Head of Engineering Position Type: Full-Time, RemoteWorking Hours: U.S. Business HoursLocation: Remote (Pakistan, LATAM, Eastern Europe Preferred) About the Role We are hiring a highly technical and hands‑on Head of Engineering to own the entire engineering function of a fast‑growing SaaS platform. This role combines deep backend engineering, distributed systems architecture, AI infrastructure, and technical leadership in a fast‑moving startup environment. This is not a purely managerial role. You will actively write production code, make architectural decisions, oversee infrastructure reliability, and guide a lean engineering team while helping scale a platform operating across multiple services and AI‑powered workflows. The ideal candidate thrives in startup environments, takes ownership of systems end-to-end, and understands how to balance rapid product development with long-term scalability and reliability. What You’ll Own Backend Architecture & Engineering • Design, build, and maintain scalable backend systems using .NET 8.0, C#, ASP.NET Core, and Entity Framework Core• Own system architecture across 14+ independently deployed microservices• Implement Clean Architecture and Domain‑Driven Design (DDD) principles• Deliver new product features, optimise existing systems, and resolve performance bottlenecks• Improve system scalability, maintainability, and engineering standards across the codebase AI Systems & LLM Infrastructure • Design and manage production‑grade AI and LLM pipelines across multiple providers• Build scalable workflows for personalisation, segmentation, automation, and AI‑assisted features• Optimise prompts, orchestration logic, fail‑over systems, and provider routing strategies• Monitor token usage, rate limits, latency, and cost efficiency across AI systems• Integrate AI‑assisted development workflows and tooling into engineering operations Databases & Data Infrastructure • Manage and optimise MySQL, Redis, and MongoDB production environments• Oversee caching strategies, analytics pipelines, event‑driven systems, and bulk data operations• Ensure strong performance, reliability, and data consistency across distributed services• Improve database architecture, indexing, and query performance Infrastructure, DevOps & Reliability • Own Linux‑based infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, deployments, and operational reliability• Implement centralised monitoring, observability, alerting, and logging systems• Proactively identify scalability, reliability, and performance risks before they impact users• Maintain high platform uptime and deployment stability across environments API Integrations & System Resilience • Manage and maintain 25+ third‑party API integrations in production• Design retry logic, graceful degradation systems, fallback strategies, and provider fail‑over handling• Ensure platform stability during outages, API failures, or degraded external services• Improve resilience and fault tolerance across all external dependencies Team Leadership & Engineering Standards • Lead and mentor a small engineering team through code reviews, architecture guidance, and technical feedback• Establish and enforce engineering best practices, workflows, documentation standards, and deployment processes• Collaborate directly with leadership and founders on product direction and technical roadmap planning• Create a culture of ownership, execution quality, and engineering excellence What Makes You a Great Fit • Senior‑level engineer comfortable owning systems end‑to‑end• Strong architectural thinker who still enjoys hands‑on coding daily• Calm under pressure and highly capable in fast‑moving startup environments• Deeply analytical with strong problem‑solving instincts• Strong communicator capable of aligning engineering decisions with business goals• Passionate about scalability, reliability, AI systems, and engineering excellence Required Experience & Skills • Deep expertise in .NET 8.0, C#, ASP.NET Core, and Entity Framework Core• Strong experience designing distributed systems and microservice architectures• Production experience with MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, and event‑driven systems• Hands‑on DevOps experience with Linux infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines• Experience managing large‑scale API integrations and distributed workflows• Proven experience building and operating AI/LLM systems in production environments• Strong understanding of monitoring, observability, scalability, and reliability engineering• Experience leading small engineering teams and mentoring developers• Strong English communication skills Preferred Experience • Startup or high‑growth SaaS experience• Experience scaling AI‑powered platforms or automation systems• Familiarity with Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, or infrastructure‑as‑code tooling• Experience optimising AI cost efficiency and inference performance• Knowledge of event streaming, asynchronous processing, and high‑throughput architectures• Familiarity with AI‑assisted software development workflows What a Typical Day Looks Like A Head of Engineering’s day revolves around balancing architecture, execution, reliability, and leadership. You will:• Write and review production backend code• Make architectural decisions across services, infrastructure, and AI systems• Monitor production systems and resolve scalability or reliability issues• Guide developers through code reviews and technical implementation decisions• Collaborate with leadership on roadmap planning and technical prioritisation• Improve deployment reliability, observability, and engineering workflows• Optimise AI systems for performance, stability, and cost efficiency In essence: you own the technical foundation of the platform and ensure the engineering organisation can scale reliably while moving quickly. Key Metrics for Success (KPIs) • System uptime and platform reliability• AI pipeline stability and operational efficiency• Deployment reliability and engineering velocity• Backend performance and scalability improvements• Code quality and reduction in technical debt• Team delivery consistency and engineering execution quality• Infrastructure stability and incident reduction Interview Process • Initial Screening Call• Technical Interview with Pavago Recruiter• Technical / Architecture Interview with Client• Final Leadership Interview• Offer & Onboarding #J-18808-Ljbffr