AI Engineering Team Lead

Who we are is what we do.

Deel is the all-in-one payroll and HR platform for global teams. Our vision is to unlock global opportunity for every person, team, and business. Built for the way the world works today, Deel combines HRIS, payroll, compliance, benefits, performance, and equipment management into one seamless platform. With AI-powered tools and a fully owned payroll infrastructure, Deel supports every worker type in 150+ countries—helping businesses scale smarter, faster, and more compliantly.

Among the largest globally distributed companies in the world, our team of 7,000 spans more than 100 countries, speaks 74 languages, and brings a connected and dynamic culture that drives continuous learning and innovation for our customers.

Why should you be part of our success story?

As the fastest-growing Software as a Service (SaaS) company in history, Deel is transforming how global talent connects with world-class companies – breaking down borders that have traditionally limited both hiring and career opportunities. We're not just building software; we're creating the infrastructure for the future of work, enabling a more diverse and inclusive global economy. In 2024 alone, we paid $11.2 billion to workers in nearly 100 currencies and provided healthcare and benefits to workers in 109 countries—ensuring people get paid and protected, no matter where they are.

Our momentum is reflected in our achievements and customer satisfaction: CNBC Disruptor 50,  Forbes Cloud 100, Deloitte Fast 500, and repeated recognition on Y Combinator’s top companies list – all while maintaining a 4.83 average rating from 15,000 reviews across G2, Trustpilot, Captera, Apple and Google.

Your experience at Deel will be a career accelerator. At the forefront of the global work revolution, you'll tackle complex challenges that impact millions of people's working lives. With our momentum—backed by a $17.3 billion valuation and $1 B in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in just over five years—you'll drive meaningful impact while building expertise that makes you a sought-after leader in the transformation of global work.

The Impact You'll Have:

As a Team Lead, Engineering at Deel, you will lead a cross-functional team of 6-10 professionals, with a balance of leadership and hands-on technical work with AI. You will drive technical excellence, mentor your team, and deliver scalable, innovative solutions in a fast-paced, startup-like environment. By fostering collaboration and adopting best practices, you will ensure the team meets organizational goals and delivers exceptional user experiences.

Get Ready To:

Lead with Technical and Team Excellence:

• Serve as a technical leader, combining hands-on development with strategic oversight.

• Design, code, and deliver high-quality, scalable applications using modern tech stacks (Node.js, Python, or similar).

• Provide mentorship and technical guidance, fostering growth and skill development within the team.

• Ensure best practices in development, testing, and deployment, driving innovation and excellence.

• Conduct thorough code reviews to maintain high coding standards and technical quality.

Elevate Team Effectiveness:

• Collaborate closely with product and design teams to create extraordinary user experiences.

• Drive technical planning and execution, balancing short-term objectives with long-term system health.

• Promote Agile methodologies to enhance team productivity and effectiveness.

• Facilitate knowledge sharing, cross-team collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Strategize and Execute for Impact:

• Define and implement technical strategies in alignment with organizational goals.

• Lead innovation through rapid prototyping, iterative development, and problem-solving.

• Identify technical risks and implement mitigation strategies to ensure successful delivery.

• Represent your teams in cross-functional discussions, aligning technical requirements with business objectives.

Build Teams and Foster Culture:

• Play an active role in hiring and scaling the teams, ensuring alignment with company values.

• Manage performance cycles, provide structured feedback, and support the professional growth of team members.

• Cultivate a culture of collaboration, inclusion, continuous learning, and engineering excellence.

• Champion diversity and foster an environment where all team members thrive.

Lead Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Partner with product, design, and other engineering teams to ensure seamless alignment on goals.

• Coordinate efforts across teams to drive complex projects and ensure shared objectives are met.

• Communicate technical challenges, opportunities, and solutions effectively to stakeholders.

• Push back on product decisions when necessary, presenting well-reasoned arguments to prioritize technical health, scalability, and long-term success.

• Resolve complex, multi-team technical challenges by fostering collaboration across disciplines.

MUST-HAVE (NON-NEGOTIABLE TECHNICAL BAR)

• AI/LLM Capability:

  • Hands-on experience with AI tools, LLMs, or AI-augmented development workflows

  • Proven ability to integrate or leverage AI capabilities within applications

  • Experience working with modern AI frameworks, RAG systems, prompt engineering, or agent orchestration

  • Demonstrated expertise in building AI-powered features or systems in production environments

  • Understanding of LLM behavior, non-determinism, cost optimization, and hallucination detection

• Strong software engineering fundamentals:

  • Solid understanding of object-oriented programming (OOP) principles

  • Experience designing maintainable, scalable systems

  • Ability to write clean, structured, and testable code

• Strong SQL skills:

  • Ability to write complex queries from scratch

  • Deep understanding of data structures and query performance/impact

• Experience working with APIs and distributed systems:

  • Debugging integrations and system interactions

  • Understanding data flow across services

• Data analysis proficiency

  • Experience with analyzing data and leveraging it into actionable insights

• Strong problem-solving ability:

  • Root cause analysis across code, data, and systems

• Experience working in production environments:

  • Handling incidents, debugging issues, and managing escalations

You're the Leader We're Looking For if You:

• Have hands-on, impactful experience with AI/LLM technologies and can demonstrate proficiency in building or shipping AI-powered features.

• Come from either a Backend Engineer or Frontend Engineer background—we value diverse technical foundations as long as you have demonstrated AI capability.

• Have robust experience in product companies where you've shipped features and driven user impact.

• Thrive in environments requiring both technical expertise and leadership.

• Combine strategic vision with attention to detail in decision-making.

• Demonstrate a commitment to collaboration, continuous learning, and team success.

• Drive innovation while balancing immediate goals with long-term technical health.

Bonus Points:

• Experience navigating cross-browser and cross-platform development challenges.

• Contributions to open-source projects or technical communities.

Total Rewards

Our workforce deserves fair and competitive pay that meets them where they are. With scalable benefits, rewards, and perks, our total rewards programs reflect our commitment to inclusivity and access for all. 

Some things you’ll enjoy

• Stock grant opportunities dependent on your role, employment status and location

• Additional perks and benefits based on your employment status and country

• The flexibility of remote work, including optional WeWork access

At Deel, we’re an equal-opportunity employer that values diversity and positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of  race, religion, sex, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, pregnancy or maternity or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

Unless otherwise agreed, we will communicate with job applicants using Deel-specific emails, which include @deel.com and other acquired company emails like @payspace.com and @paygroup.com. You can view the most up-to-date job listings at Deel by visiting our careers page.

Deel is an equal-opportunity employer and is committed to cultivating a diverse and inclusive workplace that reflects different abilities, backgrounds, beliefs, experiences, identities and perspectives.

Deel will provide accommodations on request throughout the recruitment, selection and assessment process for applicants with disabilities. If you require accommodations, please inform our Talent Acquisition Team via this link and a team member will be in touch to ensure your equal participation. If you have difficulty accessing the form, please email at recruiting@deel.com.

As part of our hiring process, we primarily rely on interviews and role-related assessments. In limited cases, we may also consider informal background information relevant to the role, in line with our privacy and fairness obligations.

This application process does utilise Automated Employment Decision Tools (AEDT) and AI systems to assist in evaluating candidates based on experience level, technical skills and qualifications. As a fully remote company, we also utilise AI-powered deepfake and fraud detection technologies to verify the authenticity of candidate identities and interactions during assessments and interviews. This processing is conducted in compliance with applicable Data Protection, AI Governance and Labour Laws. We ensure human oversight is maintained in all final hiring decisions. Your personal data is not used to train AI models. For more information on how we process your personal data, please see our Privacy Policy.

• For NYC Residents: In accordance with NYC Local Law 144, an independent bias audit has been conducted on AEDT; results are available at Ashby, Covey.