Engineering Lead

Axior is building CTN, a protocol-layer infrastructure designed for AI-native developer workflows. We are in the early stages of ecosystem growth and are focused on building visible traction within the open-source and AI developer community. Lead the engineering team, with direct management of three engineers, while taking ownership of delivery, processes, and team performance. This is a hands-on delivery operator, not an architecture/oversight role. This role works in close partnership with the Chief Architect--who focuses on vision, IP, and research--forming a complementary leadership structure. The position requires strong collaboration across distributed teams, European timezone (CET ±3h) strongly preferred -- team is across India and Sweden. Open to EMEA candidates with strong overlap. Must have: • Shipped a product to real users on a comparable stack (TypeScript/Node.js, Next.js, AWS) • Hands-on: can read code, run apps, debug deployments, verify API responses • Managed 3-8 engineers through sprint-based delivery • AI experience, AI infrastructure build (worked on AI solutions or in AI companies, not using AI, building AI) • Introduced engineering process (sprints, code review, release discipline) in a team that didn't have one • Understands and excells in AI-assisted development (Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code) and where agent output breaks Nice to have: • 6+ years experience (but candidate likely has less due to AI assisted development knowledge requirement) • Startup background (early employee at a company that reached product-market fit) • Comfortable with LLM/AI product concepts (agentic loops, prompts, specs, MCP) Stack: TypeScript, Node.js, Next.js, Prisma, PostgreSQL, AWS (Fargate/ECS/S3), Docker, MCP protocol, OpenRouter, Qdrant. Dev tools: Cursor, Claude Code, Linear, GitHub, Slack.