Leaping AI — Tech Lead

Type: Full-time | On-site | San Francisco, CA Compensation: $220,000–$250,000 + 0.5%–1% equity Hiring count: 1 Visa sponsorship: None available Reports to: CTO

About Leaping AI

Leaping AI (YC W25) is a voice AI platform that automates customer support and appointment scheduling calls across verticals including home improvement / remodeling, real estate, airlines, healthcare, and insurance, with a current focus on the home improvement industry. The company closed a $4.7M seed round and has doubled ARR in the first half of the year, targeting another 2x in the second half. Team members are split between Europe and San Francisco.

Founded: 2023 | Team size: 1–10 (Seed) | Total funding: $4.7M seed Industry: AI Tools / Voice AI Website: leapingai.com Office: San Francisco (California Street)

Why Candidates Should Join

• CTO-track role: Framed as a CTO-like next hire to alleviate the CTO in day-to-day engineering leadership — described as one of the most important hires of the year.
• High-growth traction: Doubled ARR in H1 and targeting another 2x in H2, on a $4.7M YC W25 seed.
• Ownership + hands-on: Final say on prioritization and architecture while still contributing code 20–30% of the time.

Intake Call Summary

• Not provided in the Contrario role page. Request from Contrario if an intake transcript exists.

The Role

Lead the day-to-day running of a four-person engineering team (which includes the CTO) as a hands-on tech lead — owning architecture, prioritization, and engineering process while continuing to write code.

What You'll Be Doing

• Manage the engineering team on a day-to-day basis
• Guide the team on architectural decisions
• Have final say on task prioritization
• Review code and RFCs
• Set up engineering best practices and processes
• Act as a strong liaison and sparring partner to decision makers within the company (CEO, CTO, Director of Sales, Head of CS)
• Contribute to the code base yourself (20–30% of your time)

Tech stack: Full-stack applications, cloud / software architecture, LLMs. (No specific languages or frameworks named on the role page.)

Requirements

• In-person SF, Mon-Fri, 8am to 7pm
• 6+ years engineering experience, most recent role as staff engineer, tech lead, or engineering manager
• Hands-on engineering team management experience required
• Full-stack and cloud/software architecture depth, including LLMs
• Conversational or voice AI company experience a strong plus

Green Flags

• Startup pedigree at high-caliber fintech or developer-tools companies
• Previous tech lead or engineering management at a conversational AI company
• CTO-level thinking paired with hands-on execution

Red Flags

• Pure big-tech or low-urgency engineering background
• Management-only profile with minimal coding
• Not comfortable with the in-person schedule
• Needs a defined playbook or heavy process support to operate

Details

• Location: San Francisco, CA
• Work policy: In-person, Mon–Fri, 8am–7pm
• Compensation: $220,000–$250,000 + equity
• Visa sponsorship: None available
• Employment type: Full-time

Screening Questions

• None provided in the Contrario role page.

Interview Process

Stage 1 — Pending Approval — Candidates awaiting initial approval. Stage 2 — Initial InterviewStage 3 — Technical InterviewStage 4 — Onsite InterviewStage 5 — Offer ExtendedStage 6 — Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.

Ideal Companies & Backgrounds

Updated: not dated on the role pageHigh-caliber fintech / dev-tools / infra — Brex, Stripe, Mercury, Plaid, Retool, Temporal, Modal, Linear, Notion

Ideal Candidate Profiles

For reference only — do not source these specific profiles. Marked "DO NOT CONTACT" on the role page.

• Devin Otway
• Jonah Kaplan
• Ashmeet Singh Rekhi
• Blake McCartin
• David Miron
• Kathryn Selberis
• Akshit Khurana