AI-First Engineering Lead (ClipCrop)
Up toBGN 166,000per year on a full time, contractor contract Fully remote working anywhere inBulgaria! Exciting high growth product, relied on by leading global sports brands Working with the latest hardware, techstackand tools
ABOUT US
Storyteller is a fast-growing B2B SaaS platform that lets companies add rich, interactive Stories experiences to their apps and sites boosting engagement, retention, and revenue.
Our iOS, Android, and Web SDKs deliver a complete Stories experience out of the box, backed by a powerful content management and analytics platform that helps partners create and personalise immersive content.
We work with leading global brands, predominantly in sport so if you enjoy working on high-impact products, care about technology, and have an interest in sport, youll fit right in. AboutClipCrop
ClipCrop sits alongside our core product, Storyteller. It helps content teams turn long-form video into high-quality, on-brand clips for different channels automatically cropping, reframing and templating for each platform so they can publish much more, much faster.
Its AI-first and automation-heavy: youll be shaping how we detect key moments, generate clip variants, and route them into the right workflows and destinations and how we roll that out to our existing customer base.
This isnt a shut the door and code in isolation role, but you will be hands-on in the codebase. Youll lead on the technical side of ClipCrop setting patterns, tackling the hardest pieces, pairing, and reviewing and youll use AI heavily to do it.
Most of your impact will come from:
Framing problems and experiments
Designing workflows and systems (people + AI + code)
Leading the team through AI-assisted implementation and getting changes safely into production
If your ideal day is working alone perfecting hand-written code and youre not excited about using AI, pairing, and reviews to move the whole system forward, this probably wont be a good fit. RESPONSIBILITIES Own outcomes, not just tickets
Lead a squad of 24 engineers (mix of senior/junior) to deliver measurable product impact in ClipCrop.
Take messy, high-level goals (e.g. increase good clips published per week, reduce time from ingest to published clip) and turn them into clear bets, experiments, and success metrics.
Break work into small, reversible slices and ship on a steady cadence, rather than running long, risky projects.
Design systems, not just services
Map out workflows and systems (people + AI + code) that achieve the goal, then decide what actually needs to be built.
Decide when to use AI, when to automate, and when to keep a human in the loop and evolve that over time as we learn.
Ensure the team has the right services/APIs, data models and integrations in place sometimes by writing code yourself, often by guiding others and joining in at the sharp end when needed.
When you do write code, its typically in modern .NET with SQL Server on our multi-tenant SaaS platform, focusing on correctness, observability and reliability more than perfect architecture.
Design for reliable operation
Define what healthy means for ClipCrop (SLOs, key metrics, dashboards) and ensure the team can see and fix issues quickly.
Instrument services with logs/metrics/traces and hold the line on p95/p99 performance and availability where it matters.
Run incident reviews that produce systemic fixes and better documentation (runbooks, playbooks, dashboards) rather than one-off heroics.
Prioritise for the business
Partner with Product, Design and Customer teams to translate goals into scope; cut or resequence work when data changes.
Make trade-offs explicit: when to ship a simple thing now vs. invest in a more robust approach, based on impact and risk.
Communicate clearly with stakeholders about priorities, progress and changes no surprises.
Grow people and the codebase
Mentor engineers via pairing, reviews and 1:1s; create growth plans and celebrate momentum.
Keep standards high where it matters: tests in the right places, clear interfaces and intentional technical debt management.
Help the team improve how they reason about systems, not just individual functions or tickets.
Design AI-first workflows
Use AI tools by default for exploration, scaffolding, documentation and analysis then verify with tests, metrics and your own judgement.
Design processes where AI does the first 80% (e.g. clip suggestion, cropping, captions) and humans review, steer and handle edge cases.
Help the team adopt safe practices (no secrets, anonymised data, prompt discipline, simple evals) and evolve those over time.
Youre willing to delete your own code if an AI-generated or simpler approach gets us to the outcome faster.
Hire and onboard
Contribute to interviews and rubrics; help us identify people who think in systems and love solving problems with AI, not just writing code.
Onboard new teammates with clear goals, docs, and a first-week win that builds confidence and context.
QUALIFICATIONS
Musthaves
Technical leadership: youve led a small team (24 engineers) or a stream of work end-to-end, setting direction, unblocking work, and owning outcomes rather than just tasks.
End-to-end problem ownership: you can talk through at least one example where you took a fuzzy problem from were not even sure what to build through discovery, experiments, build, launch, iteration and scaling.
Practical problem solving: you start from constraints and business goals, not from technology for its own sake. You cut scope intelligently, make trade-offs explicit, and choose the smallest reversible step that works.
Clear, direct communication: you set crisp expectations with your team and stakeholders, explain decisions in simple language, and give kind-but-candid feedback that actually changes behaviour.
Ownership & accountability: you finish hard things, leave systems healthier than you found them (tests, monitoring, docs), and make accountability routine rather than personal.
Flexibility & product sense: you can change direction quickly based on new information without losing momentum, and youre comfortable saying we should stop doing this as well as we should do this next.
AI-native mindset: your instinct is to ask how can AI and automation do most of this work? and then design the system, not Ill build everything from scratch myself. Youre comfortable using AI tools and just as comfortable verifying and correcting them.
You dont need to have Tech Lead in your title today, but you should already be acting as the person who joins the dots, makes decisions and drives things over the line.
Nice to have
Cloud & infra: experience with Azure (or an equivalent cloud), CI/CD, feature flags, safe rollouts/rollbacks.
Experience with media/video pipelines, image or video processing at scale, or content/analytics products.
Experience in any modern backend stack and relational database; we use modern .NET and SQL Server, but were happy to hire smart people from other stacks who can learn quickly.
Interest in sport and fan engagement (helpful, not required).
We value capability and trajectory over checklists. If youre strong on most of the must-haves and excited about the role, wed like to hear from you. Is this You?
This role will likely suit you if:
You get energy from messy problems and figuring out how to solve them, not from polishing code in isolation.
You like designing systems, workflows and experiments, then using code + AI + people to make them real.
Youre happy that what you do day-to-day will shift over time as tools and products evolve.
It probably isnt right for you if:
Your favourite days are spent writing code end-to-end yourself, and youre reluctant to hand work to AI or other engineers.
You mainly want to perfect architecture or critique AI-generated code, rather than decide what the system should do and how well know if its working.
RECRUITMENT PROCESS Step 1 -Intro with the hiring manager (30 min)
A focused conversation about the role, Storypilot, and your experience leading small teams and solving messy problems. No coding.
By the end of this call were aiming for a clear yes, lets go deeper or no, not the right fit for both of us. Step 2 -Paid take home
A small task in our stack plus two short written prompts about how you approached it and how youd evolve it. AI tools are welcome; we care how you reason, how you verify outputs, and how you trade off options. Step 3 -Review + pairing + interview (75-90 min)
We walk through your submission, pair to extend it, and discuss your past work, decision-making and leadership. We use anchored rubrics and share clear feedback. How we evaluate
We focus on your ability to structure problems, make sound decisions quickly, and use AI + code as tools to deliver outcomes. Were not optimising for people who want to spend all day writing code; were optimising for problem-solving engineers.
----------------------
Privacy Notice We process your personal data for recruitment purposes in line with UK data protection law. AI tools may assist in reviewing applications, but decisions are made by our team. We retain data only as necessary for recruitment and compliance. You can request access or deletion of your data at any time by emailing careers@getstoryteller.com.
About the job
Apply for this position
AI-First Engineering Lead (ClipCrop)
Up toBGN 166,000per year on a full time, contractor contract Fully remote working anywhere inBulgaria! Exciting high growth product, relied on by leading global sports brands Working with the latest hardware, techstackand tools
ABOUT US
Storyteller is a fast-growing B2B SaaS platform that lets companies add rich, interactive Stories experiences to their apps and sites boosting engagement, retention, and revenue.
Our iOS, Android, and Web SDKs deliver a complete Stories experience out of the box, backed by a powerful content management and analytics platform that helps partners create and personalise immersive content.
We work with leading global brands, predominantly in sport so if you enjoy working on high-impact products, care about technology, and have an interest in sport, youll fit right in. AboutClipCrop
ClipCrop sits alongside our core product, Storyteller. It helps content teams turn long-form video into high-quality, on-brand clips for different channels automatically cropping, reframing and templating for each platform so they can publish much more, much faster.
Its AI-first and automation-heavy: youll be shaping how we detect key moments, generate clip variants, and route them into the right workflows and destinations and how we roll that out to our existing customer base.
This isnt a shut the door and code in isolation role, but you will be hands-on in the codebase. Youll lead on the technical side of ClipCrop setting patterns, tackling the hardest pieces, pairing, and reviewing and youll use AI heavily to do it.
Most of your impact will come from:
Framing problems and experiments
Designing workflows and systems (people + AI + code)
Leading the team through AI-assisted implementation and getting changes safely into production
If your ideal day is working alone perfecting hand-written code and youre not excited about using AI, pairing, and reviews to move the whole system forward, this probably wont be a good fit. RESPONSIBILITIES Own outcomes, not just tickets
Lead a squad of 24 engineers (mix of senior/junior) to deliver measurable product impact in ClipCrop.
Take messy, high-level goals (e.g. increase good clips published per week, reduce time from ingest to published clip) and turn them into clear bets, experiments, and success metrics.
Break work into small, reversible slices and ship on a steady cadence, rather than running long, risky projects.
Design systems, not just services
Map out workflows and systems (people + AI + code) that achieve the goal, then decide what actually needs to be built.
Decide when to use AI, when to automate, and when to keep a human in the loop and evolve that over time as we learn.
Ensure the team has the right services/APIs, data models and integrations in place sometimes by writing code yourself, often by guiding others and joining in at the sharp end when needed.
When you do write code, its typically in modern .NET with SQL Server on our multi-tenant SaaS platform, focusing on correctness, observability and reliability more than perfect architecture.
Design for reliable operation
Define what healthy means for ClipCrop (SLOs, key metrics, dashboards) and ensure the team can see and fix issues quickly.
Instrument services with logs/metrics/traces and hold the line on p95/p99 performance and availability where it matters.
Run incident reviews that produce systemic fixes and better documentation (runbooks, playbooks, dashboards) rather than one-off heroics.
Prioritise for the business
Partner with Product, Design and Customer teams to translate goals into scope; cut or resequence work when data changes.
Make trade-offs explicit: when to ship a simple thing now vs. invest in a more robust approach, based on impact and risk.
Communicate clearly with stakeholders about priorities, progress and changes no surprises.
Grow people and the codebase
Mentor engineers via pairing, reviews and 1:1s; create growth plans and celebrate momentum.
Keep standards high where it matters: tests in the right places, clear interfaces and intentional technical debt management.
Help the team improve how they reason about systems, not just individual functions or tickets.
Design AI-first workflows
Use AI tools by default for exploration, scaffolding, documentation and analysis then verify with tests, metrics and your own judgement.
Design processes where AI does the first 80% (e.g. clip suggestion, cropping, captions) and humans review, steer and handle edge cases.
Help the team adopt safe practices (no secrets, anonymised data, prompt discipline, simple evals) and evolve those over time.
Youre willing to delete your own code if an AI-generated or simpler approach gets us to the outcome faster.
Hire and onboard
Contribute to interviews and rubrics; help us identify people who think in systems and love solving problems with AI, not just writing code.
Onboard new teammates with clear goals, docs, and a first-week win that builds confidence and context.
QUALIFICATIONS
Musthaves
Technical leadership: youve led a small team (24 engineers) or a stream of work end-to-end, setting direction, unblocking work, and owning outcomes rather than just tasks.
End-to-end problem ownership: you can talk through at least one example where you took a fuzzy problem from were not even sure what to build through discovery, experiments, build, launch, iteration and scaling.
Practical problem solving: you start from constraints and business goals, not from technology for its own sake. You cut scope intelligently, make trade-offs explicit, and choose the smallest reversible step that works.
Clear, direct communication: you set crisp expectations with your team and stakeholders, explain decisions in simple language, and give kind-but-candid feedback that actually changes behaviour.
Ownership & accountability: you finish hard things, leave systems healthier than you found them (tests, monitoring, docs), and make accountability routine rather than personal.
Flexibility & product sense: you can change direction quickly based on new information without losing momentum, and youre comfortable saying we should stop doing this as well as we should do this next.
AI-native mindset: your instinct is to ask how can AI and automation do most of this work? and then design the system, not Ill build everything from scratch myself. Youre comfortable using AI tools and just as comfortable verifying and correcting them.
You dont need to have Tech Lead in your title today, but you should already be acting as the person who joins the dots, makes decisions and drives things over the line.
Nice to have
Cloud & infra: experience with Azure (or an equivalent cloud), CI/CD, feature flags, safe rollouts/rollbacks.
Experience with media/video pipelines, image or video processing at scale, or content/analytics products.
Experience in any modern backend stack and relational database; we use modern .NET and SQL Server, but were happy to hire smart people from other stacks who can learn quickly.
Interest in sport and fan engagement (helpful, not required).
We value capability and trajectory over checklists. If youre strong on most of the must-haves and excited about the role, wed like to hear from you. Is this You?
This role will likely suit you if:
You get energy from messy problems and figuring out how to solve them, not from polishing code in isolation.
You like designing systems, workflows and experiments, then using code + AI + people to make them real.
Youre happy that what you do day-to-day will shift over time as tools and products evolve.
It probably isnt right for you if:
Your favourite days are spent writing code end-to-end yourself, and youre reluctant to hand work to AI or other engineers.
You mainly want to perfect architecture or critique AI-generated code, rather than decide what the system should do and how well know if its working.
RECRUITMENT PROCESS Step 1 -Intro with the hiring manager (30 min)
A focused conversation about the role, Storypilot, and your experience leading small teams and solving messy problems. No coding.
By the end of this call were aiming for a clear yes, lets go deeper or no, not the right fit for both of us. Step 2 -Paid take home
A small task in our stack plus two short written prompts about how you approached it and how youd evolve it. AI tools are welcome; we care how you reason, how you verify outputs, and how you trade off options. Step 3 -Review + pairing + interview (75-90 min)
We walk through your submission, pair to extend it, and discuss your past work, decision-making and leadership. We use anchored rubrics and share clear feedback. How we evaluate
We focus on your ability to structure problems, make sound decisions quickly, and use AI + code as tools to deliver outcomes. Were not optimising for people who want to spend all day writing code; were optimising for problem-solving engineers.
----------------------
Privacy Notice We process your personal data for recruitment purposes in line with UK data protection law. AI tools may assist in reviewing applications, but decisions are made by our team. We retain data only as necessary for recruitment and compliance. You can request access or deletion of your data at any time by emailing careers@getstoryteller.com.