Client Engineering Lead

Who We Are

Impruve is a boutique forward-deployed engineering firm that helps wealth management firms get real business results from AI. We embed directly with our clients to build production data pipelines, AI tools, custom software, and compliance infrastructure for top-tier firms managing billions in client assets. We have more demand than we can currently serve, and we're growing the team to meet it.

Our founders previously built and exited Packback, an AI company that served more than 3 million users. We operate with the speed of a small startup and the rigor of a top firm.

We're four engineers right now, and we're building how we work on purpose, not backfilling a culture after the fact. We care about doing right by clients and by each other. We take the work seriously: real client money, real compliance risk, real production systems. We do team-wide retros every two months to make sure we're all on the same page and continually improving.

We pair early and often, across the team, because it's how we actually get better. If you notice something interesting mid-task, we want you to flag it and pull someone in, not disappear down a rabbit hole solo. When something breaks, we run blameless postmortems; the point is fixing the system, not finding someone to blame.

We don't expect you to walk in with all the answers. Nobody here has them either. We expect you to be scrappy: willing to try something, see what happens, and figure it out with the team rather than wait until you're sure.

You won't be joining something fully formed. You'd be joining our founding engineering team, with real say in how this team works, not just what it ships.

Why This Role

Most wealth management firms want AI in their business and have access to the frontier models. What’s missing is the engineering capability to deploy it effectively and compliantly. What’s also missing is someone who can own the delivery end-to-end, from the client conversation through production. That’s the gap this role fills.

You’d lead client engagements as the person who holds both sides: managing the engineers building the system and managing the client relationship that shapes it. You’re hands-on technical enough to make real architecture calls, and comfortable enough in the room to run the client conversation without backup.

What You’ll Do

• Own Client Engagements End-to-End: You’re the single point of accountability for a client pod. You scope the work with the client, manage the engineers delivering it, and make sure what ships actually changes how the client operates.
• Manage Engineers: Lead a small pod of engineers. Set priorities, unblock work, run the day-to-day. We pair early and often, and you’d be part of that, not above it.
• Stay Hands-On: This isn’t a pure people-management role. You’re writing code, reviewing architecture, and prototyping alongside your team. The pod stays leaner because you carry technical weight, not just coordination overhead.
• Bridge Engineering and Business: Translate between client stakeholders and the engineering team. You gather requirements, manage expectations, and make the hard calls about scope and tradeoffs, then help the team execute.
• Work AI-Natively: AI coding tools are how we build. You’re fluent with agentic development workflows and you continuously refine how AI multiplies your team’s output.
• Shape the Firm: You’d have a real hand in how we run engagements and how Impruve scales. We’re building a practice, not just executing projects.

What You’ll Bring to the Team

• 2+ Years of Hands-On Engineering Experience: You’ve built and operated production systems. You may have moved into management, but you haven’t lost the ability to ship.
• Experience Managing Engineers or Leading a Team: Formal EM title or not, you’ve been the person responsible for a team’s output and for unblocking them. If you came from an org without a dedicated PM function, even better: you’ve already played the hybrid role.
• Comfortable in the Room: You hold your own in front of clients. You can explain technical concepts without oversimplifying or hiding behind jargon, including the hard conversations about scope and tradeoffs.
• Cross-Domain Fluency: You move comfortably between data, infrastructure, backend, and AI. You don’t need to be an expert in all four, but you can make sound calls and own an engagement without constant escalation.
• AI-Native Mindset: You’re excited about AI as a force multiplier. You actively experiment with AI tools and bring what you learn back to the team.
• Bias for Outcomes: You judge your own work by what changed for the client, not by what you produced.

Stack: Python, Node.js, Express, TypeScript, Next.js, MongoDB, Redis, AWS ECS, Docker, LangChain/LangGraph. We care more about sound judgment across domains than a checklist match.

Compensation

$130,000 to $200,000 all-cash compensation.

Our Workplace

We work on a hybrid in-person / remote schedule from our Chicago office, but we're open to fully remote for candidates outside Chicago. Close collaboration is part of how we build, and we make remote work well.

Because we pair frequently and work closely as a team, we hire in the US Central Time Zone. For exceptional candidates, we're open to ±1 hour (Eastern or Mountain).

Different Perspectives Make Us Better

Research consistently shows that women and people from underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to a role unless they check every box, while others apply anyway. If that's you: apply anyway. We care more about curiosity, scrappiness, and kindness than a perfect resume match, and we build a better team when the people on it don't all think alike.

Hiring Process

We respect your time. We keep the hiring process tight and decide quickly:

1. Intro call (45 minutes).
2. Team interview with the founders, including a working session on a realistic engineering problem.
3. Decision and offer.

Requires US work authorization; we can't sponsor visas.