Founding Head of Engineering (React / Node.js / NestJS / PostgreSQL)

NOTE: We run a highly-efficient, high-velocity interview process and expect candidates who can keep up. Strong candidates often go from first conversation to offer in 1-2 days, not weeks or months.

This process is a signal. We respect candidates’ time, give fast, clear feedback, and expect decisiveness in return. If this pace excites you, you’ll thrive here.

Job Type: Full-time

Department: Engineering

Location: San Francisco (In-Person)

Salary: $200K — $250K

Equity: 3.00% — 5.00%

About Carma

Carma is building an AI-native platform that transforms fleet operations from tedious, manual work into effortless, automated workflows.

We’re the fastest-growing company in fleet management software. Carma already powers some of the largest fleets in the U.S., including Fortune 500 clients, saving operations teams thousands of hours by eliminating busywork and keeping vehicles on the road.

Backed by Soma Capital, Y Combinator, the founders of Superhuman, and top-tier investors, we raised our $5.5M seed and are sprinting toward a Series A in 2026.

We’re hiring the top 0.1% of engineers who want real ownership and impact—starting Day 1, you’ll build and ship fast to production for enterprise clients. Fleet operations run in real time, so your work is immediately used in the field and gets real customer feedback in hours, not months.

Our Values

• Act with Urgency: We move swiftly from decision to action — prioritizing impact, cutting through complexity, and delivering results without delay.
• Lead with Grit: We tackle every challenge with persistence, ingenuity, and resilience — turning obstacles into opportunities for growth and excellence.
• Earn and Keep Trust: We build credibility through honesty, accountability, and transparency — doing what’s right even when no one’s watching.

The Role

We’re hiring a Head of Engineering to own key product features end-to-end as an individual contributor, while also serving as the technical leader of the engineering team.

You will spend the vast majority of your time writing production code across the stack. In addition, you’ll be responsible for coordinating work across engineers, providing technical feedback, and making high-level engineering decisions (e.g. infrastructure, system design, and long-term technical direction).

You’ll get high-level product direction and be trusted to scope, design, and build the right solution — quickly and independently. This is a role for someone who knows how to unblock themselves and others, drill into ambiguity, and ship without waiting on perfect specs.

This is not a people-manager role: it’s a hands-on technical leadership role for someone who leads by example.

What You’ll Do

• Ship full-stack product features across our core app and AI-powered workflows
• Own critical parts of the codebase and architecture as a hands-on contributor
• Translate high-level product goals into concrete backend + frontend implementations
• Make smart tradeoffs in speed, scope, reliability, and UX
• Lead technical execution across the engineering team by:
  • Breaking down work into clear tasks
  • Setting technical direction and standards
  • Providing code reviews, feedback, and mentorship
• Make and own high-level technical decisions (e.g. infrastructure, scalability, system design)
• Work closely with product, business, and operations teams across sprints to move fast and stay aligned
• Touch every part of the stack: React, NestJS, PostgreSQL, Prisma ORM, AWS

About You — What We’re Looking For

Must-Haves

• 4–7 years building full-stack products in production environments
• Strong across both frontend and backend
• Proven ability to ship complex systems end-to-end
• Strong product-oriented mindset and business judgment
• Ability to take a vague problem statement and own the solution through shipping
• Comfortable making architectural decisions and standing behind them
• Experience providing technical guidance and feedback to other engineers
• No ego, no drama — just high-context execution and good judgment
• Excellent communication skills and responsiveness
• Comfortable operating in fast-moving, ambiguous, high-ownership environments
• Interest in the automotive or logistics space

Ideal Candidate Has

• Built and shipped products with real, active users
• Experience at a high-growth startup or market-leading tech company with increasing responsibility
• Experience building complex, workflow-driven B2B SaaS products (Vanta, Ramp, Gusto, etc.)
• Has naturally taken on technical leadership responsibilities without needing a formal title

Not a Fit If

• You want to primarily manage people instead of writing code
• You’re looking for a 9–5 with fixed hours
• You’re looking for remote or hybrid work
• You prioritize or think about work-life balance often
• You need rigid structure or heavy hand-holding
• You struggle to balance strategic technical decisions with hands-on execution
• You lead with ego instead of curiosity, collaboration, and accountability

Why In-Person in SF Matters

• You’ll work shoulder-to-shoulder with a cracked sales and product team of former founders and industry experts in their 20s.
• Decisions happen live, not in backlogged async threads.
• A players work with A players. There’s a buzzing energy in the office. Hit the whiteboard with anyone here and you’ll understand why.

Benefits

• 100% premium medical, dental & vision coverage for you and your dependents
• Unlimited PTO + major federal holidays
• DoorDash stipend + all meals covered in-office
• Gym membership covered
• Frequent team dinners, events, and off-sites
• The opportunity to transform and take over a legacy, multi-billion-dollar industry