JD - Engineering Leader (Director / Associate Director)

JD - Engineering Leader (Director / Associate Director) at ZenTrades JD - Engineering Leader (Director / Associate Director) About ZenTrades: ZenTrades is a fast-growing, product-first startup building AI-native SaaS solutions for the trades industry. We go beyond traditional Field Service Management software by creating intelligent systems that not only manage operations but actively run them — helping businesses streamline scheduling, dispatch, customer communication, and revenue workflows end to end. Our Vision and Mission: At ZenTrades, our core focus is on creating the future of Field Service Management, where trade service professionals will effortlessly harness the power of tech to streamline their operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive growth. Our mission is to revolutionize the way the trade services industry operates by offering an AI-supported Co-Pilot system that will help tradesmen become efficient and enhance their customer satisfaction. Innovative AI-Powered Solution: AI-powered modular SaaS business operating system (CRM + ERP), designed for trade services with a focus on compliance and regulations. ZenTrades' founding team consists of UW Madison and UC Berkeley alumni with solid domain knowledge, having built top-notch products and implemented them at Fortune 500 companies. With its robust CRM+ERP platform featuring a modular software architecture and integrated Generative AI capabilities, ZenTrades delivers a trade-specific operating system that caters to the unique needs of each trade. ZenTrades empowers tradesmen with an AI assistant, LISA (co-pilot), to enhance their sales and service capabilities using Generative AI. ZenTrades improves operational effectiveness and improves overall customer service by sending informative prompts and nudges. This technology is not only used for customer service; it is also used to provide thorough defect reports, convincing case studies, precise estimations, and even predictive profit analysis. Why should you join the ZenTrades Team? This is an opportunity to be part of the blitz-scaling team that’s shaping an industry's narrative. We are on a mission to revolutionize the Field Service Management domain & boost their sales metrics, productivity, and efficiency by scoring on leadership opportunities that are otherwise lost in the field. At ZenTrades, we foster a culture of openness, and we aren’t a company where information and ideas exist in silos. Team members are empowered and encouraged to pursue out-of-the-box ideas, think for the organization, and make mistakes that will assist us to grow, through which we create a difference in customers and our lives. We encourage our people to challenge the status quo. We value creativity, hard work, initiative, and radical ideas above all else. We value transparency and vulnerability, and love to work with people who are self-driven, resourceful, and want to create an impact. Most importantly, it’s fun working with a group of people who are passionate about building a legacy. At ZenTrades, we believe in a culture of transparency, vulnerability, and an enormous amount of ownership. The team celebrates success and failure together. Every Leader within the team is hands-on and has taught the vision of being open to putting the organization's best interest first. The Leader should inspire the team, be resourceful to ensure the team and the organization are successful, and also be hands-on in bringing the best resources within the team and promoting talent. Position Overview - Engineering Leader As the Engineering Leader, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our company. You will lead a team of skilled engineers, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and innovation. Your primary responsibility will be to translate our business objectives into a robust technical roadmap, ensuring the timely and high-quality delivery of our SaaS platform. In this role, you will not only oversee the technical direction but also be hands-on in developing and coding new features. Your contributions will be critical in enhancing the value of our platform through the efficient development and delivery of these features. You will be actively engaged in meaningful projects, collaborate closely with cross-functional leadership teams, and gain substantial respect while working directly with high-performing team members. In addition, you'll be responsible for promoting talented engineers, offering guidance, and leveraging your technical expertise to drive real-world business improvements through strategic and tactical decisions. What is in store for you? Influence and Leadership: You will have the opportunity to shape the technical direction of our company. Your visionary leadership will drive innovation, enabling us to stay at the forefront of our industry. Technical Leadership: This is your chance to lead a high-performing engineering team and a robust product. Nurturing talent and ensuring that our engineers have the tools and support they need to succeed will be a key focus. You'll also be involved in hands-on development, working directly on building features and solutions alongside your team. Continuous Growth: Your role isn't just about managing a team; it's about fostering their growth and development. Mentor and inspire the next generation of engineering leaders while continuously enhancing your own skills. As we scale from a 0-1 / 1-10 startup, this is an exciting opportunity to make a direct impact on our journey and growth. Impactful Projects: Lead a talented engineering team to work on cutting-edge projects, including our AI CoPilot, which will directly impact our clients and their end consumers. Your contributions will be instrumental in creating transformative software solutions that push the boundaries of what’s possible. Create an Impact: ZenTrades provides you with the environment to create an impact on the product and transform your ideas into reality. Even our junior engineers have the opportunity to work on significant product features, ensuring everyone has a meaningful role in shaping our future. Start-Up Spirit: Enjoy the dynamic and entrepreneurial atmosphere of a SaaS startup. Here, your ideas will be heard, and your contributions will have a direct and visible impact on our growth trajectory. This is a place where innovation thrives, and you can see the direct results of your efforts. Day-to-day responsibilities will include: The Engineering Leader role entails dynamic involvement in strategy, partnership building, technical enhancements, and effective communication within the team of accomplished domain experts from ZenTrades' founding team. Technical Strategy: You will be responsible for developing and executing our technical roadmap. This involves aligning our technology vision with our business objectives, anticipating market trends, and ensuring our SaaS platform remains competitive and innovative. You will have a significant role in defining the technical architecture and guiding its evolution Team Management: Set clear goals and expectations for team members, providing regular feedback and performance evaluations. Participating in agile development processes, including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives Product Development: Oversee the end-to-end development process, from concept to deployment. This includes setting development priorities, managing resources effectively, and ensuring that our products meet the highest quality standards. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to prioritize features and align development efforts with business goals. Cross-functional Collaboration: Collaboration is key in a startup environment. You will collaborate closely with product management, sales, marketing, and customer support to ensure that our product aligns with market needs, customer feedback, and business goals. Effective communication and collaboration will be essential to your success Scalability and Reliability: Implement strategies for scaling our platform while maintaining high performance and reliability Innovation: Stay at the forefront of technology trends, evaluating and integrating emerging technologies to enhance our product Cross-functional Collaboration: Effective communication and collaboration with product management, sales, marketing, and customer support are vital. Ensure that our product aligns with market needs, customer feedback, and business objectives Budget and Resource Management: Manage the engineering budget, allocate resources efficiently, and optimize costs while maintaining a high level of product quality. You will fit right if you have: You have a B.Tech. / MS in computer science, information systems, or equivalent You have 8+ years of software development experience and are an engineer at heart You have experience in managing and leading a team of engineers You have worked on products (ideally B2B, SaaS products from scratch) You have seen a product’s 0-1 / 1-10 journey You have successfully built and managed a high-performance distributed team/s Experience in successfully delivering complex software products, ideally in a startup or fast-paced environment A problem-solver attitude where you like to dive deep into a problem, diagnose root causes, and work with multiple teams to come up with a solution Ambitious to make an extra effort to go above and beyond the traditional growth paths Cross-team collaboration, you will have to collaborate with Product Management and Implementation teams, and build a commercially successful product You will be responsible for recruiting & leading a team of highly skilled software engineers and providing strong hands-on engineering leadership Required skills and experience Experience in building a scalable product Hands-on technical leadership with proven ability to recruit high-performance talent High technical credibility - the ability to audit technical decisions and push for the best solution to a problem Experience building E2E Applications right from the backend database to the persistent layer Experience with technologies such as Angular, React.js, Node.js ( full-stack environment will be preferred) Experience with NoSQL technologies (MongoDB, Cassandra, Neo4j, DynamoDB, etc.) Experience in developing Enterprise Software using Agile Methodology Good understanding of Kafka, Redis, ActiveMQ, RabbitMQ, Solr, etc. Experience with Docker and Kubernetes Good understanding of Cloud Services. Should have hands-on experience in setting up an infrastructure from scratch Good System design skills, considering scalability and fault-tolerant applications Note: You will be required to operate in the IST time zone which is - 12:00 PM IST to 10:00 PM IST from Pune Location. If you possess the qualifications and mindset, we're excited to hear from you!