Tech Lead Manager

Department: Software & AI

Location: London, UK

Employment Type: FullTime

Orbital uses AI to build data center hardware that outperforms the competition. Our AI simulates materials at the atomic level, tests millions of hardware configurations in the time traditional methods test hundreds and finds optimal designs - not just good ones. The result is shipped hardware with specs incumbents can't match.

Every deployment generates field data that improves our AI models. Better models produce better hardware. Better hardware enables more capable AI. The loop is already closed and tightening with each build cycle. We are not just beneficiaries of AI progress, we are a lever on its rate.

Data Centers are where we start, because the market is urgent and the specs are demanding. But the AI-accelerated development process we've built - materials discovery, hardware design, manufacturing optimization - applies to any complex physical system. Data Centers are the proof point, not the ceiling.

We have sites in London, Canada and the USA, building teams across ML research, Product development, Mechanical engineering, and Chemical engineering. If you want to work where AI meets atoms, we'd like to hear from you.

Role Overview

Orbital’s internal AI software platform is used by our materials scientists, hardware engineers and manufacturing engineers to design and build our products serving critical industries. Powering this software are our world leading AI models in advanced materials, hardware engineering and simulation.

As Tech Lead Manager at Orbital you will own the design and delivery of this software platform, called Curie. An example of a feature you may have to design and deliver is a single context graph across materials, engineering and manufacturing for our AI agents.

In this role you will also provide technical leadership and management - setting high engineering standards, driving projects from prototype to production deployment, and managing a software team.

First and foremost, we want to work with someone with a love of craftsmanship, continual learning and building systems that scale.

Key Responsibilities

Own engineering of the Curie platform

• Architecture: Define and evolve the technical blueprint for Curie, ensuring scalability, security, and maintainability.

• Quality: Establish and enforce rigorous standards for code quality, testing, monitoring, and overall system reliability.

• Delivery: Drive efficient and predictable delivery of high-quality software features in alignment with product goals and timelines.

Build and scale the team

• Hiring: Lead the recruitment process for new engineers, focusing on attracting top-tier talent that aligns with Orbital's technical and cultural requirements.

• Mentoring: Provide guidance, support, and professional development opportunities to the engineering team to foster continuous growth and skill enhancement.

• Establishing engineering culture as we grow internationally: Define, promote, and maintain a high-performance, collaborative, and inclusive engineering culture across all current and future global offices.

What We’re Looking For

• 6+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a focus on backend engineering, with at least 2 years in a technical leadership or management role.

• Proven experience shipping and iterating on user-facing products, with a strong sense of what makes software useful, reliable and delightful

• The ability to move fluently between hands-on engineering and people management

• Strong product instincts and the ability to partner closely with product, design and stakeholders to shape roadmaps, make scope trade-offs and deliver meaningful outcomes

• Solid engineering fundamentals with the ability to set high standards for code quality, system architecture and engineering practices across a team

• Experience building and growing high-performing engineering teams — hiring, developing talent, giving clear feedback, and creating an environment where people do the best work of their careers

• Can balance technical depth with strategic thinking.

• A genuine interest in building software that enables breakthrough scientific and industrial applications, and the ability to translate that ambition into concrete plans a team can rally behind

• Bonus: Previous experience working in an AI/ML environment - you don't need to be an ML engineer, but familiarity with the workflows, tooling and pace of AI teams is a real advantage

  Upon reading Hamming's You and Your Research, you resonate with quotes such as:

  • "Yes, I would like to do first-class work"

  • "You should do your job in such a fashion that others can build on top of it, so they will indeed say, 'Yes, I've stood on so and so's shoulders and I saw further.'"

  • "Instead of attacking isolated problems, I made the resolution that I would never again solve an isolated problem except as characteristic of a class"

  Why Join Orbital?

• Competitive salary and equity package - the ability to own part of Orbital as we grow

• Flexible and generous paid time off

• Excellent health, dental and vision insurance plan

• Regular company off-sites to the USA and beyond

• The experience of working in a cutting-edge organisation dedicated to a better future

Orbital is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.