Job Description
Job Description
About Workshop Venture Partners
Workshop Venture Partners is a venture studio that partners with founders to build startups in climate and education. Led by Chad and Eleanor Laurans, co-founders of SimpliSafe, our team of entrepreneurs, engineers, and strategists leverage deep industry and customer insights to identify urgent, unsolved problems and support founders in developing breakthrough innovations.
The Opportunity
We're seeking an exceptional Principal Engineer and Product Leader to join our core team and play a pivotal role in our venture builds.
This is a unique opportunity to shape both the technical and product direction of multiple startups from inception, working alongside experienced entrepreneurs and investors.
About You
You are a true polymath who loves to do it all. You are driven to deeply understand customers and their needs, translate that into the why of a product or service, build multiple throw-away prototypes, and turn the best into a compelling MVP.
Having built products from the ground up, you enjoy the fast pace of the earliest stages of company building and collaborating with small, but nimble teams.
You spike in Hardware / Firmware development and have built successful hardware products in your day job, while nights and weekends you build web and mobile apps and try out the latest AI because it’s fun.
Key Responsibilities
Serve as the primary technical and product leader for new venture builds, providing hands-on leadership for the crucial first 1-2 years
Be deeply hands-on : writing code, designing user experiences, and building core systems yourself in the early stages of each venture;
hiring, managing, and collaborating with growing product and engineering teams in the later stages
Work closely with founders and designers to rapidly prototype, iterate, and scale new products based on customer insights
As the product matures, architect and implement scalable, production-ready systems across the full stack while also driving product strategy and user experience design
Recruit, mentor, and guide early engineering and product teams as they grow, helping to establish best practices and a customer-centric culture
Contribute to technical and product due diligence and opportunity evaluation for potential new ventures
Collaborate with Workshop partners to shape overall technical and product strategy and innovation
Qualifications
8+ years of combined software engineering and product management experience, with a track record of leadership in fast-paced, zero-to-one environments
Exceptional Hardware / Firmware development skills and product design capabilities, with deep expertise in at least one area (e.
g., EE, FW, AI / ML, UX design)
Demonstrated ability to quickly learn and adapt to new technologies, domains, and customer needs
Strong product vision and experience translating customer needs into compelling product experiences
Comfortable with ambiguity and able to make pragmatic technical and product decisions in the face of uncertainty
Entrepreneurial mindset with a passion for creating innovative solutions to complex problems and strong bias toward optimism
Excellent communication skills, able to explain complex technical and product concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
Alignment with Workshop's values :
Co-founder mentality : Bring the perspective of having done this before, and be a "doer" that rolls up your sleeves to partner alongside founders
Tailored support : Provide full attention and resources to each founding team
Founder-first approach : Support and accelerate the founder's long-term leadership and journey
Ideal Candidates May Have
Experience as a technical co-founder or early engineer / product leader at successful startups
Background in rapid prototyping, product discovery methodologies, and user research
Expertise in relevant domains such as EdTech, Climate Tech, or AI / ML
Track record of open source contributions or side projects demonstrating technical and product breadth
Our Tech Stack
While you'll have the opportunity to shape the technology choices for each new venture, here's an overview of the stack we typically use :
Hardware : depends on use case (ie, bare metal, RTOS, embedded Linux); starting with existing purchased hardware for prototyping wherever possible
Frontend : React with TypeScript
Mobile : React Native with TypeScript
Backend : Node.js with TypeScript; Python for ML features
Databases : MongoDB, Postgres
Cloud : AWS (ECS or EKS for Docker containers, Amplify for static web app deployment)
CI / CD : GitHub Actions
Testing : Jest & Playwright for Unit, Integration & E2E Tests
Development : NX for monorepo management
Design : Figma, Miro, Canva
We're always open to leveraging new technologies that best fit the needs of each venture.
Compensation
Compensation is weighted towards sharing in the upside of the Workshop portfolio with significant carry in the fund. Base cash compensation commensurate with candidate experience.
We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and experiences.