Who We Are

Mode Mobile builds products that allow millions of users to earn rewards from the content, communities, and experiences they already love. We recently added NGL to our portfolio, a Gen-Z social platform that reaches more than 125 million monthly active users across web and mobile, providing a safe space to be real, curious, and connected through anonymous messaging.

NGL combines rapid organic growth with passionate communities, strong creator dynamics, and significant opportunities for experimentation and monetization. As NGL moves into its next stage of growth, we’re strengthening the team by investing in engineering and operational leadership to support continued scale, innovation, and product evolution.

Our Team and Culture Drive Our Success

Our team is the heart of our culture. We value innovation, collaboration, and curiosity, with a passion for getting things done. We strive to hire and cultivate the best team members and foster a culture of open communication and transparency. We are driven and hard-working but also committed to having fun along the way. We allow OKRs to guide us, assume positive intent, sometimes agree to disagree and commit, honor our commitments, seek to accomplish more with less, and encourage everyone to speak up as our team owns our company’s success.

You can read more about our team and how we work here.

Who You Are and What You’ll Do

We are hiring an exceptional Technical Lead/Engineering Manager to lead the engineering function for NGL, Mode Mobile’s newly acquired social app. In this role, you will translate ambitious product goals into reliable, scalable systems and manage a high-caliber engineering team through rapid iteration, experimentation, and growth.

You’ll partner deeply with Product, own engineering strategy and delivery, and drive the evolution of NGL, a platform used by millions. In this role, you’ll care deeply about how engineering decisions influence business outcomes, and you'll understand key product and revenue metrics such as growth trends, platform breakdowns (iOS vs. Android), and monetization mix (ads vs. premium). This position will be a blend of hands-on engineering work and engineering leadership, with the potential to support additional Mode apps as priorities evolve. The role is high-visibility and high-autonomy, with ownership across backend, mobile, infrastructure, and data/experimentation systems. You’ll guide the team through deep architectural decisions, scaling challenges, and the creation of new monetization-driven features.

What You’ll Own

Technical Leadership & Delivery

• Act as the engineering counterpart to the Product Manager—scoping new functionality, shaping requirements, and helping define priorities.
• Lead the team through breaking down complex epics into clear, actionable stories and tasks.
• Translate technical requirements and constraints into clear business terms that drive alignment, prioritization, and informed decision-making.
• Contribute directly to software development, balancing individual contributor work with team leadership responsibilities.
• Manage the delivery of high-quality, high-impact features that balance iteration speed with long-term system health.
• Run technical planning, system design reviews, and architecture discussions that guide the product’s evolution.
• Improve engineering practices and operational excellence, including CI/CD pipelines, code quality standards, testing frameworks, observability, and on-call processes.
• Oversee performance, reliability, infrastructure efficiency, and scalability across backend and mobile systems.
• Support engineering initiatives across other Mode Mobile apps when cross-team alignment or shared platforms are involved.

Team Leadership & Talent Development

• Directly manage and develop a team of engineers (3+ software engineers).
• Conduct weekly 1:1s focused on coaching, performance, career development, and unblockers.
• Inspire the team by example, demonstrating ownership, clarity, and a bias toward action in day-to-day execution.
• Establish a high-trust, high-ownership engineering culture that enables the team to do their best work.
• Evaluate team performance, workflows, and the overall engineering environment—driving continuous improvements in process, productivity, and technical excellence.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for the team to our VP of Engineering and broader leadership.
• Provide coaching on engineering best practices, high-quality execution, and a craftsman-like approach to building software.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with Product, Design, Data, Growth, and Monetization teams to define goals, shape roadmaps, and translate ambiguous ideas into clear technical plans.
• Work closely with Product on prioritization, feasibility, tradeoffs, and ensuring the team focuses on the highest-impact work.
• Use a data-driven approach to decision-making, leveraging insights, product metrics, and experimentation results to guide prioritization and engineering direction.
• Collaborate on experimentation, feature performance, A/B testing, and rapid iteration cycles.
• Represent engineering in business-unit leadership discussions with concise, strategic insights.

Systems, Architecture & Scale

• Own the architectural direction for a high-traffic social product used by millions daily.
• Guide the evolution of core systems: identity, content, notifications, real-time experiences, moderation/safety, analytics, and monetization.
• Ensure systems are resilient to global growth, traffic spikes, and new product surfaces.
• Lead major technical initiatives, including refactoring, replatforming, infrastructure modernization, and new-feature architectures.

Tech Stack

• Backend: Node.js, Firestore
• Infrastructure: Firebase, AWS ecosystem
• Mobile: React Native, Swift

What You Bring

• 3–7+ years managing high-performing engineering teams building consumer, mobile, or social applications.
• B2C experience leading engineering teams working on consumer products, preferably in smaller or early-stage environments.
• Senior/staff-level engineering depth with strong fundamentals across backend, distributed systems, or mobile.
• Comfort working as a hybrid engineering leader, part hands-on individual contributor, part engineering manager, with the ability to switch contexts as business needs evolve.
• Experience supporting multiple products or app surfaces, or working within a portfolio environment where priorities may shift across business units.
• Proven ability to ship fast and effectively in complex, ambiguous, high-traffic environments.
• Experience scaling systems to millions of users (performance, reliability, observability, infra efficiency).
• Strong product sense with the ability to simplify, challenge assumptions, and push for the highest-impact path.
• Clear, empathetic communication and strong cross-functional alignment skills.
• A leadership mindset grounded in accountability, operational excellence, clarity, and care for people.
• Comfort with high autonomy and ownership—you thrive when you have the space to lead.
• Comfort with using engineering metrics (e.g., DORA, SPACE) when leading teams.
• Alignment with our core values:
  • ​​Accountable: You take ownership of your responsibilities, demonstrating trustworthiness and self-discipline. You are consistent in your work, transparent in your actions, and communicate effectively. You follow through on commitments and strive for continuous improvement.
  • Action-driven: Identify what is most important, agree on scope, execute in a timely manner, and drive the greatest impact. You take initiative, roll up your sleeves, and get things done.
  • Caring: You genuinely care about yourself and others, our business and craft, our mission and vision, and are passionate in heart and mind. You understand the importance of our team and strive to create a positive, supportive work environment.
  • Curious: You focus on the ‘why,’ learn and expand your knowledge, explore new ideas, and generally make things better. You're a lifelong learner with a thirst for knowledge and a constant desire to improve.
  • Thorough: Your work is thoughtful, impactful, timely, accurate, and complete. You pay attention to detail, are meticulous, and ensure quality work and compliance.

Why Mode

• Lead the engineering function for NGL, Mode Mobile’s newest business unit.
• Influence product direction and build systems used by millions of Gen-Z users worldwide.
• High autonomy, high trust, and meaningful leadership impact.
• Competitive compensation, equity, and bonus opportunities.
• Fully remote with flexible working hours (some CST overlap needed).

We Believe in the Following Workplace Norms

• Allow OKRs to Guide Us
• Assume Positive Intent
• Agree to Disagree & Commit
• Set New Precedents
• Accomplish More with Less
• Hold Yourself & Others to High Standards
• Speak Up
• Be Resourceful
• Follow the 80/20 Rule

What We Are Offering

• We are a 100% remote-first, global company.
• A competitive compensation package.
• We offer generous perks & benefits to team members.
• Participation in the Company's equity plan (for full-time team members).
• We provide individual bonuses in accordance with our Company Bonus Program.
• Work with energetic, passionate, and results-driven people.
• Celebrate team members' personal and work milestones.
• Remote social activities, including virtual coffee buddies.
• Bonusly - We use Bonusly as a way to recognize and reward team members for their hard work and commitment.
• Weekly Wednesday Get Stuff Done Days (No Meetings).
• Open PTO, generous Company Holidays, and Wellness Days (for full-time team members).

If we just described you and your perfect role, we'd love to talk with you. We have a lot to accomplish this year and look forward to making headway and creating success together!

Mode Mobile does not accept/pay fees for unsolicited resumes from third-party agencies/vendors.

Our company is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. We are committed to providing a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We celebrate diversity and strive to create an inclusive environment for all team members.