ENGINEERING LEAD — AGENTIC AI PLATFORM

We're building the operating system for the next generation of computing — one where AI agents replace apps and your technology finally works for you instead of the other way around.

We're a stealth-mode startup with a world-class founding team with deep roots in consumer AI, extended reality, and wearable technology — including founders of some of the most recognizable hardware and software platforms of the last decade. We're backed by strategic partnerships with leading silicon, and manufacturing, and we're hiring our first VP of Engineering to lead and grow the North America software engineering team — and to free the CEO and CPO to focus on the company's most important strategic priorities.

Additional product details shared under NDA.

THE ROLE
This is a rare kind of engineering leadership role — one where technical depth and breadth matter as much as management skill.

You will lead a cross-functional software engineering team spanning agent systems, iOS and Android mobile, backend platform, AI infrastructure, and the software layer that will eventually power our hardware platform. The engineers you lead are strong individual contributors who will respect you for what you know as much as for how you lead. You need to be genuinely fluent across their domains — not a generalist who has heard of these things, but someone who has built them.

At the same time you will own the engineering plan, the delivery cadence, and the coordination rhythm that keeps a distributed team moving fast without losing coherence. You will be the person Ash and Mehdi rely on to make sure the right things get built, in the right order, at the right quality.
You will also be our strongest internal champion for AI-assisted software development. We use AI coding tools — Cursor, Claude, Copilot — as a core part of how we work, and we expect our VP of Engineering to model that approach, raise the team's capability with these tools, and actively shape a culture where AI-assisted development is a genuine competitive advantage rather than a novelty.
This is a hands-on role. You will write code, review architecture decisions, and get into the technical details when the team needs it. You are not managing from a distance.

You will report directly to the CEO and work in close partnership with the CPO on product-engineering alignment.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN
Engineering delivery

• Own the engineering roadmap and delivery plan — translating product priorities into a sequenced, realistic, well-resourced engineering plan
• Run the engineering cadence — sprint planning, technical reviews, milestone tracking, and the rituals that keep a distributed team aligned and accountable
• Ensure quality across all surfaces — agent experience, mobile clients, backend platform, and AI infrastructure — with appropriate testing and release discipline

Technical Leadership

• Be the technical authority the team looks to for architecture decisions, design reviews, and guidance on the hardest problems
• Maintain genuine depth across the full stack — AI agent systems, mobile platforms, backend and infrastructure, and the constraints of always-on connected hardware
• Identify technical risk early and either resolve it directly or put the right person on it

Team leadership and growth

• Manage, mentor, and develop the North America engineering team — currently six roles being hired across backend, iOS, Android, AI engineering, design, and infrastructure
• Create an environment where strong engineers do their best work — high autonomy, high accountability, high craft standards
• Partner with the CPO and CEO on hiring decisions as the team grows

AI-assisted development culture

• Champion the use of AI coding tools across the engineering team — not as an optional extra but as a core engineering practice
• Raise the team's collective capability with AI-assisted development through hands-on demonstration, shared practices, and active coaching
• Develop internal standards and patterns for effective AI-assisted development that scale as the team grows

Product-engineering partnership

• Work closely with the CPO to ensure engineering decisions serve product goals and product decisions account for engineering constraints
• Be the primary engineering voice in product planning conversations — surfacing tradeoffs, flagging risks, and proposing alternatives when needed
• Maintain the platform architecture vision — ensuring that decisions made today do not create constraints that limit the platform tomorrow

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• 10+ years of software engineering experience with at least 3 years in an engineering leadership role managing teams of 5 or more
• Genuine technical breadth across the stack this team covers — you need to be credible and useful in conversations about AI agent systems, mobile platforms, backend and infrastructure, and the constraints of always-on connected hardware
• Hands-on coding — you write production code and review pull requests, not just architecture diagrams
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain engineering delivery cadence in a fast-moving, early-stage environment — you have shipped real products under real constraints with real teams
• Deep familiarity with AI-assisted development tools and a genuine point of view on how to use them well at both individual and team level
• Experience hiring and developing strong engineering talent — you know how to identify the right people and how to make them better
• Strong written English and proven ability to lead distributed teams across multiple time zones
• Must be authorized to work in the US

Strong plus: Consumer AI platform experience; mobile platform engineering at scale; wearable, AR, or XR platform experience; experience transitioning a software platform from cloud-first to edge or on-device; LLM integration and agent system architecture; startup experience at seed or Series A stage

WHAT WE OFFER

• Salary: competitive depending on experience
• Meaningful early-stage equity — this is a senior leadership role and the equity reflects that
• Full medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Fully remote with regular in-person time in Silicon Valley or Paris for key milestones and team gatherings Awear is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.