Lead Engineer, Circle
CMS Builder
$160-170k
+ Equity
Community platform for creators & brands
Be an early applicant
Community platform for creators & brands
101-200 employees
Be an early applicant
$160-170k
+ Equity
101-200 employees
Company mission
To help organizations bring together engaging discussions, members, live streams, chat, events, and memberships — all in one place, all under their own brand.
Role
Who you are
- Strong alignment with our values, find our values on our career page if you haven’t read up on them yet
- You are proficient in English (spoken, written, and reading) at a CEFR Level C2 / ILR Level 5
- You have 3+ years of experience leading and mentoring engineers in fast-growing startups
- You have 8+ years of experience in full-stack product development, with deep knowledge of Ruby on Rails, React, Sidekiq, Kafka, and payment integrations (we heavily use Stripe)
- You have experience working with page builders in the past, including knowledge in SEO and drag & drop builders
- You’re great at managing projects end-to-end, and thrive on turning ideas into action
- You think strategically but aren’t afraid to roll up your sleeves for tactical work
- You communicate clearly, aligning teams and explaining technical things in a way everyone gets
- You’re a self-starter who takes initiative and enjoys a fast-paced, ever-evolving environment
- You’re data-driven, constantly using insights to validate your next move
- You’re passionate about creating user-centric solutions that drive growth and make a real impact
Desirable
- Examples of using AI tools to do data analysis, boost your productivity, or solving interesting problems
- Previous experience as a founder or in a highly entrepreneurial environment
What the job involves
- We're looking for a Lead Engineer (Rails/React) to join our CMS engineering team
- At Circle, our CMS team is responsible for the core user-facing areas of our product—including community discussions, courses, the Home feed, our automated weekly digests, search, and more
- This is a high-impact, high-visibility role that blends hands-on technical leadership with product thinking
- You’ll work closely with cross-functional teams (product, design, and customer experience) to shape our roadmap and bring ideas to life
- Beyond shipping high-quality code hand-on, you’ll set the engineering direction for your team, drive architectural decisions, and ensure operational excellence
- You’ll also mentor and guide a team of senior engineers distributed around the world, fostering a collaborative culture rooted in curiosity, ownership, and continuous improvement
- If you thrive in fast-paced environments, enjoy building polished, customer-facing experiences, and want to help shape the future of online communities, this role is for you
- Shipping often and with care, balancing speed with thoughtful, quality work
- Working with the design team to create the best page builder experience for our customers. You will be leading the team and setting the direction of the product
- Leading and mentoring a global team of engineers, driving execution and fostering continuous growth
- Working on a team obsessed with product-led growth, constantly iterating and pushing boundaries
- Owning end-to-end project management, from concept to execution, for impactful results
- Designing and implementing A/B tests to validate changes and drive measurable improvements
- Analyzing user data proactively to identify growth opportunities and refine the product experience
- Engaging regularly with internal stakeholders to align on priorities and initiatives seamlessly
Our take
The influencer market is nearly twice the size it was globally back in 2019. With more creators flocking to the digital space to grow and engage with their followers, cracks in the existing platforms’ relationship to their content creators are showing. Circle is one of a number of content creator platforms rising up to meet the demand for change.
Its community platform allows users to create and engage with their own groups, for a small subscription fee established by the creators. This direct ownership and community engagement is proving something of a silver bullet for companies looking to tempt creators off of incumbent giants like Tiktok and Youtube. Companies like Substack, Patreon, and Pico have all seen remarkable success with this strategy, suggesting that Circle’s foray into establishing something similar for a creator hub is playing to an eager market.
The company's ultimate aim is to pull together all creator tools like newsletter publishing, merch sales, and podcasting under a single Circle umbrella. This is ambitious - but Circle is growing alongside the creator economy at an impressive pace. If it can maintain this growth, it will be poised well for future success.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Employee endorsements
Opportunities to learn
"I appreciate that Circle provides an annual budget for courses and education, allowing me to continuously learn and develop my skills. Additionally,..."
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Dec 2021
$24.7m
SERIES A
Feb 2021
$4m
SEED
Total funding: $30.2m
Company benefits
- Medical coverage & reimbursements: Depending on your location, you will either be offered a full medical plan for you & your family, or offered generous monthly reimbursements to help with medical costs
- Equity package: We offer an equity package to every person that works at Circle
- Paid time off: We offer 35-days of PTO per year based on your hire date. Up to 50% can carry over to the next year
- Work from home, or anywhere: All of our employees are 100% remote!
- Learning & development stipend: Take advantage of up to $500 USD per year to help you level up your professional skills
- Home office stipend: New joiners receive $2,150 USD on their first paycheck to help outfit their home office, with a refresh every three years
- Company offsites: Twice a year, the Circle team gets together for a fully paid company retreat in incredible places around the world!
- Annual bonus: Roles that don't already receive variable income or commission are eligible to earn up to an extra 5% of their annual earnings as a yearly bonus based on overall company performance
- U.S.-benchmarked compensation, no matter where you are in the world
- Paid sabbatical: After 3 years of employment, team members earn a paid 1-month sabbatical to decompress and unwind
- Parental leave for parents expanding their family, or just starting one
- 401k with employer match: U.S. employees can partake in a 401k plan that has a 5% match, dollar-for-dollar
Company values
- 🌱 Grow together — We give honest feedback to others with the best intentions, and listen to valuable feedback when it’s given. We strive to grow with our company and operate with a growth mindset. We own our mistakes and avoid finger-pointing when things don’t go our way.
- 💡 Trust and autonomy — Our team members have solid judgement, and seek to earn a high degree of trust from everyone they work with by showing them their best judgement. Once a team member has earned trust, they can operate with a sense of autonomy and can do their best work without too much supervision. Our leaders seek to instill a sense of autonomy in their team members.
- 🏃🏽♀️ Bias for action — We jump to action with passion and positivity. When faced with challenges or opportunities, we're able to move fast and get things done. We value achieving tangible outcomes above simply valuing the inputs to those outcomes (i.e. planning, surveys, process, etc.).
- 💻 Product first — Everyone at Circle cares deeply about our product, and strives to do their best to make it better regardless of their role. We're open to sharing or receiving constructive feedback about our product at all times.
- 💭 Long-term thinking — We're here for Circle’s future and value its long-term mission. We pause and reflect on the fundamentals. We constantly seek to make trade-offs which benefit Circle’s mission over the course of the next decade — not just the immediate month or quarter ahead.
Company HQ
Midtown Manhattan, New York, NY
Articles
Leadership
Sid Yadav
(Co-founder & CEO)Previously founded Rev2.org, and wrote for VentureBeat, before moving on to work on design and front-end engineering both freelance and with Wizpert. Prior to Circle, worked in various senior product roles at Teachable.
Andrew Guttormsen
(Co-founder & Head of Revenue Operations)Previously an equities trader and analyst with SMB Capital, who moved on to found visitor engagement games design company, Exploreous. Subsequently held various senior roles in growth and marketing at Teachable.
Rudy Santino
(Co-founder & Head of Design)Has 20+ years experience as a designer, and spent time at Teachable + Gumroad working closely with dozens of top creators.
People progressing
Liz was hired as an Account Executive, before being promoted to a Senior Account Executive one year later. Liz moved up again only 8-months later to a Mid-Market Account Executive.
Katelyn joined Circle in early 2023 as a Customer Success Manager, and was promoted to a people manager role on the CSM team before her 1-year anniversary.
Donald accepted a part-time 3-month contract to help with a busy quarter at Circle. His outstanding performance led to a full-time offer to join Circle's People Operations team.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Circle
Andrea Rojas (Head of People)
- As a fully-remote international company, diversity is baked into our DNA. Here’s how our CEO, Sid Yadav, frames our hiring mission: “let’s find talent in underserved and under-represented corners of the world, set them up to do the best work of their lives, and in turn, change their life.” To achieve this hiring mission, we offer competitive U.S.-benchmarked compensation no matter where someone’s located in the world, and we proactively seek candidates who expand representation of backgrounds, cultures and lived experiences in our teams.
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