Full Stack Tech Lead Founding Engineer
Summary
Lead the architecture and development of a speech AI API platform, building scalable backend services and full-stack systems while mentoring a small engineering team in a high-ownership startup environment.
About The Role
You will be hands-on in production — owning a speech AI API platform, building and scaling backend and frontend systems, debugging failures in real time, and leading a team of 4–8 engineers and interns.
This is a founding-stage hire. You will be among the first engineers shaping how we build — your technical decisions will define the architecture, standards and culture of the engineering team for years to come.
You will report directly to the CEO and own architecture, code quality, delivery, infrastructure decisions and mentoring across the full stack.
If you are someone who thrives in high-ownership environments, stays calm when things break, and cares deeply about building systems that actually work — this role is for you.
What You Will Own
Own architecture, code quality and delivery across a full stack codebase Design and build scalable backend APIs and microservices supporting real-time speech processing and billing Own backend architecture decisions — database design, service structure and data flow Manage cloud infrastructure on AWS Ensure APIs and services are always online and recover cleanly from failures Debug production issues in real time across audio pipelines, APIs and data workflows Set engineering standards, conduct code reviews and mentor junior team members Coordinate engineers and interns across the team Own CI/CD pipelines and deployment workflows
What You Actually Are
You are comfortable making decisions with incomplete specs You document assumptions and tradeoffs without being asked You prioritise predictability over cleverness You stay calm when production breaks and fix things without waiting for permission You lead by example — your team follows your technical standard, not just your title You do not wait to be told what to do when something is wrong
Non-Negotiables
5+ years in backend, systems or full stack engineering Expert in TypeScript — comfortable owning server and client code end-to-end Strong production API design — REST, WebSockets, auth, rate limiting Strong database experience — schema design, migrations, transactions and query performance AWS production experience Testing discipline — unit, integration and e2e Security mindset — secrets management, API keys, PII boundaries Familiarity with data privacy and compliance requirements across different regions Debugged live production systems under real user traffic Comfortable being accountable for system behaviour, not just code
Strong Plus
Real-time systems — WebSocket session management, audio streaming Multi-tenant SaaS — billing, usage tracking, plan management Observability and monitoring in production AI and API integration across multiple third-party providers Speech and ASR domain knowledge Experience with regional data compliance and privacy regulations — PDPA, PDPL or similar
This Role Is Wrong For You If...
You prefer research over production You dislike being on-call or handling outages You avoid debugging under pressure You need highly detailed specs before moving forward You are optimising for title, visibility or resume optics
Who Will Thrive Here
Engineers who take full ownership of what they build and ship Systems thinkers who see the whole pipeline, not just their part Calm debuggers of complex and unexpected production failures Technical leaders who lead by doing, not just directing High-agency individuals who care about real-world impact
What You'll Get
Up to USD 2,000 per month + meaningful ESOP Fully remote — open to candidates in Vietnam, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia and Central Asia with good connectivity and proper remote setup Report directly to the CEO with full technical ownership Lead and grow a team of 4–8 engineers Growth measured by system ownership and trust, not titles
About VALSEA
We're building the speech intelligence layer for Southeast Asia — turning real-world, accented, code-switched speech into structured, usable outputs for businesses.
You will be hands-on in production — owning a speech AI API platform, building and scaling backend and frontend systems, debugging failures in real time, and leading a team of 4–8 engineers and interns.
This is a founding-stage hire. You will be among the first engineers shaping how we build — your technical decisions will define the architecture, standards and culture of the engineering team for years to come.
You will report directly to the CEO and own architecture, code quality, delivery, infrastructure decisions and mentoring across the full stack.
If you are someone who thrives in high-ownership environments, stays calm when things break, and cares deeply about building systems that actually work — this role is for you.
What You Will Own
Own architecture, code quality and delivery across a full stack codebase Design and build scalable backend APIs and microservices supporting real-time speech processing and billing Own backend architecture decisions — database design, service structure and data flow Manage cloud infrastructure on AWS Ensure APIs and services are always online and recover cleanly from failures Debug production issues in real time across audio pipelines, APIs and data workflows Set engineering standards, conduct code reviews and mentor junior team members Coordinate engineers and interns across the team Own CI/CD pipelines and deployment workflows
What You Actually Are
You are comfortable making decisions with incomplete specs You document assumptions and tradeoffs without being asked You prioritise predictability over cleverness You stay calm when production breaks and fix things without waiting for permission You lead by example — your team follows your technical standard, not just your title You do not wait to be told what to do when something is wrong
Non-Negotiables
5+ years in backend, systems or full stack engineering Expert in TypeScript — comfortable owning server and client code end-to-end Strong production API design — REST, WebSockets, auth, rate limiting Strong database experience — schema design, migrations, transactions and query performance AWS production experience Testing discipline — unit, integration and e2e Security mindset — secrets management, API keys, PII boundaries Familiarity with data privacy and compliance requirements across different regions Debugged live production systems under real user traffic Comfortable being accountable for system behaviour, not just code
Strong Plus
Real-time systems — WebSocket session management, audio streaming Multi-tenant SaaS — billing, usage tracking, plan management Observability and monitoring in production AI and API integration across multiple third-party providers Speech and ASR domain knowledge Experience with regional data compliance and privacy regulations — PDPA, PDPL or similar
This Role Is Wrong For You If...
You prefer research over production You dislike being on-call or handling outages You avoid debugging under pressure You need highly detailed specs before moving forward You are optimising for title, visibility or resume optics
Who Will Thrive Here
Engineers who take full ownership of what they build and ship Systems thinkers who see the whole pipeline, not just their part Calm debuggers of complex and unexpected production failures Technical leaders who lead by doing, not just directing High-agency individuals who care about real-world impact
What You'll Get
Up to USD 2,000 per month + meaningful ESOP Fully remote — open to candidates in Vietnam, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia and Central Asia with good connectivity and proper remote setup Report directly to the CEO with full technical ownership Lead and grow a team of 4–8 engineers Growth measured by system ownership and trust, not titles
About VALSEA
We're building the speech intelligence layer for Southeast Asia — turning real-world, accented, code-switched speech into structured, usable outputs for businesses.