Engineering Tech Lead

WHY ZANIA Every enterprise spends millions of dollars on Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). It’s one of the most crucial yet universally challenging aspects of running a business. For decades, this industry has relied on legacy systems with notoriously low NPS scores, making it a prime candidate for disruption. Zania is building agentic AI for Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) to address this significant challenge. We are on a rocketship trajectory, developing intelligent agents that automate and enhance the most complex risk and compliance workflows. We have achieved exceptional product-market fit and are scaling our team rapidly. Here’s why you should consider joining Zania: - Dream Customers: Our clients include some of the world’s most prominent enterprises, including FAANG, Big 4 firms, and an impressive portfolio of leading customers. - Tier 1 Backing: We are funded by a leading Tier 1 venture capital fund, providing us with the resources to build a generational company. - World-Class Team: At Zania, we are assembling the best talent. Our team includes AI and Security leaders from Airbnb, Microsoft, Bain & Company, Deloitte, PwC, Brex, and Instacart. - Pioneering Technology: Our engineers and GRC experts work at the forefront of applied AI, building next-generation agentic systems that will shape the future of compliance. - Hyper-Growth: We have experienced 10x ARR growth in the past year and are expanding quickly. - Competitive Compensation & Equity. ROLE OVERVIEW: As an Engineering Tech Lead at Zania, you will play a key player-coach role, leading a high-performing group of engineers as you build our core agentic AI platform. We seek a highly technical leader who leads from the front—spending a significant portion of your time hands-on, writing code, and making critical architectural decisions. You’ll balance technical execution with team leadership, ensuring we sustain our rapid shipping velocity while creating a resilient, scalable, and secure product for the world’s largest enterprises. What You’ll Do - Write & Ship Code: Serve as a technical lead, dedicating 50%+ of your time to direct code contributions, reviewing PRs, and solving the most complex engineering problems. - Lead & Mentor: Lead, coach, and develop a team of top-tier software and AI engineers. Take ownership of their performance, career growth, and daily operational support. - Drive Architecture: Make foundational decisions on system design, scalable infrastructure, and integrating LLMs/agentic workflows into our enterprise GRC platform. - Ensure Operational Excellence: Oversee the delivery cadence of your team. Implement agile practices, maintain code quality, and uphold high standards for security and reliability. - Cross-Functional Partnership: Collaborate closely with Product, Design, and GRC experts to translate complex business requirements into innovative technical solutions. What You Have - Technical Expertise: 6+ years of rigorous experience in software engineering, building complex, data-intensive, or AI-driven enterprise applications. - Leadership Experience: 2+ years directly technically leading a team of software engineers in a fast-paced environment. - Hands-On Capability: Deep proficiency in our tech stack (e.g., Python, TypeScript, React, cloud infrastructure) and a strong desire to remain hands-on with the code. - Quality & Security Focus: Experience building enterprise software with stringent requirements for security, compliance, and performance. - Location: Based in or willing to relocate to Palo Alto, working in-person with the team five days a week. Minimum Qualifications - Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience - 6+ years of professional software engineering experience building complex, data-intensive, or AI-driven applications - 2+ years of experience technically leading a team of software engineers in a fast-paced environment - Strong written and verb