Product & Engineering Lead

Data Drone builds 0-1 SaaS products and the team that ships them. No bosses, no managers — the playbook manages, the copilot tracks. Every role owns a small, defined space with extreme accountability. We don't talk about building. We build. We ship. We measure. Binary outputs, no status theater.

You'll own the question: "Is the product getting better?" — and make sure the answer is yes, every week.

You'll lead the Product & Engineering cluster — the roles spanning engineering, QA, Dev Ops, systems infrastructure, product management, and web. You won't write code. You won't configure systems. You'll ensure the people who do are unblocked, aligned, shipping quality work, and maintaining the playbooks that make their work repeatable.

This is a rhythm role, not a heroics role. You run the operating cadence. You enforce quality gates. You keep handoffs clean. You surface problems before they become crises. The playbook manages. You ensure the playbook runs.

• Daily: scan cluster status — what shipped, what's blocked, what's ar blockers before they compound.
• Weekly: run the cluster sync. Confirm sprint commitments are on track and quality gates are holding.
• Monthly: review playbook health across the cluster and the engineer QA Dev Ops pipeline.
• Quarterly: run the architecture review and technical-debt assessment.
• Always: coordinate cross-cluster handoffs and elevate only what exceeds your cluster's scope.

• Run the daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly operating rhythm for your cluster
• Ensure sprint commitments are met — features ship with tests, on cadence
• Enforce quality gates — no release without QA sign-off, no exceptions
• Monitor systems health — the operational infrastructure stays operational
• Maintain playbook health — every playbook in your cluster reviewed within 90 days
• Manage cross‑role dependencies within your cluster — engineer QA Dev Ops pipeline runs clean
• Coordinate cross‑cluster handoffs with the Growth & Revenue Lead
• Escalate to the founding team when decisions exceed your cluster's scope
• Run quarterly architecture reviews and technical debt assessments
• Hire and onboard new roles in your cluster (with People Operator support)

• You’ve shipped software in a production environment. Not side projects — real users, real consequences.
• You can read code well enough to ask the right questions, even if you’re not writing it daily.
• You can hold a sprint cadence without someone holding yours.
• You’ve managed cross‑functional dependencies — engineering + QA + infrastructure, not just one track.
• You communicate in writing. Status updates, decisions, blockers — written, clear, concise.

• Experience with CRM/CDP systems
• Experience with automation platforms
  
  Experience working with junior teams and structured onboarding
• Comfort with AI copilots as daily work tools

• Rhythm over heroics. You’d rather prevent a crisis with a consistent process than be the hero who fixes one at 2am.
• Playbooks over tribal knowledge. If it’s in your head and not in a document, it’s fragile. You write it down.
• Quality is non‑negotiable. "Ship fast" never means "ship broken."
• Small teams, big ownership. You’re comfortable with a junior team that owns their space with extreme accountability.
• Clean handoffs, not warm bodies. You measure your cluster’s health by the quality of handoffs between roles, not by how busy everyone looks.
• The system runs without you. Your goal is to build a cluster that doesn’t need you in the room for every decision.

• 30 Days — You’ve read every playbook in your cluster. You’ve met every role. You’ve identified the top 3 friction points. You’ve run your first weekly sync. The founding…