Applied AI Tech Lead

Who we are

Copilot Money is on a mission to help people stress less about money. We’re building a new kind of financial platform that empowers people to take control of their finances, make informed decisions, and achieve their goals. We're a high-energy, fast-paced startup looking for determined, hands-on folks to join our team and make a real impact on people's financial lives.

The Role

As an Applied AI Tech Lead at Copilot Money, you’ll take direct ownership of one or more core product initiatives, with particular depth in iOS client development and backend systems. You’ll lead a small, highly collaborative fullstack pod, working hands-on across the client and server to deliver polished, reliable user experiences.

This role sits at the intersection of execution and leadership. You’ll be accountable for technical decisions, delivery, and quality for your projects, while ensuring strong alignment between engineering, product, and design. As a staff-level engineer, you’ll bring clarity to complex problems, unblock your team, and raise the bar for how we build across the stack.

This is a hybrid position based in New York City, you’ll be required to come into our office at least 2 times a week along with the rest of the team. We work from home the rest of the week, but the office is always available in case you want to make use of it more often.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the technical direction and execution of Applied AI product initiatives, from early design through launch and iteration.

• Shape and ship applied AI features that meaningfully improve users’ financial decision-making, from intelligent insights and predictions to personalized, context-aware experiences — all in production, used daily by real people.

• Own the end-to-end application of modern AI models in a consumer product, including prototyping, evaluating, and scaling AI-powered experiences that balance accuracy, performance, and trust.

• Be accountable for system correctness, reliability, and long-term maintainability within your project scope.

• Lead a small full-stack team, providing day-to-day technical guidance, feedback, and mentorship.

• Break down complex product requirements into clear technical plans and milestones for your team.

• Drive strong collaboration between client and backend engineers, favoring early implementation and fast feedback over rigid handoffs.

• Partner closely with Product and Design in an iterative, build-as-you-plan process -  comfortable moving forward with incomplete inputs and refining solutions through real usage and feedback.

• Set and uphold high standards for testing, observability, and operational excellence within your project area.

• Identify risks and technical debt early and lead pragmatic efforts to address them.

• Lead by example through thoughtful technical judgment and hands-on contribution.

Required Qualifications

• 8-10+ years of professional software engineering experience with significant ownership of shipped products.

• Strong iOS engineering experience (Swift, iOS frameworks) with a track record of building and maintaining production mobile apps.

• Strong backend engineering experience, including designing APIs, data models, and scalable services.

• Experience leading or owning projects that require close coordination between client and backend systems.

• Active interest in exploring and finding good uses for the latest AI models and tools, to improve products and the development experience.

• Experience with Node.js and TypeScript in production environments.

• Proven ability to lead small teams through influence, clarity, and hands-on work.

• Strong system design skills and comfort making technical tradeoffs in ambiguous problem spaces.

• Clear communicator who can align engineers and cross-functional partners around a shared technical plan.

• Based in NYC.

Compensation and Benefits

• The expected salary range for this role is $230-255k. However, the starting base pay will depend on a number of factors including the candidate’s location, skills, experience, market demands, and internal pay parity.

• Equity in the company

• Health, Dental & Vision Insurance (company pays 100% premium for employee)

• 401k matching up to 4%

• Home Office Setup, and monthly Internet reimbursement (up to $80/month)

• Wellness Reimbursement ($100/month)

• 4 weeks of PTO. After 2 years in the company you get 5 extra vacation days, and 5 more after 4 years.

• Annual company retreats

Why should you work with us?

A product people love: Copilot users are extremely engaged with the app and are sharing it with their friends and family.

A team that cares: We’re a bunch of geeks who care about data quality and good coffee. We go the extra mile when it comes to making our users happy (and making an excellent pour-over).

Significant impact: We are currently a small, thirty-five-person team with big ambitions. Our team has previous experience at companies like Google and Apple.

Multicultural team: We’re based in NYC 🇺🇸 and in Santiago, Chile 🇨🇱.

Great company culture: You’ll work with a highly collaborative team that’s always learning and ready to help each other out.

At Copilot Money, we believe that diverse teams build better products. We strongly encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

Join us in our mission to help the world stress less about money and create financial clarity for all!