Founding Chief Engineer

INTESSERA
Founding Chief Engineer
Remote | Occasional travel to customer sites and team sessions
About Intessera
Intessera delivers expert work through software. Our PXs (Professional Extensions) are software-based experts that analyze problems, apply judgment, and complete work within agreed limits. Customers retain approval authority. Our Outcome as a Service model ties delivery to agreed acceptance criteria.
Our work spans manufacturing and engineering through Intent to Actual, and training and wargaming through Red Teams. Customer-specific process knowledge, decisions, and work stay with that customer. We reuse the platform and delivery methods, not proprietary customer knowledge.
The role
Own engineering delivery across the platform, deployment, data, and testing, working directly with co-founder Andrew Kucheriavy. You will write code, operate production systems, set priorities, and help build the engineering team as demand grows.
What you will do
• Build the services PXs use to work with approved records, use connected tools, and record decisions.
• Own model selection, workflow configuration, version control, and release decisions.
• Make cloud and on-premises deployments repeatable, with monitoring, recovery, and clear operating instructions.
• Build reliable data pipelines and integrations, with traceable sources, access controls, and strict separation of customer information.
• Test output quality, permissions, and escalation rules before release. Track errors, operating cost, and human review effort.
• Turn common customer needs into reusable capabilities without transferring proprietary customer knowledge.
• Set engineering priorities with the founders, resolve production issues, and identify when additional hires are needed.
What you bring
• Experience designing, shipping, and operating production software, including hands-on backend development.
• Practical experience with language-model applications, data pipelines, cloud infrastructure, and system monitoring.
• Ability to diagnose failures and make sound cost, reliability, and security trade-offs.
• Experience making architecture decisions and explaining them to engineers and customer technical teams.
• Clear written communication and the ability to prioritize and deliver without a large support team.
Current stack: Python, FastAPI, Postgres, cloud infrastructure, and containers. Experience in manufacturing, defense, or another regulated industry is useful.
U.S. citizenship required. This role includes implementing and documenting export-control data-handling requirements for customer work.
To apply, share a resume and a brief example of relevant work you personally delivered. Do not include confidential material.
Intessera is an equal opportunity employer. Reasonable accommodations are available during hiring.