Technical Lead / Head of Software

Tech Lead / Head of SoftwareSydney | Full time | $180K–$250K + SuperWe build an intelligent sensing platform that combines hardware, embedded firmware, and computer vision/ML to turn raw sensor data into insight for our customers. Our platform has just gone live, and we need a hands on Tech Lead / Head of Software to lead the team through the next phase: turning a working product into dependable, rapidly delivered value for clients.This is a hands on leadership role for a Principal engineer who wants to lead a team from close to the code, not from behind a management desk. You'll work directly with clients to understand their problems, and lead the team to ship fixes and new capability at a rapid pace. You'll also sit on the leadership team, feeding delivery realities into company strategy.What you'll doLead the software team day to day as a hands on tech lead, staying close to the code and setting the pace of deliveryWork directly with clients, translate their problems into engineering priorities, and drive fixes into production quicklyOwn the architecture and evolution of the platform as it grows and as client driven changes landLead embedded firmware development and platform bring up across multiple hardware targetsEstablish release discipline: a reliable CI pipeline, clear release gates, and automated testing fast enough to support rapid iterationPartner with the ML team on the model to production path and data pipelineMentor engineers, plan delivery with leadership, and balance new capability against reliability and technical debtWhat you'll bring10+ years of software experience, including 3+ years leading or managing a team (around 10 people)Strong embedded C/C++ on resource constrained MCUs, in productionProven system architecture, owning the design of a non trivial platform end to endBare metal programming (C, C++, Rust, Assembly) and comfort working close to hardware: bring up, debugging, drivers, toolchainsCI/CD build systems and test automation for embedded softwareExperience shipping a product in the field (e.g. IoT sensors) and working directly with customers on their problemsNice to haveEdge CV/ML or inference on embedded targets, STM32/Himax WE2 (or comparable NPU class platforms), cloud/OTA update systems, networking (TCP/IP, MQTT, BLE, IoT Mesh), desktop tooling experience, early stage hardware startup experienceYou'll take ownership of a live, working platform at the moment it matters most, with a sound architecture, real client problems to solve, and the autonomy to set technical direction.Please reach out to seb@profoundpeople.com.au for more info