Overview
Unico Connect is seeking a Tech Lead to own architecture and technical direction across multiple concurrent client engagements spanning web, mobile, AI, and cloud. The role combines deep technical contribution with engineering mentorship, architecture review, and the establishment of standards that scale the engineering practice. The position suits senior engineers who have led teams, designed systems at production scale, and remained close to the code throughout.
Key Responsibilities
- Own technical architecture for 3-5 concurrent client products across web, mobile, AI, and cloud
- Lead architecture reviews, design documents (ADRs), and trade-off discussions with engineering and stakeholders
- Remain hands-on; build proof-of-concepts, write critical-path code, conduct deep code reviews on production diffs
- Mentor 6-10 engineers across Backend, Frontend, Mobile, and AI tracks; conduct 1:1s and performance reviews
- Set engineering standards covering testing, observability, security, performance, and deployment
- Partner with Product Managers on technical scoping, effort estimation, and risk assessment
- Drive engineering interview loops and calibrate the technical bar across hiring rounds
- Run engineering rituals: design reviews, retrospectives, incident post-mortems, technical brown-bags
- Coordinate cross-team architecture decisions when client products share platform components
- Govern security and compliance posture across engagements, including SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR work
- Author internal technical write-ups, runbooks, and onboarding documentation
- Represent Unico Connect's engineering capability in technical conversations with prospects and clients
Required Qualifications
- 7+ years of software engineering with at least 2 years in a Tech Lead, Staff, or Principal Engineer role
- Deep expertise in at least 2 of: Node.js + TypeScript, Python (FastAPI / Django), React or Next.js, Flutter, or native mobile
- Production experience with PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, and at least 1 message queue (BullMQ, Kafka, SQS)
- Hands-on with Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, and CI/CD pipelines on GCP and AWS
- Strong fundamentals in distributed systems, system design, security, and performance engineering
- Excellent written and verbal communication; comfortable leading architecture discussions with non-technical stakeholders
- Experience hiring, calibrating, and mentoring engineers from junior to senior level
- Track record of shipping at least 1 system at production scale (1M+ users, 99.9%+ uptime, or comparable)
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
- Direct experience working with international clients across regulated and unregulated industries
Preferred Qualifications
- AI or ML production experience (RAG, agentic AI, fine-tuning)
- Open-source contributions or published technical writing
- Conference talks or community involvement
- Hands-on with security and compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FERPA)
- Prior experience as a startup founder or founding engineer
AI Tools Proficiency
Production engineering at Unico Connect assumes AI tools form part of the daily workflow rather than an experimental augmentation. For this role specifically:
- Claude or GPT for design document drafting and code review
- Cursor or Claude Code as the default integrated development environment
- AI-assisted observability tools (Grafana AI, Datadog Bits, Honeycomb AI)
- OpenAI Whisper for meeting transcription and post-meeting synthesis
- Perplexity for technical research during architecture decisions
What we look for at Unico Connect
Every Unico role expects the same underlying traits — regardless of department or seniority. If these resonate, apply.
Fluent with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Figma AI, or whatever is relevant to your craft. We expect AI tools in the loop, not as a novelty.
Fast cycles, real ownership, low ceremony. You will not be a cog.
Output and outcomes matter more than process. You ship work that moves a metric.
You treat the codebase, the deliverable, and the client relationship as your own.
You joined because you want to ship amazing tech products, not warm a seat.