# Engineering Lead

**Recursive** — Tokyo, JP

- **Location:** Tokyo, JP
- **Telework:** On Site Only
- **Work experience:** None

## Mission

Japan's enterprises are sitting on one of the largest AI opportunities in the world, and most of them aren't yet built to seize it. Recursive exists to close that gap: we build the AI solutions and systems that help Japan's leading enterprises compete in what comes next, and in doing so, help build a fairer, more sustainable society. This is a front-row seat to that transformation.

Recursive builds custom, production-grade AI agents for major Japanese enterprises, including Suntory, KDDI, IHI, Sumitomo Forestry, MS&AD, and CyberAgent. Founded by an ex-Google DeepMind engineer, we're organized into focused engineering teams, each pairing a business lead with engineering and technical leadership to take a solution from client conversation to real production.

We're scaling fast over the next 12 months, driven by both new funding and expanding client revenue. As we grow, execution needs to rely less on direct CTO oversight and more on strong technical leadership distributed across engineering, which is exactly the gap this role fills.

## Responsibilities

This role combines hands-on engineering with long-term technical leadership. You'll write code and make architectural decisions, and delegate where it makes sense.

  * Operate as both engineer and leader, with real authority over architecture, tooling, and client-facing communication

  * Extend your impact beyond code quality into team revenue and profitability

  * Step into an urgent, high-visibility seat with immediate impact and fast trust-building across the company




Technical skill alone isn't what we screen for. We're looking for engineers who take initiative without being asked, who stay accountable for whether the client's problem actually gets solved rather than just closing tasks, who are comfortable when a problem isn't fully defined yet, and who raise concerns early when scope starts to shift.  
  
**Technical ownership and delivery**

  * Own technical execution across the team, with full transparency on status, risk, and progress

  * Make architecture and implementation decisions independently, and justify the reasoning behind them

  * Choose your own tooling, as long as it supports delivery and aligns with company standards

  * Propose and estimate delivery timelines, and align on scope trade-offs with your business lead

  * Build hands-on as a working engineer, not purely as a reviewer or architect

  * Control scope changes deliberately, and surface risk early rather than letting it become a last-minute scramble  





**Team and client leadership**

  * Own technical communication with the client on roadmap, progress, and delivery approach, and delegate specific conversations to your business lead when that's the more effective voice

  * Lead engineers at steady state, matching people to work based on capability rather than under-tasking seniors or over-tasking juniors

  * Contribute strategic thinking toward team revenue and profitability, not just technical correctness

  * Apply the right level of process for the situation, neither too rigid nor too loose

## Requirements

* Broad competence across full-stack and AI delivery, with no obvious gaps, plus at least one true senior-level area of depth, ideally in AI/ML

  * 3+ years in a technical leadership role, or clear readiness to grow into one, startup or consulting backgrounds are a plus

  * Demonstrated judgment on trade-offs: buffer planning, early risk-surfacing, explicit scope trade-offs, and reading client intent rather than taking requests at face value

  * Experience balancing hands-on technical work with project management and client-facing solution design

  * Real autonomy with minimal oversight, while staying coachable and responsive to feedback

  * Strong cross-functional collaborator, comfortable in a client-facing seat

  * Based in Tokyo, with occasional travel. Japanese ability preferred but not mandatory

  * This role begins as a one-year fixed-term contract, transitioning to a permanent position

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Apply online: https://app.zookeep.com/career/Recursive/engineering-lead-10064
All open positions at Recursive: https://app.zookeep.com/career/Recursive/index.md