Head of Engineering (Quench)

We are a venture-backed AI startup reinventing medical-legal document processing using cutting-edge generative AI. Founded by a UCSF physician and serial entrepreneur, and backed by top-tier investors, we're building category-defining technology with real-world impact. As Head of Engineering, you will play a crucial role in scaling our proven platform to enterprise-grade production systems, evolving the tech stack, establishing engineering best practices, and building a high-performing team.

Must Have

• Define and execute technical vision for product scalability and architect intelligent, data-driven systems.
• Own critical infrastructure for large-scale document processing, metadata extraction, vector search, RAG workflows, and async pipelines.
• Architect and optimize complex async workflows using AWS Step Functions, Lambda, and microservices.
• Hire, mentor, and retain top-tier full-stack engineers, data scientists, and technical leaders.
• Ensure timely delivery of high-impact features and platform capabilities.
• Implement best practices around code quality, testing, deployment automation, monitoring, and documentation.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, medical experts, legal professionals, and business stakeholders.
• Oversee secure, compliant infrastructure meeting industry-specific requirements for healthcare and legal data handling.
• Evaluate and adopt technologies to maintain competitive edge in legal-tech/med-tech.
• 8+ years of software engineering experience with at least 3+ years in technical leadership roles.
• Strong hands-on experience with TypeScript/React/Next.js frontend and Python backend development.
• Deep experience with AWS services including Lambda, Step Functions, S3, DynamoDB, RDS (PostgreSQL), SQS.
• Proven ability to design and implement sophisticated async processing pipelines.
• Hands-on experience with LLM APIs, vector databases, RAG systems, prompt engineering, and document AI services.
• Experience architecting secure, scalable data systems handling structured and unstructured inputs.
• Track record of designing for scale, performance optimization, API integration, and enterprise-grade reliability.
• Ability to translate user pain points and business requirements into technical priorities.
• Demonstrated success recruiting, mentoring, and growing engineering talent.

Good to Have

• Experience building 0→1 products or early-stage technical leadership at a VC-backed startup.
• Prior experience in healthcare technology, legal tech, or regulated industries.
• Background with document processing at scale, OCR, PDF manipulation.
• Multi-tenant SaaS architecture experience.
• Go microservices development.
• Kubernetes and container orchestration.
• Machine learning pipelines and model deployment.
• Open-source contributions or technical thought leadership.
• Experience with streaming data processing (Kafka, Flink) or real-time systems.

Perks & Benefits

• Founding-level impact – Shape both the product and technical vision as an early engineering leader.
• Build on proven foundation – Inherit an established, working platform with room for significant innovation and scale.
• Solve hard problems – Tackle sophisticated challenges around distributed async systems, large-scale document processing, and cutting-edge AI integration.
• Cross-disciplinary collaboration – Work alongside accomplished physician and legal domain experts.
• High autonomy & ownership – Full authority over technical strategy, architecture decisions, team design, and execution approach.
• Market intersection – Operate at the convergence of legal-tech and med-tech, two rapidly growing sectors.
• Meaningful equity – Significant ownership stake rewarding you as a foundational team member.
• Remote-friendly – Work from anywhere in the US with a distributed-first culture.

About the Company:

We are a venture-backed AI startup on a mission to reinvent how medical-legal document processing is solved using cutting-edge generative AI. Founded by a UCSF physician and serial entrepreneur, and backed by top-tier investors, we're building category-defining technology with real-world impact — already partnering with leading law firms and medical experts in workers' compensation, personal injury, and medical malpractice cases. With the legal tech market projected to hit $37B by 2027, we're uniquely positioned to process thousands of medical records and generate reports in hours, not weeks.

We are a venture-backed AI startup on a mission to reinvent how the medical-legal industry is working by using cutting-edge generative AI. Founded by serial entrepreneurs and backed by top-tier investors, we’re building category-defining technology with real-world impact — already partnering with leading enterprises and growing rapidly.

As our Head of Engineering, you will play a crucial role in scaling our proven platform from its current foundation to enterprise-grade production systems. You will have significant autonomy to evolve the tech stack, establish engineering best practices, and build a high-performing team of experts across full-stack engineering and AI/ML.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define and execute technical vision: Guide the evolution of our product from proven prototype to production-grade scalability, architecting intelligent, data-driven systems capable of handling complex medical-legal document pipelines.
• Own critical infrastructure: Lead the design and implementation of robust systems for large-scale document processing, metadata extraction, vector search, RAG workflows, and sophisticated asynchronous processing pipelines.
• Master distributed systems: Architect and optimize complex async workflows using AWS Step Functions, Lambda, and microservices to coordinate multi-stage document processing, AI model interactions, and data transformations at scale.
• Build and lead the team: Hire, mentor, and retain top-tier full-stack engineers, data scientists, and technical leaders, establishing a strong engineering culture centered on velocity, reliability, and continuous improvement.
• Drive technical execution: Ensure timely delivery of high-impact features and platform capabilities, taking ownership of significant projects from conception through deployment.
• Establish engineering excellence: Implement best practices around code quality, testing, deployment automation, monitoring, and documentation; champion TDD and comprehensive testing strategies.
• Collaborate cross-functionally: Work closely with product, medical experts, legal professionals, and business stakeholders to align technical strategy with market needs and business growth.
• Ensure enterprise readiness: Oversee secure, compliant infrastructure meeting industry-specific requirements for healthcare and legal data handling.
• Evaluate and adopt technologies: Stay ahead of the curve on AI models, infrastructure, frameworks, and tools to maintain our competitive edge in the legal-tech/med-tech intersection.

Required Skills & Experience:

• Senior technical leadership: 8+ years of software engineering experience with at least 3+ years in technical leadership roles (team lead, principal engineer, or engineering manager)
• Full-stack expertise: Strong hands-on experience with TypeScript/React/Next.js frontend and Python backend development; comfortable navigating the entire stack
• AWS cloud proficiency: Deep experience with AWS services including Lambda, Step Functions, S3, DynamoDB, RDS (PostgreSQL), SQS, and infrastructure as code (Terraform preferred)
• Asynchronous systems: Proven ability to design and implement sophisticated async processing pipelines, distributed workflows, and state management across services
• AI/ML integration: Hands-on experience with LLM APIs, vector databases, RAG systems, prompt engineering, and document AI services
• Data pipeline design: Experience architecting secure, scalable data systems handling structured and unstructured inputs, with attention to compliance and auditability
• Systems thinking: Track record of designing for scale, performance optimization, API integration, and enterprise-grade reliability
• Product mindset: Ability to translate user pain points and business requirements into technical priorities; comfortable engaging with customers and domain experts.
• Team building: Demonstrated success recruiting, mentoring, and growing engineering talent; fostering collaborative, high-performing teams

Bonus Points:

• Experience building 0→1 products or early-stage technical leadership at a VC-backed startup
• Prior experience in healthcare technology, legal tech, or regulated industries
• Background with document processing at scale, OCR, PDF manipulation
• Multi-tenant SaaS architecture experience
• Go microservices development
• Kubernetes and container orchestration
• Machine learning pipelines and model deployment
• Open-source contributions or technical thought leadership
• Experience with streaming data processing (Kafka, Flink) or real-time systems

Why Join Us as Head of Engineering:

• Founding-level impact — Shape both the product and technical vision as an early engineering leader, with your decisions directly influencing the company's trajectory
• Build on proven foundation — Inherit an established, working platform with room for significant innovation and scale, rather than starting from scratch
• Solve hard problems — Tackle sophisticated challenges around distributed async systems, large-scale document processing, and cutting-edge AI integration
• Cross-disciplinary collaboration — Work alongside accomplished physician and legal domain experts, bringing together technical excellence with deep clinical and legal insights
• High autonomy & ownership — Full authority over technical strategy, architecture decisions, team design, and execution approach
• Market intersection — Operate at the convergence of legal-tech and med-tech, two rapidly growing sectors with massive market opportunity
• Meaningful equity — Significant ownership stake rewarding you as a foundational team member
• Remote-friendly — Work from anywhere in the US with a distributed-first culture

#LI-DNI

#LI-Remote

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.