Engineering Squad Lead (JetBrains Research)

At JetBrains, code is our passion. Ever since we started, we have strived to make the strongest, most effective developer tools on earth. By automating routine checks and corrections, our tools speed up production, freeing developers to grow, discover, and create. JetBrains Research works on both long-term ML research and applied AI projects, bringing new methods into real products. This dual mission demands strong engineering support. Some researchers need access to GPU clusters, ML frameworks, code execution sandboxes, and containerized pipelines. Others need architectural guidance and high-quality engineering to move research prototypes closer to production. At JetBrains Research, these needs are covered by the Research Engineering Squad, a team of experienced software engineers who handle complex engineering tasks and bring an industry-focused perspective to research projects. We are seeking an experienced Engineering Squad Lead to enable JetBrains Research to experiment and deliver company- and industry-wide impact without being constrained by engineering complexity.

Key responsibilities

• Lead an engineering team with a range of experience and expertise.

• Act as a lead who's directly involved, rather than a manager removed from hands-on work. You’ll spend a good amount of time on technical tasks and software architecture design.

• Work with Research Leads, Project Managers, SRE and MLOps specialists, and other stakeholders to keep communication clear and build a shared understanding of goals.

• Help connect research and engineering by explaining expectations, approaches, and constraints on both sides.

• Work with research partners to manage and prioritize the Engineering Squad’s backlog of high-level requests.

• Take responsibility for the roadmap of internal products and infrastructure, including by shaping features.

• Learn new technical areas quickly when needed so you can provide estimates, guidance, or early prototypes.

• Adjust team practices to ensure smooth delivery and team reactiveness.

• Support team members with feedback and guidance on both technical and soft skill development.

Required qualifications

• Solid experience with Java, Kotlin, or Python.

• Experience leading a team.

• Good understanding of current GenAI work, so you can join planning discussions and offer practical input.

• A history of meaningful contributions in established development teams, either as an individual contributor or team lead.

• Product management skills or strong user-oriented mindset, with the ability to design intuitive APIs, anticipate user challenges, and clarify requests through targeted questions.

• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work well with managers and technical peers.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience working in and contributing to large, established codebases.

• Background in infrastructure, DevOps, or MLOps.

• History of delivering new technical solutions to complex engineering challenges.

• Familiarity with research environments or collaboration between academia and industry.

What we offer

Leadership opportunities that enable applied AI research through reliable engineering. Build infrastructure and tools that support researchers, work with leading LLM vendors on integrations, and turn research prototypes into product features used by millions of developers.

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