Lead Engineer – Platform & Engineering Operations

About Synapse

Synapse is building the future of scientific discovery, a personalized feed that connects experts to the breakthroughs that matter. Our mission is to become the global hub for credible scientific discourse, helping millions of researchers cut through noise and stay ahead of their fields.

We’re backed by a Fortune 100 CEO and mission-driven investors, and we’re assembling a small, world-class team to solve information overload in science.

The Role

We’re hiring a Lead Engineer, Platform & Engineering Operations to own Synapse’s technical foundation and ensure everything runs smoothly as we scale.

You’ll be both a builder and a mentor, managing infrastructure, improving reliability, and enabling the engineering team to ship faster. You’ll work closely with the founders on product direction, plan technical priorities, and oversee the systems, people, and processes that keep Synapse moving efficiently.

This role is for someone who is excited about leading a team of talented engineers, thrives on structure, execution, and ownership, the person who turns chaos into velocity.

What You’ll Own

• Engineering operations: Manage sprint planning, ticketing, and project flow across engineering.

• Infrastructure reliability: Oversee backend systems, API performance, and uptime as we scale.

• Mentorship: Support and guide IC engineers, enforce best practices, and raise engineering quality across the team.

• Architecture: Work with the founding team to design systems that are scalable, secure, and maintainable.

• Cross-functional collaboration: Bridge product, design, and engineering — ensuring features move from concept to production seamlessly.

• Technical research: Evaluate APIs, integrations, and new technologies that can accelerate Synapse’s growth.

• Internal tooling: Build systems that make the entire engineering process faster, cleaner, and more predictable.

Ideal Background

• 2–6+ years in software engineering (backend, platform, or full-stack).

• Strong knowledge of modern web stacks — Python, Flask/FastAPI, TypeScript, React, AWS, MongoDB.

• Experience leading small engineering teams or mentoring junior developers.

• Comfortable owning dev ops and production environments (CI/CD, testing, monitoring, deployment).

• Excellent communication — can translate product goals into technical execution.

• Proven ability to manage both code and people — shipping features while improving systems and processes.

• Excited to work in-person in NYC and build a high-trust, high-velocity team culture.

Why Join Synapse

• Be the technical backbone — shape how our systems scale and our team operates.

• Work directly with the founders on product strategy and execution.

• Lead and mentor a team of strong engineers who move fast and care deeply.

• Own 2% equity in a company backed by top CEO's and with proven traction

• Collaborative Flatiron office with daily lunches, snacks, and a focused, deep-work environment.