Engineer Team Lead

Otterly.ai is at the forefront of a new era in digital marketing, pioneering the field of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). As the first AI search monitoring solution, we empower marketing teams and brands to optimize their presence across generative AI engines. Founded by seasoned SaaS entrepreneurs, our mission is to help businesses navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-driven search, ensuring their content remains visible and impactful in this new paradigm. Role Overview: As the Engineering Team Lead, you will own the technical strategy and engineering execution for Otterly.ai You’ll partner directly with the CPO/Co-Founder (who will focus on Product) to turn product vision into reliable, scalable software. This is a player-coach role: you’ll make architectural decisions, write code when needed, and build a high-performing engineering culture. Responsibilities: • Technical Leadership • Own architectural decisions across the platform (data pipelines, APIs, infrastructure, AI/ML integration) • Drive technology stack evolution - evaluate build-vs-buy trade-offs with a pragmatic startup mindset • Establish and enforce engineering standards: code quality, testing, CI/CD, monitoring, and incident response • Manage technical debt strategically while shipping features at startup speed • AI-Augmented Engineering • Drive an AI-first engineering culture make AI tools (Claude, Cursor, Copilot) a standard way of working • Continuously identify, implement, and optimize AI-driven automation across development (code, testing, debugging, DevOps), including adopting new tools early • Team & People Leadership • Lead, mentor, and grow a team of 5 -10 engineers • Own and drive the hiring process for engineering roles • Design and improve engineering processes and ways of working • Foster a collaborative, transparent culture and manage a distributed team across Europe • Product Partnership • Collaborate closely with CPO on roadmap, feasibility, timelines, and trade-offs • Translate product requirements into technical specs and execution plans • Challenge ideas when needed and proactively identify technical opportunities for product innovation Required Qualifications: • Must-Have: 7+ years in software engineering, including 3+ years leading teams (7-12 people) • Hands-on experience with modern web stack (Node.js/TypeScript, React, AWS) • Experience working with distributed teams and strong English communication skills • Proven AI-first approach (daily use of tools like Claude, Cursor, Copilot) • Experience scaling data-intensive SaaS products (pipelines, APIs, databases) • Ability to make architectural decisions under uncertainty and iterate quickly • Nice-to-Have: • Prior experience in a startup • Experience with AI/ML pipelines, LLM integrations. • Familiarity with web scraping, crawler infrastructure, or search/SEO tooling • Background in the MarTech or analytics space What we offer: • Category Pioneer: A leadership seat at a Gartner-recognized company defining a new category (GEO) • Critical Impact: Direct partnership with the Founding Team, short decision paths • Competitive Compensation: Attractive salary range: 95.000 - 115.000 EUR/year Remote Work: Fully remote position within the EU timezone. • Engineering Ownership: The chance to shape engineering culture and technical direction from the ground up • Global Momentum: A super fast-growing, international customer base Recruitment process: Step 1: HR-tech interview with Karolina (~60 min) Step 2: Technical interview:  live problem-solving with Josef & Oleksii (~90 min) Step 3: Founders meeting (Thomas, Klaus, Josef) (~60 min) Optional Step 4: Meeting with key team members (~45 min)