Lead Software Engineer (Data Platform)

Founded by Eliot Horowitz, co‑founder and former CTO of MongoDB, Viam is a novel robotics engineering platform that lets you configure, control, and manage robots intuitively and quickly. We’re inspiring a generation of engineers to solve complicated automation problems with our uniquely powerful suite of software tools.

We’re a ~100‑person company headquartered in New York City.

Engineering Challenge

Building software for machines introduces challenges that traditional software systems rarely face. Devices operate in real‑world environments, networks are unreliable, and software must interact with hardware, sensors, and real‑time data. At Viam, engineers build the platform and tools that make those machines programmable, observable, and manageable at scale.

About the Role

New York City (Hybrid 3+ days per week in office)

We are looking for a Lead Engineer to own the technical direction and delivery of our Data/ML function. This is a hands‑on leadership role where you will manage a team, make architectural decisions, and code.

The Data/ML team owns the infrastructure that moves data from devices to the cloud and makes it usable across the Viam platform. Performance, reliability, usability, and correctness affect every solution built on Viam. On top of that foundation, the team also owns the ML infrastructure that turns that data into models: training workflows, labeling pipelines, and inference in both cloud and at the edge. Some of the interesting challenges they solve: handling an unusually wide variety of data types from devices that are frequently offline, building auto‑labeling and training workflows at scale, and expanding cloud inference across multiple model backends.

Tech stack is Go and Python with a Svelte frontend, running ML workloads on GKE using TensorFlow, TFLite, and ONNX, with MongoDB Atlas, GCP, and Azure for the data layer. You will report to the VP of Engineering.

What You’ll Own

Lead and develop a team of 5+ engineers: set direction, run planning, ship reliably, and grow the team through coaching, feedback, and performance conversations

Write code and ship features alongside your team across the full stack, from backend infrastructure through UI

Own the architecture of the data pipeline end to end, from device to cloud, including storage, querying, and the APIs that power the rest of the platform

Drive the reliability and performance of ML training and inference infrastructure, from custom training workflows to the services that power auto‑labeling and model evaluation

Have opinions on what gets built and how users experience it, and bring those into product decisions early

Own cross‑team problems through to resolution, working closely with Computer Vision, Fleet Management, Mobile, and Solutions Engineering

What You Bring

You have led engineers and know how to develop them, not just manage them

You have a background building and scaling backend or platform infrastructure in production

You have shipped APIs and UIs and think about both as part of the same product problem

You have sound judgment on system design and tradeoffs under real constraints

You have product instincts and use them: when something is being built the wrong way, you say so early

You make decisions with incomplete information and have a bias toward shipping over planning

You have a track record of driving cross‑team projects from ambiguity to production

Experience with data‑intensive systems, streaming pipelines, or ML infrastructure

Experience with robotics or IoT is not required.

How We Work

This space has brand new challenges and we all have an appetite to learn

We know that the best teams help each other succeed through feedback

Benefits

The salary for this role is between $220,000 - $250,000 /year. Your exact offer will vary based on factors, including experience level, skillset, market location, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company. In addition to cash compensation, Viam offers a comprehensive Total Rewards package that includes equity grants, health benefits, and more.

100% covered medical/dental/vision insurance plans, commuter benefits

25 days paid vacation and generous holiday observances

Free lunch every day that you’re in the office

One Medical Membership

Citi Bike memberships

Monthly wellness stipend to be used for a variety of fitness‑related items like gym memberships, fitness classes, fitness equipment, and more

Paid parental leave

Reproductive Health Benefits, including Fertility Benefits and Abortion Access Travel Benefits

Yearly Learning and Development Budget for your own personal learning goals

Values

Vision Driven

Collaborate Openly

Act Decisively

Succeed Through Diversity

Hold Ourselves Accountable

Lead with Curiosity

As set forth in Viam’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

#J-18808-Ljbffr