[Hiring] Head of Engineering @Mainstay Labs Inc.

Role Description

Mainstay’s 25-person engineering team built the product. Now it needs a leader who can make that team perform like one twice its size, using AI tooling, sharper hiring, and better systems instead of adding heads. You will report to the CPO and partner closely with product, design, and operations. The goal is simple: give engineering a strong, credible voice in a product-driven company and ship faster with fewer people.

In this role you will:

• Lead the entire engineering organization (approximately 25 people) across all product engineering teams, including data engineering.
• Define what an AI-first engineering org actually looks like at Mainstay: tooling, workflows, performance standards, measurement, and team structure.
• Build an engineering culture where the bar is high, feedback is direct, and people get better fast.
• Make clear, timely decisions about team composition and performance.
• Bring engineering a credible, trusted voice in product decisions.
• Partner with the CPO and product managers on org design, hiring, and how engineering should evolve alongside the roadmap.

Qualifications

• Knows how to make a lean team punch above its weight.
• Technical depth across distributed systems, data pipelines, and AI tooling.
• Genuine thought partner on the roadmap.
• Proven track record of increasing output and quality without defaulting to more headcount.
• Evidence of AI tooling you personally built or mandated into a production workflow your team owned.

Requirements

• Experience leading engineering at a Series A or Series B startup.
• Background in a company or team known for high-performance engineering standards and execution speed.
• Clear point of view on redesigning the way a team builds in an AI-native environment.
• Experience at a company where data correctness and operational reliability are core product features.

Benefits

• This role is a great fit if you care more about what your team shipped last quarter than what your title says.
• You believe in smaller, sharper, AI-amplified teams and have started building them.
• You have built in environments where the process did not exist yet and you had to create it while shipping.
• You navigate the product-engineering interface without treating it as a political problem.
• You will spend your first month in the code, in 1:1s, and in the data before making structural changes.

Company Description

Mainstay is the leading market intelligence platform purpose built for buying, managing, and selling homes in the single family rental industry. As an AI native company, we turn complex data into clarity that helps the industry move forward with confidence. Founded within Opendoor, Mainstay launched as an independent company in 2024 and recently raised a Series A round led by Khosla Ventures.

At Mainstay, trust is at the core of everything we do. We build trust with everyone -- from candidates to employees to partners. We believe in fairness and openness throughout our hiring process, evaluating candidates based on qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected status.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations throughout our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, religious beliefs, or other reasons protected by applicable laws.