Infrastructure & Platform Team Leader - SPEED Team

About Airis Labs

Airis Labs is building a next-gen media intelligence platform using cutting-edge AI. We are a startup founded by people who have built startups before, backed by great investors, and laser-focused on building things that actually get used. No vaporware. No endless roadmaps. Just great product, shipped.

THE ROLE

SPEED is the team behind the platform that makes everything at Airis possible. The name says it all: Solutions, Platform Engineering, Efficiency & DevEx, Deployments.

This team owns the foundations - the infra, the tooling, the pipelines, and the delivery systems that get our product into customers' hands. We need a Team Leader who thinks big and executes smart. Someone who sets the technical vision, aligns the team around it, and knows how to translate strategy into outcomes.

You will lead 5 engineers, own the platform direction, and be the senior voice that keeps the team focused on what matters. If you also enjoy occasionally rolling up your sleeves and picking up a task - even better.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of 5 engineers - set the culture, own the outcomes.
• Define the technical vision for the SPEED team and drive it through to delivery.
• Own platform architecture decisions - scalability, modularity, and long-term health.
• Oversee infrastructure across Kubernetes, Helm, CI/CD, and hybrid cloud environments.
• Set the standards, abstractions, and APIs the rest of the engineering org relies on.
• Champion observability and operational excellence across the platform.
• Work closely with AI teams and Product Managers to align on priorities and execution.
• Be the technical point of contact for cross-team initiatives and strategic decisions.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• 5+ years in backend or platform engineering at production scale.
• 3+ years leading engineering teams - you lead by example, not by title.
• Strong architectural mindset - you think in systems and design for the long term.
• Solid understanding of DevOps practices: Kubernetes, Helm, CI/CD, cloud infrastructure.
• Python experience - our stack leans on it.
• Hybrid cloud experience - on-prem is a strong bonus.
• Thrives in a fast-moving startup - clear-headed under pressure, decisive without all the answers.
• Excellent communicator across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Bonus: someone who genuinely enjoys picking up tasks and getting their hands dirty alongside the team.

WHY JOIN US

• Real product, real customers, real impact - we ship things that get used.
• Founders who have been here before - better judgment, fewer surprises.
• Hard and interesting problems: distributed systems, enterprise scale, media at the edge.
• A small, senior team where great work gets noticed and your decisions actually matter.
• The rare chance to build a platform category from scratch, the right way