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Engineering Manager / Tech Lead — Distro

Distro

South AmericaRemoteFull-time$4,000–5,000/moPosted 1 day agoVerified open today
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At a glance

Compensation
$4,000–5,000/mo
Location
South AmericaRemote
Schedule
Full-time
Work Authorization
Not specified

Job overview

Distro seeks an Engineering Manager / Tech Lead to own the AI processing pipeline, drive full‑stack development, and manage AWS infrastructure while leading a small engineering team. The role is hands‑on, remote, and requires deep expertise in Laravel, React, and cloud operations, with a focus on cost‑efficient, compliant, and observable systems.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

PHP LaravelReactJavaScript TypeScriptAWSOpenAI APIClaude CodeRedisAurora MySQLS3CloudWatchCloudFormationDockerGitHub ActionsJiraAsynchronous Job ProcessingSOC 2 Compliance

Qualifications

5+ Years Building Production SystemsProfessional Working English

Full job description

Engineering Manager / Tech Lead — Distro

Location: Remote Reports to: CEO Team: 2–3 engineers

About the role

Distro is an AI-powered recruiting platform. We connect to our customers' existing ATS, sync their jobs and candidates, and run an automated multi-stage pipeline that parses, scores, and interviews applicants using LLMs. AI isn't a feature bolted onto the product — it's the flow the product runs on.

We're looking for someone to lead that engineering effort: own the architecture, own the AWS environment it runs on, and grow a small team. This is a hands-on, full-stack role. You'll be writing code across the stack, not just reviewing it.

What you'll own

  • The AI processing pipeline. A chained, asynchronous, multi-stage system built on queued jobs. Every stage depends on the last, and every stage involves a non-deterministic model call that can fail or return something subtly wrong. Keeping it correct, observable, and cost-efficient is the core technical challenge of the job.

  • Full-stack feature work. Laravel on the backend, React on the front. You'll move between both — this isn't a backend role with occasional UI tickets.

  • AWS infrastructure end to end. ECS, Aurora, S3 and supporting services. You're the person accountable for it, including keeping the bill under control.

  • SOC 2 Type 2 compliance. We're certified and intend to stay that way. Expect evidence collection, control remediation, access reviews, and backup restoration testing as part of the normal rhythm.

  • A small team. Two engineers today. Code review, technical direction, unblocking, and growth conversations are yours.

  • Product input. Our engineers argue about what we build, not just how. If you want a seat at that table, it's here.

Stack

Backend: PHP / Laravel, Laravel Horizon, Redis, Aurora (MySQL)Frontend: JavaScript / TypeScript, ReactInfrastructure: AWS — ECS, Aurora/RDS, S3, CloudWatch, CloudFormation; DockerAI: OpenAI API — completions, structured outputs, vector stores, prompt caching, evaluationTooling: GitHub Actions, Jira, Claude Code

What we're looking for

Required

  • 5+ years building and running production systems as a full-stack engineer — genuinely comfortable in both Laravel and React, not strong in one and passable in the other

  • Strong PHP/Laravel, or strong equivalent experience in another modern backend framework with a real willingness to work in Laravel

  • Hands-on AWS ownership — ECS, Aurora/RDS, and the operational side: monitoring, incident response, and cost optimization. Not "I've used AWS," but "I've been the person who gets called when it breaks and the person who noticed the bill was too high."

  • Experience with asynchronous job processing: queues, workers, retries, idempotency, dead-letter handling

  • Production experience with the OpenAI API — completions, structured outputs, vector stores — including handling non-deterministic output and controlling token cost at scale

  • Fluent with AI-assisted development. We use Claude Code daily, and we expect you to work the same way: not just chat prompts, but planning, review, and repo-level context. You should be able to raise the team's ceiling here, not just keep up.

  • Experience leading or mentoring engineers, formally or informally

  • Professional working English

Nice to have

  • SOC 2 or similar compliance experience

  • ATS, HR tech, or recruiting domain knowledge

  • Infrastructure as code (CloudFormation, Terraform, CDK)

  • Experience building or integrating MCP servers or agentic workflows

Who does well here

  • Owns outcomes, not tickets. The most valuable work anyone has done in this role wasn't assigned to them. If you need a fully specified backlog to be effective, this isn't the right fit.

  • Thinks about the product, not just the implementation. Understands why we're building something and pushes back when the "why" doesn't hold up.

  • Explains trade-offs clearly. Can say why one approach was chosen over another and what the long-term cost of that choice is.

  • Comfortable being the most senior person on a problem. The team is small. There often isn't someone above you to escalate to.

  • Uses AI with judgment. Knows when to reach for it and when not to, and owns whatever ships regardless of what wrote it.

  • Coaches instead of blames. When something breaks, the first question is what made it possible, not who did it.

Distro is a product company. You'd be building and owning what we ship, not staffing someone else's roadmap.

#DISTRO

#LI-PROMOTED

#LI-Remote

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