Break down solution architectures into executable tasks and lead sprint execution across time zones
• Coordinate and manage task assignment, prioritization, and progress tracking for internal and offshore engineers and QA teams
• Ensure clarity of expectations and consistent quality standards across distributed contributors
• Proactively manage timelines, technical blockers, and change requests

Technical Leadership

• Contribute code to critical path components and oversee code quality across the team
• Conduct code reviews, integration testing, and deployment validations to uphold Harpin’s standards for performance, reliability, and security
• Produce detailed system designs, both directly and in collaboration with solution architects, ensuring clarity, scalability, and maintainability of the solution
• Translate high-level architecture and requirements into detailed engineering plans and backlog items
• Proactively identify technical risks, manage technical debt, and drive continuous improvement in team processes and technical practices

Client-Facing Collaboration

• Join client meetings, demos, and technical working sessions to represent Harpin’s delivery capabilities
• Act as a technical point of contact during implementation phases, escalating issues and solutions with professionalism
• Translate business requirements into development tasks and client-ready technical documentation
• Coordinate front-line support for critical incidents ensuring clear communication with the client and timely resolution of issues within your areas of responsibility

Generative AI Enablement

• Promote and model the use of generative AI tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Cline) for code generation, testing, and documentation
• Lead AI productivity initiatives within engineering and QA workstreams; identify and track AI-driven gains
• Train offshore teams on integrating AI tools into their day-to-day work to meet Harpin’s 2025 efficiency goals

Offshore Team Oversight

• Build strong working relationships with offshore partners in Eastern Europe and India
• Ensure consistent communication, expectations, and collaboration across global teams
• Schedule overlap working sessions as needed to align priorities, unblock progress, and maintain velocity
• Provide mentorship, support, and feedback to offshore team leads and individual contributors

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering with 4+ years in a technical leadership or team lead role
• Proven success leading distributed engineering teams across geographies and time zones
• Strong hands-on skills in backend microservices development using Java and Spring with both SQL and No SQL data stores; experience with additional technologies (e.g., Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, frontend frameworks) a plus
• Familiarity with customer data platforms (CDPs), CRM systems, data integration, and cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
• Demonstrated experience with agile methodologies, sprint planning, and backlog management
• Effective communicator with clients, engineers, and cross-functional teams
• Experience working with offshore development resources, especially in Eastern Europe and India
• Comfort using or learning generative AI tools to accelerate development and increase productivity
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent work experience

Preferred Traits

• Calm under pressure and confident managing delivery timelines and client expectations
• Passionate about mentoring and building high-performance technical teams
• Oriented around outcomes, not just output
• Experienced in the retail, hospitality, or gaming sectors a plus

Benefits

• Stock Options
• PTO
• Paid Holidays
• Medical, Dental, & Vision Benefits
• 401K