# Influur — Head of Engineering & AI (Hands-On Experience)

- Generated: 2026-09-15 10:48:11 PM EDT
- Original/canonical posting: https://wellfound.com/jobs/4627445-cto-hands-on-experience-clone
- Provider: Wellfound
- Posted: 2026-08-24T20:13:21Z
- Elapsed since posting: represented by the provider's relative posting label and approximate Eastern timestamp when available
- Applicants: Not disclosed
- Work model/location: Remote
- Compensation: $250,000-$330,000 base plus equity
- Travel: Not disclosed
- Positioning track: Technical manager
- Fit outcome: FAIL — 78%

## Direct-match strengths

Hands-on production agents, RAG, evaluation, guardrails, Python, APIs, cloud infrastructure, data pipelines, CI/CD, observability, reliability, security, startup delivery, and small-team leadership.

## Hard or material gaps

Hard required-stack gap: the role explicitly requires fluency across Node.js, TypeScript, Python, cloud infrastructure, and data pipelines. Keith has deep Python/cloud/data experience but no source-supported Node.js or TypeScript experience. The mandate expects most of each week in that codebase, making the missing languages central rather than incidental.

## Evidence map

1. Personally ship production LLM and agent systems (weight 3, evidence 3/3) — Built the AssistX core and first 80% of its initial application hands-on.
2. Agents, RAG, evals, guardrails, cost, and latency (weight 3, evidence 3/3) — Direct current production evidence.
3. Backend systems, APIs, cloud, and data pipelines (weight 3, evidence 3/3) — Direct Python, FastAPI, AWS, APIs, data, and distributed-systems experience.
4. Node.js and TypeScript fluency (weight 3, evidence 0/3) — Not source-supported.
5. Small-team hands-on leadership (weight 3, evidence 3/3) — Recruited and technically led 11 engineers while coding and reviewing architecture.
6. Security for agentic systems (weight 2, evidence 3/3) — Direct prompt-injection, tool-permission, data-protection, IAM, and governance work.
7. Startup execution (weight 2, evidence 3/3) — Direct founder and commercial-product delivery.

## Keyword diagnostic

Excellent agentic-AI and hands-on engineering alignment, independently disqualified by the explicit Node.js/TypeScript fluency requirement.

## Full normalized job description

About Influur
Imagine a world where anyone launching a product, an app, a website, a brand, can reach millions of people through the right creators in under 5 minutes. No agencies. No weeks of back-and-forth. Just a prompt, and a campaign live in the world.
That's what we're building.
Influur Pulse is the AI-powered platform that makes it possible, creating and executing full influencer marketing campaigns with a single prompt, already trusted by Sony Music and Warner Music Group, and built to scale to every founder, marketer, and creator on the planet.
The Role
We're looking for a Head of Engineering & AI who builds. This is the person who writes the code, ships the features, and takes the AI systems behind Pulse from idea to production, with a small senior team working alongside them.
You'll spend most of your week in the codebase. Agents, orchestration, retrieval, evaluations, the APIs and pipelines underneath them. When something is broken or hard or nobody knows how to do it yet, you're the one who sits down and solves it.
The leadership part is real, but it happens through building. You set the standard by writing the code others read, you unblock people by pairing with them, and you make technical calls by having your hands in the system. If you're looking for a role where you stop coding and start coordinating, this isn't it.
What You'll Own
Shipping: You write production code every week and you ship. Features go out because you built them or because you cleared the path for someone else to. You measure yourself by what's live, not by what's planned.
The AI systems, hands-on: Agents, multi-agent orchestration, RAG and retrieval, evaluations, guardrails, cost and latency. You build these yourself. You know the foundational model landscape and its tradeoffs because you've tested them, not because you read about them.
Architecture that scales: You design the systems and then you implement them. Infrastructure, APIs, data pipelines, real-time campaign execution. You design for the next 12 months without over-building for a scale we don't have yet.
The bar for how we build: Code review, testing, CI/CD, observability. You set the standard by example and you hold it. Quality without bureaucracy.
Reliability: Global brands and major labels depend on what we build. You make sure it works, you know when it doesn't before the client does, and you fix the cause and not just the symptom.
Security: Security is part of building, not a review at the end. You own access control, secrets, dependency and supply chain risk, and how client and creator data is stored and handled. You also own the risks that come with agents: prompt injection, tool permissions, and data leaking through a model. Enterprise clients trust us with their campaigns, and that trust is only as strong as how we protect their data.
A small, senior team: You lead a handful of engineers by building with them. You pair, you review, you unblock, and you help them grow. You hire with a high bar as the team expands, but the team stays lean and every person on it ships, including you.
Product partnership: You work closely with the Founders and the product team. You push back when something doesn't make sense, you propose better paths, and you translate what customers need into what gets built.
AI-first by default: At Influur, AI isn't a tool you reach for occasionally, it's how we breathe. You lead by example and you make sure the whole team works the same way.
What We're Looking For
This role is for someone who has already built in the AI-native era of engineering, not someone who's catching up to it.
You're still writing code today, and you want to keep writing it
LLM-based products you personally built and shipped to production, not prototypes: agents, tool use, RAG, evals, and a clear view of model tradeoffs
Strong backend and systems fundamentals, you can go deep when it counts
Fluent across our stack: Node.js and TypeScript, Python, cloud infrastructure, data pipelines
Experience leading a small team as a tech lead, staff engineer or hands-on engineering lead, without stepping away from the code
Security-minded by default, you write code that protects client data and you understand the risks specific to agentic systems: prompt injection, tool permissions, data leakage
Data-oriented in how you decide and how you build, you instrument what matters and let the numbers guide the bets
Startup experience, you know how to bring structure without slowing things down
Speed with judgment, you know what to build fast and what to build right
Low ego, high output
Why Join Influur
If you get excited about being the first person to build something that's never existed before, you'll fit right in here.
We live to prove the impossible is possible. We move fast, we take bets, and we celebrate the wins together. This isn't a team that plays it safe, it's a team that genuinely believes we can change how the world launches products.
And we treat each other with kindness. That's not a value on a wall, it's how we actually operate.
If that sounds like your kind of place, we'd love to meet you.
What We Offer
Real equity. You're not joining a company that's already figured it out, you're joining at the moment it matters most. As Head, your stake reflects that.
Competitive compensation. Base in the $250K to $330K range depending on seniority, plus a meaningful equity package. We're open to negotiate.
Direct line to the Founders. No layers, no politics. You'll set strategy and make calls alongside the people who started this.
The hardest, most interesting engineering problems in AI. Foundational models, real-time campaign execution, agentic products.
Full remote, full trust. We care about what you ship, not where you sit.
The chance to build something that's never existed before. Pulse is live, growing, and just getting started. You won't be maintaining, you'll be building.

## Artifact metadata

- Resume: Not generated because the fit gate returned FAIL.
- Cover letter: Not generated because the fit gate returned FAIL.
- LinkedIn note: Not generated for a FAIL role.
- Google Drive used: No