Head of Engineering

Workstream is a mission-driven company building the all-in-one HR, payroll, and hiring platform for managing the hourly workforce. There are 2.7 billion hourly workers, making up 80% of the global workforce, but this market has been heavily underserved by technology and deserves better. Workstream has been purpose-built for the hourly workforce from day one so that these businesses and their employees can thrive.

Our customers include leading brands from multiple sectors, including Burger King, Carl's Jr./Hardee's, IHOP, KFC, and Culvers. We are a high growth series B company and quickly expanding our product portfolio to deliver on our vision. We are backed by legendary VCs and industry experts like Founders Fund, BOND, and Coatue.

In addition to our core business, Workstream is home to a small, fast-moving Robotics team focused on advancing the next generation of artificial intelligence and robotics. We partner with a leading AI and robotics company to produce high-quality, large-scale egocentric (first-person) video datasets that help train advanced AI models.

Our Robotics team develops scalable data collection and annotation pipelines that enable the efficient creation of high-quality training datasets, helping AI systems better understand human actions, environments, and everyday interactions. We're also building a new category of connected hardware designed to operate reliably throughout the day in thousands of homes and businesses. By combining cutting-edge data collection, automation, and hardware innovation, this team is helping shape the future of intelligent systems and real-world AI applications.

Grow With Us

We are looking for a Head of Engineering to lead our global engineering and QA organizations. Following a period of rapid growth, we are looking for a seasoned technical leader who can unify our distributed teams, optimize our delivery speed, and maintain a high bar for architectural excellence.

Reporting directly to the executive team, you will oversee an organization of 80+ engineers and 12 QA professionals. With 70% of our engineering talent based in China, this role requires a leader who can bridge Eastern and Western business cultures and drive a singular, high-performance engineering culture across the globe.

This is a full-time, hybrid role requiring presence 3 days a week in our Menlo Park office to foster close collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Day In The Life

Engineering Leadership: Lead and scale a global engineering organization of 80+ people, including Data, Mobile, and Core Engineering teams.

Operational Excellence: Optimize delivery cycles and engineering processes to ensure high-velocity shipping without compromising on quality.

Technical Strategy: Make critical architectural decisions and provide technical guidance that supports Workstream’s long-term product roadmap.

Global Management: Manage a distributed leadership team (including managers of Data, Mobile, and QA) and drive alignment between our US and China offices.

Culture Building: Foster a unified engineering culture that balances the strengths of Chinese and Western work styles, ensuring all teams are marching in the same direction.

Budget Strategy: Manage the engineering budget and headcount planning to support our aggressive growth goals.

Who You Are

Proven Scale Leader: You have a track record of success leading engineering organizations of 100+ employees and managing other senior leaders.

Bilingual Bicultural: You are fluent in Mandarin (critical) and have a deep understanding of both Chinese and Western business cultures.

Technically Sharp: You are still technical enough to win the respect of senior architects and can navigate complex technical trade-offs.

Global Mindset: You are comfortable with regular international travel (quarterly trips to China and travel to Canada as needed).

Startup Grit: You thrive in fast-paced, Series B environments and are comfortable filling leadership gaps during organizational transitions.

People Developer: You have experience managing high-level Engineering Managers and helping them scale their own respective teams.

What We Offer

A mission-driven and value-based company dedicated to empower deskless workers and local businesses

An early employee opportunity at a Series B hyper-growth startup; work with the founding team and industry veterans to accelerate your career

Competitive salary and equity

Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, and vision. We pay 95% of your premiums for our employees and 85% for dependents

In office amenities and stocked kitchen

401K Plan

Pre-tax commuter benefits

Learning/development stipend

Flexible PTO

Salary Range

In compliance with the California Pay Transparency Law, the base salary range for this role is between $200,000 to $250,000 in Menlo Park. This range is not inclusive of our discretionary bonus or equity package. When determining a candidate’s compensation, we consider a number of factors …