Head of Engineering

ABOUT MANTLE

We’re building an AI agent to help families support their aging parents (origin story here https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7358605175294496768/).

Over 40M “sandwich generation” Americans currently manage their parent’s affairs. Keeping mom/dad safe and supported is like a second job: it’s time-consuming, stressful and on top of their already busy lives. We believe that managing our parents’ affairs should feel under control, easier and lower stress.

Co-founded by serial entrepreneur partners including Ted Zagat, who sold his previous businesses to Slack (announcement here https://slack.com/blog/news/slack-acquisition-connecting-employees) and Google (Zagat restaurant guides).

THE ROLE

We are looking for a Head of Engineering to lead the technical future of Mantle. This is a foundational role for a hands-on engineering leader who wants to build not just a product, but an engineering team and culture from the ground up. You will work side-by-side with the founders to turn an ambitious vision into a consumer product that families trust with some of the most important parts of their lives.

This is a role for a true builder. In the early days, you'll write a meaningful share of the code yourself while also hiring the team, setting the technical direction, and establishing how we ship. It's not just about architecture diagrams; it's about making good tradeoffs under uncertainty, unblocking the team every day, and owning the outcome when something breaks.

WHAT YOU'LL BUILD

- Engineering team: Hire, develop and lead a small, high-performance team of engineers across full stack, AI and mobile.

- Technical architecture: Own the architecture and infrastructure for our consumer web and mobile applications and the AI agent at their core.

- Engineering culture: Establish a culture of urgency, ownership, sound judgment and strong execution.

- Operating cadence: Define how engineering plans, prioritizes, communicates and delivers alongside product and design.

- Quality and trust: Build the testing, monitoring, security and privacy practices that let families trust Mantle with sensitive information.

- AI-native development: Make modern AI coding tools and agents a core part of how the team builds.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

- 10+ years of high-performance software development experience, including 3+ years leading engineering teams

- Track record of shipping consumer products end-to-end, from concept to production, in a startup or high-growth environment

- Strong proficiency with modern full stack technologies (e.g. React, Node.js) and cloud infrastructure on AWS

- Hands-on engineering ability and willingness to go deep on any part of the stack

- Expert in hiring and developing strong technical talent

- Strong technical judgment, including the ability to make good tradeoffs under uncertainty

IDEAL BACKGROUND

- Early-stage startup experience, ideally having built an engineering function from the ground up

- Experience building both web and mobile applications

- Experience shipping AI-powered or LLM-based products to real users

- Strong product sense and a clear instinct for what matters in a startup

- Has partnered with founders on company priorities, roadmap, and execution

- Nice to have, but not required: experience with FinTech or products handling sensitive personal data

WHO THRIVES HERE

- Builders: You love creating things from scratch and taking full ownership

- Founder-minded: You think like an owner and care deeply about company outcomes, not just engineering outputs

- Product-minded: You prioritize user impact, not just technical elegance

- AI-forward: You embrace modern AI development tools (Cursor, Claude Code, etc.) to move faster and build better

- Strategic and pragmatic: You set direction and make practical decisions quickly

- Autonomous: You thrive with minimal direction and maximum responsibility

- Mission-driven: You care about what we're building

- Great collaborator: You foster great working relationships

WHAT YOU'LL GET

- Meaningful work: Build a consumer product that will make a real difference in the lives of millions of families, with real technical ownership, fast pace, and huge financial potential

- Founding scope: Shape our engineering strategy, team, and culture from the very beginning

- Partnership with founders: Work closely with Mantle's co-founders, including involvement in the biggest decisions

- Learning & growth: Opportunity to build a category-defining company from the ground up

- Real ownership: Your decisions will shape our product, business and culture

- Remote Fridays: Work from home every Friday. Monday through Thursday, we build together in person in San Francisco