R&D Team Lead

Passionate about food? Eager to join a dynamic SaaS startup shaping the food and beverage industry? Tastewise is just the place for you.

Tastewise: The GenAI-powered consumer data platform revolutionizing product strategies and driving success for major brands like Nestle, Pepsi, and Campbell’s. With insights from billions of data points, we empower our clients to create, market, and sell their products faster and more successfully.

Join this $10 trillion industry, where creativity and an entrepreneurial mindset drive daily success and reach the homes of billions of people in an industry where change isn't just a recipe but a way of life.

Let's shape the future of food together.

About the role:

We're looking for an R&D Team Lead to join our team and report directly to our VP R&D. In this role, you’ll sit at the heart of innovation—turning real strategic challenges from global food & beverage leaders into powerful platform capabilities. If you’re energized by being close to the business, love solving complex problems, and instinctively see every challenge as a product opportunity, this is the place to make your mark.

As an R&D Team Lead, you will guide a hybrid team of 3-4 talented engineers. Together, you’ll work hand in hand with customers and product teams to not only respond to needs but also anticipate them - architecting solutions that scale and shaping the future of our platform.

At Tastewise, you’re not just building features. You’re redefining how an entire industry operates.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a hybrid team of full-stack and data engineers, fostering collaboration, growth, and technical excellence.
• Balance short-term customer deliverables with long-term platform development and scalability.
• Partner closely with Product to shape the roadmap using real-world customer insights and strategic needs.
• Drive technical decision-making that supports both immediate project goals and broader platform architecture.
• Define and champion best practices for rapid prototyping, customer collaboration, and building solutions that scale.
  
  

• At least 3 years of experience leading engineering teams with a strong track record of mentoring, motivating, and delivering through others
• Deep hands-on expertise in one of the following technology areas:
• Data Engineering: Python and Apache Airflow, with experience building data pipelines, orchestrating workflows, and creating scalable data solutions
• Full Stack Development: React and Node.js, with experience building user-facing applications and performant backend services
  
  

• Experience with generative AI platforms such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or LangChain, as well as AI engineering companions like Cursor or Claude Code
• Strong system design and architecture skills with an eye for performance, scalability, and maintainability
• Familiarity with cloud platforms and modern DevOps practices
• Understanding of data engineering fundamentals and best practices