ABOUT OPTIMIST

Optimist builds next-generation consumer experiences, service tracking, and predictive maintenance products for the HVAC industry. We are a lean, high-ownership team at an early and exciting stage the work you do here will be seen and felt by real users from week one.

THE ROLE

You will own the end-to-end technology capability at Optimist. That means architecture, DevOps, cloud infrastructure, security, privacy, and tech cost governance. You will manage the vendor relationship reviewing their output, enforcing standards, and planning the gradual transition of ownership in-house, if required.

You will also be a 30% individual contributor, writing code alongside the team. This is a player-coach role: you lead by doing, not by directing from a distance. The team you manage is small, which means your biggest leverage is in the systems, tooling, and defaults you establish, not in the hours you personally code.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Own technical architecture across the IoT, mobile, backend, and cloud layers

– Set up and manage CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure, and deployment environments

– Own security posture — API security, data encryption, access management, vulnerability management

– Own privacy compliance — data handling practices aligned with GDPR/DPDP requirements

– Manage cloud costs: budget, usage governance, and optimisation

– Manage the IOTify vendor relationship: code reviews, delivery standards, SLAs, and transition planning

– Hire, onboard, and mentor the HW/SW Interface + App Developer

– Support Zahid's transition into Data Engineering

– Contribute as an IC developer (~30% of time) on backend, infrastructure, or integration work

– Partner with the Head of Business Operations on delivery planning and technical trade-offs





– Evaluate and choose tooling, cloud services, and third-party integrations

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

– Engineering depth: 6–8 years in software engineering, with at least 3 years in a technical lead or architect role

– Cloud: Hands-on with AWS, GCP, or Azure — infrastructure-as-code (Terraform or CDK), managed services, cost governance

– DevOps: CI/CD (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or similar), containerisation (Docker/Kubernetes), observability and alerting

– Security & privacy: Practical knowledge of AppSec, API security, and data privacy regulations; secure-by-default mindset

– IoT: Familiarity with IoT protocols (MQTT, AMQP), device connectivity, and edge-to-cloud data flows

– Backend: Strong in Python or Node.js; REST and event-driven architectures; SQL and NoSQL databases

– Vendor management: Experience managing external development agencies — code reviews, quality standards, contract oversight

– Pragmatism: You configure well before you build from scratch. You choose managed services over maintenance overhead. You ship.

– Player-coach: Comfortable writing code and making architectural decisions in the same week

NICE TO HAVE

– Experience in IoT, connected devices, or consumer hardware products

– Familiarity with HVAC, predictive maintenance, or industrial IoT data

– Experience as a first or founding engineer at an early-stage company

– Exposure to React Native or Flutter

WHAT WE OFFER

– Direct impact from day one — no layers, no bureaucracy

– Work closely with senior leadership on decisions that shape the product and company

– Competitive compensation with performance-linked growth

– A team that takes quality seriously but ships with urgency

– The rare chance to build something from scratch in a domain ripe for disruption

📌 Lead Engineer (Bengaluru)
🏢 Octolife Climate Solutions
📍 Bengaluru