Head of Engineering (UpNext)

ROLE MISSION

As Head of Engineering at UpNext, you'll own technical strategy and execution for the UpNext platform: the transfer portal intelligence tool used by college coaches nationwide to track transfer portal activity, build recruit lists, and evaluate roster needs. UpNext surfaces the signals that drive college athletics across every conference, every cycle, from portal activity and recruiting movement to agent representation and market trends. You'll partner with UpNext leadership and the founder to set the technical roadmap and turn priorities into shipped features. This is a foundational engineering hire, and you'll help define how engineering decisions get made as UpNext scales.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

ENGINEERING & PRODUCT DELIVERY

• Own the architecture and technical roadmap end to end: prioritization, sequencing, and communicating status to leadership
• Write production code across the stack, using AI coding agents to move faster
• Ship features across core platform surfaces: Search, Smart Lists, Insights, Team Pages, Athlete Profiles, and the Activity Feed
• Work with the founder to turn direction, prototypes, and coach feedback into scoped, shippable work
• Build and improve LLM-powered features and automated workflows
• Stay close to UpNext's core data pipeline (NCAA transfer portal data, JUCO data, AI-resolved transfer destinations, and emerging high school data sources), and evaluate new data providers to improve coverage and data integrity

STAKEHOLDER & TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Communicate delivery timelines and technical tradeoffs clearly to UpNext leadership
• Turn feedback from coaches and recruiting staff into technical priorities
• Help shape the engineering team and hiring plan as UpNext grows

PROCESS & OPERATIONS

• Own UpNext's weekly release cycle, including code review and QA before changes reach coaches
• Manage bug triage and prioritization across the roadmap
• Improve testing, observability, and deployment where they make development faster and safer
• Evolve engineering processes as the team grows

GROWTH PATH - FIRST 3 MONTHS

MONTH 1: FOUNDATION

• Learn the architecture, integrations, data flows, and technical risks of the existing codebase
• Develop a deep understanding of the UpNext platform: Search, Smart Lists, Insights, Team Pages, Athlete Profiles, and Activity Feed
• Learn the recruiting and transfer portal domain, including NCAA transfer rules and portal data sources
• Ship your first improvements to production

MONTH 2: GROWING OWNERSHIP

• Take point on feature development and technical decisions
• Begin presenting in the weekly product/leadership meeting
• Start owning coach and stakeholder technical communications
• Take over the release and QA process

MONTH 3: INDEPENDENCE

• Own the technical roadmap and architecture end to end
• Own the weekly release cycle and delivery timelines
• Contribute to high-level strategy discussions for UpNext's next phase of growth

ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

• Shape UpNext's engineering culture and processes as the team scales
• Build out the engineering team
• Deepen expertise in the college sports recruiting and transfer portal space
• Contribute to strategic conversations about UpNext's product direction and data strategy
• This is just a starter list… many more TBD!

QUALIFICATIONS

• 5–7 years building and running production software, with end-to-end ownership (founding or first-engineer experience is a plus)
• Strong full-stack skills in TypeScript, Next.js/React, and Postgres (Supabase), including APIs, third-party integrations, and asynchronous workflows
• Experience developing and owning complex ETL pipelines at scale
• Experience shipping LLM-enabled features and working with AI coding agents (agentic or long-running workflows are a plus)
• Solid CS fundamentals
• Clear communication with founders and other non-engineering stakeholders
• Open to Hybrid in Charlotte and New York City and remote

We care more about demonstrated ability, judgment, passion, and ownership than exact years of experience or résumé shape.

NICE TO HAVE

• Experience working with Supabase, Tailwind CSS, GCP tools and services
• Experience working with Devin (Cognition's AI engineer)
• Former college athlete and/or founding engineer experience
• A portfolio of passion projects or past initiatives that you have directly built or majority was contributed by you

COMPENSATION

Base salary: $120,000 to $200,000, depending on experience and demonstrated ability. This is a founding role with meaningful equity vesting over four years.

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES STATEMENT

Must be able to perform all essential functions of this position with reasonable accommodation.

EEO STATEMENT

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our goal is to be a diverse workforce that is representative, at all job levels, of the communities we serve. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veterans' status, and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability or any other applicable legally protected characteristic.

Note: This role will evolve as you grow and take on additional responsibilities. Regular check-ins will help adjust expectations and identify growth opportunities.