We are unable to provide immigration assistance (visa sponsorship) at this time.
Applicants must be eligible for a U.S. Top Secret Clearance to be considered for this position at CAT Labs.
ID verification is required prior to first interview.
CAT Labs is a fast-paced technology startup specializing in building digital asset recovery and cyber defense tools for government and private sector to fight crypto crime. We develop cutting-edge encryption technology for crypto key management to prevent digital asset theft. Our digital asset recovery tools help law enforcement and intelligence to address the pervasive and rapidly growing illicit use of cryptocurrency by transnational criminal organizations, terrorists, drug cartels, and malicious nation-states, which poses a significant threat to our nation’s safety and security.
The CAT Labs team is the “Special Forces” protectors of the crypto industry with unparalleled blockchain security experts, cryptographers, former U.S. Department of Defense computer scientists, ethical hackers, and U.S. Department of Justice investigators, who spent the past decade taking down some of the most prolific crypto criminals.
CAT Labs' flagship software tool Recovery CAT automates and scales the process of discovery and recovery of digital assets from digital data collected in the context of criminal investigations, intelligence collection, and civil case litigation where asset recovery is at stake, such as bankruptcy, restructuring, estate disputes, and divorce law.
CAT Labs seeks a visionary and highly technical Head of Engineering to lead our rapidly growing engineering team and scale our technical operations. This is a pivotal, hands-on technical leadership role for someone who thrives in high-growth start-up environments, can make data-driven decisions, and is passionate about scaling teams and infrastructure. You will be working closely with the CEO to align technical execution with business strategy while ensuring the team can deliver consistent year-over-year growth in product capacity and performance.
We are seeking someone who can scale our engineering team from 5 to 15 engineers, while improving the technical infrastructure to support 10x current traffic. As the hands-on technical leader, you will drive measurable outcomes, ensuring that our product delivers unmatched quality and performance while maintaining 99.9%+ uptime and achieving 90%+ code coverage across the stack.
The Head of Engineering will be at the forefront of scaling our team and product, driving innovation, and delivering game-changing solutions. You’ll have the unique opportunity to build and lead a high-performing engineering organization that will define the future of our tech organization.
RESPONSIBILITIES:Lead with Impact: Provide hands-on technical leadership to mentor the team and ensure code quality while also driving strategic decisions to align with business goals. You'll establish key metrics like deploy frequency, sprint velocity, and code quality, aiming for 90%+ test coverage and weekly production releases.
Collaborate with Leadership: Work directly with the CEO on product strategy, aligning our engineering roadmap with business goals, and scaling technical capabilities to support 10x user growth, while providing continuous status updates on deliverables.
SDLC Development: Develop and execute quality SDLC processes. This includes defining standards, procedures and testing procedures to ensure quality and reliability.
Own Continuous Improvement Processes: Determine root cause analysis for quality issues and the implementation of relevant improvements to refine coding and testing methodologies.
Scale the Team: Build and lead a high-performing engineering team, growing from 5 to 15 engineers within 12 months while ensuring a 90% team retention rate.
Drive Execution and Delivery: Own the engineering output, setting sprint velocity targets, ensuring on-time delivery for 100% of critical deliverables, and removing roadblocks.
Make Critical Architecture Decisions: Guide the team in making key technical decisions that will improve system scalability, optimize architecture for faster load times, and improve resource efficiency.
Balance Technical Debt and Timelines: Make informed trade-offs between technical debt and speed, with focus on long-term scalability and stability.
Establish High-Performance Processes: Build a sustainable engineering culture by creating processes that allow for rapid growth, ensuring fast sprint cycles within without sacrificing quality.
Create a Robust Technical Roadmap: Develop a strategic technical roadmap for the next 3, 6, and 12 months, which includes refactoring legacy code, improving infrastructure, and innovating to stay ahead of the product curve.
Foster a Collaborative Environment: Ensure alignment across engineering and product teams, working closely to balance feature delivery with maintaining codebase integrity.QUALIFICATIONS:Proven Experience Scaling Teams: You’ve scaled engineering teams from first line engineering managers to senior engineers by at least 3x and built a high-performance organization while keeping timelines aggressive and quality uncompromised. You’re able to articulate a clear technology vision and align, inspire and motivate the team towards shared goals.
Technical Mastery: Deep technical expertise in software development, with hands-on experience designing and optimizing systems that handle 100k+ daily users. You can dive into code reviews, prototype solutions, and make high-impact architectural decisions, rolling up your sleeves and writing code, if necessary.
Deep Focus on Quality and Reliability: You're comfortable with test-driven development, aiming for 90%+ test coverage across the codebase while ensuring 99.9% uptime.
Data-Driven Leadership: You manage by the numbers, using data like deploy success rates, cycle times, and coverage metrics to drive team performance and product quality. You are able to estimate effort and provide accurate timelines without constant input from the tech team.
Execution Under Pressure: You’ve successfully delivered high-impact projects on aggressive timelines while maintaining high standards for code quality, system uptime, and feature delivery. You’re skilled in managing tech debt while delivering new features and functionality on aggressive schedules.
Balance Between Product and Tech: You have a reputation for working seamlessly with product teams, balancing new feature development with maintaining a scalable, reliable codebase.YOUR REPUTATION:Known for creating high-velocity teams that consistently deliver on ambitious timelines with measurable results.
Recognized for building scalable platforms, balancing new feature development and codebase integrity maintenance, capable of handling 10x traffic growth without sacrificing performance or reliability.
A proven leader with the ability to develop and scale engineering organizations that grow without major disruptions.PREFERRED EXPERIENCE:Experience leading engineering teams through Series A funding or beyond, delivering on product milestones that directly support 200%+ revenue growth.
Expertise in guiding teams through hyper-growth phases and optimizing infrastructure for fast performance with minimal cloud costs.
Ability to navigate technical debt strategically while ensuring new features release on time and the system remains scalable for 10x growth.
Ability to adapt to evolving business needs and guide the engineering team through growth phases.COMPENSATION & BENEFITS:Equity in a high-growth startup 401(k) match Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance Flexible work hours: US EST Remote work Light travel may be required to attend offsites and other team meetings throughout the year We believe in taking care of our employees, with a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, dental, and vision insurance, a generous 401(k) match, and unlimited vacation time to recharge and explore your passions.
At CAT Labs, we believe in the power of diverse perspectives and are dedicated to building an inclusive and equitable workplace where everyone feels valued and respected. We actively seek candidates from all backgrounds and encourage you to apply regardless of whether you meet all the qualifications listed. We understand that different experiences and skill sets can contribute significantly to our team's success.
CAT Labs is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic.
