About A1
There are over 5 billion users using basic applications today such email, notes, tasks that are not AI-native. Our mission is to build a proactive smart assistant for everyday users to bring intelligence to conversations, errands, organising and workflows, with minimal prompting.
Our product focuses on achieving high reliability for long-running workflows, persistent context, and real-world task completion. The system must handle multi-step reasoning, interact with external tools, and remain reliable despite non-deterministic model behavior. Our objective is to help users complete tasks daily enjoyable with over ~90%* reduced time.
Role
We are looking for a leader who can think clearly about systems, make strong technical decisions, and help build the engineering organisation from the ground up.
Be part of founding team to shape the technical direction of the company, while helping build a strong engineering team across the globe.
What You'll Do
Technical Direction
Define the long-term architecture for A1’s AI systems, infrastructure, and developer platform
Evaluate trade-offs between speed of iteration and long-term system design
Ensure systems are designed for scalability, reliability, and long-term evolution
Guide key decisions across model integration, data pipelines, distributed systems, and product architecture
Engineering Leadership
Work with engineers to translate product direction into clear technical execution
Help structure engineering workstreams and keep teams aligned on priorities
Maintain high engineering standards while keeping the team focused on shipping
Establish engineering culture, development practices, and technical standards across the company
Building the Team
Build and scale a world-class engineering team across key talent hubs including China and US
Identify strong technical leaders and help build a high-quality engineering organization
Define hiring standards and interview processes to maintain a high engineering bar
Coordination and Execution
Work closely with product, research, and leadership teams
Ensure technical workstreams move forward smoothly across teams and locations
Help resolve cross-team technical and execution challenges
What You Will Need
Strong technical foundation in system architecture, large-scale systems, distributed architecture.
Ability to reason clearly about complex systems and make pragmatic technical decisions
Experience building or leading high-performing engineering teams
Strong judgment on technical trade-offs and engineering priorities
Comfortable operating in early-stage environments with high ambiguity
Clear communication and ability to align teams
We are particularly interested in candidates who enjoy building teams, superior products and shaping engineering organisations.
How We Work
The best products today in the world were built by small, world class teams. We are a high talent density and hands-on team. We make decisions collectively, move at rapid speed, striking a balance between shipping high quality work and learning. Joining our team requires the ability to bring structure, exercise judgment, and execute independently. Our goal is to put in hands of our users a truly magical product
Interview process
If there appears to be a fit, we'll reach out to schedule 3, but no more than 4 interviews.
Applications are evaluated by our technical team members. Interviews will be conducted via virtual meetings and/or onsite.
We value transparency and efficiency, so expect a prompt decision. If you've demonstrated the exceptional skills and mindset we're looking for, the process to offer may be shorter.
A1 is building a proactive AI smart assistant designed for everyday users to bring intelligence to conversations, errands, organizing, and workflows. The company's product focuses on achieving high reliability for long-running workflows with persistent context and real-world task completion capabilities. The system handles multi-step reasoning, interacts with external tools, and maintains reliability despite non-deterministic model behavior. A1 is developing production AI systems that serve features across mobile and desktop clients, with a focus on latency, correctness, reliability, and cost optimization.
