About the Role
Our engineering team builds the platform connecting hundreds of thousands of homeowners with over 70,000 active service professionals across three brands on shared infrastructure. We are profitable and growing, with a fast-paced culture of constant shipping and end-to-end ownership. Strong processes and existing managers are in place, so this role is about raising the bar rather than building from scratch.
Responsibilities
- Develop concrete growth plans for every team member, not just those struggling, and know each person's trajectory and requirements.
- Ensure the team ships on schedule with predictable quality, surfacing risks early, managing scope, and never missing commitments without warning.
- Address conflict directly, manage underperformers with a clear process, and protect and develop top performers.
- Serve as the interface between your team and Product, Design, and other engineering teams, ensuring decisions are made without delays.
- Stay close enough to the work to contribute to system design and identify architectural risks, but not so close that you are mired in details instead of removing blockers.
- Actively introduce AI tools and workflows into team operations—such as code review, documentation, sprint planning, and debugging—setting the pace rather than following it.
Compensation
$120,000–$140,000 USD annually (contractor), depending on experience
Work Arrangement
Fully remote - this role is built for remote-first leaders
Team
Distributed team across time zones, so async leadership and written communication matter as much as meetings
About Engineering at LawnStarter
Our engineering team builds the platform that connects hundreds of thousands of homeowners with over 70,000 active service pros. We operate three brands (LawnStarter, Lawn Love, HomeGnome) on shared infrastructure, and we're profitable and growing. Engineering here is fast - we ship constantly, we own our systems end-to-end, and we don't tolerate 'not my problem.' We have strong processes and existing engineering managers, so you're not building from scratch. You're raising the bar.
What makes this role different
- You'll own both delivery AND people outcomes - neither can be delegated
- Distributed team across time zones, so async leadership and written communication matter as much as meetings
- We move fast and actually ship - you'll feel the difference between a team that's humming and one that's stuck
- AI-forward is not a buzzword here - we expect you to lead your team on how to use it, not just follow along
Problems to Solve
- Building people leadership depth as the team scales
- Managing distributed teams without losing culture or accountability
- Turning delivery consistency into a competitive advantage
- Orchestrating cross-functional delivery from roadmap to release
- Turning AI adoption into throughput without sacrificing craftsmanship
What Success Looks Like (Year 1)
- Every engineer on your team has a documented growth plan within 60 days - and you can speak to it from memory
- Your team ships its committed scope on cadence within 90 days
- Zero surprise departures - you know your retention risks and are actively working them
- Underperformance is addressed directly and documented, not deferred
- The Head of Engineering trusts your team's commitments because you've proven they're reliable
- Your team is visibly more AI-enabled than when you joined - new tools adopted, old manual tasks automated, engineers unblocked faster
This Role Is NOT
- A pure technical architect role. The team has senior engineers. Your job is to make sure they're effective and growing, not to be the smartest person in every technical conversation.
- A process manager. We have processes. Your job isn't to document them better - it's to lead the people running them and improve outcomes.
- A stepping stone. We're looking for someone committed to people leadership as their primary craft - not someone who's considering moving back to IC or is ambivalent about managing people vs. building systems.
- A reactive firefighter. We want someone who surfaces risk early and manages it proactively - not someone who thrives in chaos and sees every crisis as a badge of honor.
- An AI skeptic in a leadership seat. We expect our engineering leaders to actively drive AI adoption on their teams, not wait to be convinced.
Other
- Rate: $120,000–$140,000 USD annually (contractor), depending on experience
- Location: Fully remote - this role is built for remote-first leaders
- Flexibility: Structured work hours with reasonable flexibility for life
- LawnStarter provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetics. We comply with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.
