Head of Engineering

Department: Engineering

Location: New York City

Employment Type: FullTime

About Hook

Hook is a social music platform, backed by top-tier investors, building the next generation of music discovery, fan expression, and creator growth. We turn the songs people love into sounds they can play with — enabling fans and creators to reimagine music through intuitive, remix-friendly experiences with zero learning curve. By partnering directly with artists, labels, and rightsholders, Hook ensures music is discovered, shared, and expressed in ways that respect and reward the people behind it. At Hook, music isn’t just consumed — it’s experienced, expressed, and made personal.

Role Overview

We’re looking for a Head of Engineering to establish and lead best-practice engineering processes as we scale the company. This is a senior leadership role responsible for setting our technical vision, building and scaling the engineering team, and ensuring high-quality execution across all product areas.

You’ll work closely with the founders and product leadership to translate company goals into a scalable, reliable, and pragmatic technical roadmap.

What You’ll Do

Engineering Leadership & Process

• Establish and continuously improve engineering best practices appropriate for our stage of company

• Set clear standards around code quality, reliability, security, documentation, and delivery

• Build lightweight but effective processes that enable speed without sacrificing quality

Team Building & Scaling

• Lead and grow a lean engineering organization

• Scale the team thoughtfully in line with company growth goals

• Hire, mentor, and retain high-performing engineers

• Balance internal hires and contractors to maximize efficiency and flexibility

• Create a strong engineering culture focused on ownership, collaboration, and execution

Technical Strategy & Architecture

• Own the company’s technical strategy and long-term architecture

• Make key decisions on tech stack, infrastructure, and tooling

• Architect scalable, reliable systems that can grow with the business

• Lead execution on complex technical projects and unblock high-risk initiatives

• Ensure engineering decisions align with business priorities and product roadmap

Delivery, Alignment & Execution

• Be accountable for delivering high-quality technology that supports product and platform goals

• Track engineering output and progress across teams, ensuring work is visible and measurable

• Align closely with Product, Design, and other stakeholders to set clear expectations and timelines

• Ensure projects ship on time, with the right level of quality, scope, and predictability

• Proactively identify risks, unblock teams, and course-correct when needed

Required Skills & Experience

• Proven experience leading engineering teams in a startup or high-growth environment

• Strong technical background with the ability to be hands-on when needed

• Demonstrated ability to scale teams and systems in a lean, pragmatic way

• Comfortable operating in ambiguity - able to make sound decisions and keep teams moving forward without perfect information

• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for quality, delivery, and outcomes

• Experience introducing structure and process that improves execution without becoming cumbersome

• Ability to track output across teams and create clarity around priorities, timelines, and expectations

• Excellent communicator who can align engineering work with product and business goals

• Experience managing engineering contactors and vendor relationships

Why This Role Matters

This role will shape how engineering operates at the company—how we build, how we scale, and how we execute. You’ll have significant ownership, influence, and the opportunity to build a world-class engineering function from the ground up.

Compensation

Competitive base salary, meaningful equity ownership, and the opportunity to build and lead growth at a fast-growing consumer company.

For U.S.-based roles, the base salary range for this position is $190K - $220K, with additional equity and benefits. Final compensation will be determined based on experience, location, and role level.