Technical Lead

About Sand Sand Technologies is a global Physical AI company using data and AI to make critical industries work better. We partner with governments, cities and enterprises to improve how essential systems operate across healthcare, water, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure. Our work delivers proven real-world impact. We have built AI systems that help manage London’s water supply, supported telecom network planning across hundreds of cities, and developed digital healthcare platforms serving tens of millions of people across Africa. From intelligent command centers to AI-powered infrastructure platforms, we help organizations sense, analyze and act in complex environments. Our people are ambitious, curious and relentlessly practical. Our teams work alongside clients in the field, solving hard problems and deploying solutions that last. With colleagues across Africa, Europe, the UK and the US, we operate across the full stack - from research and engineering to deployment and capability building. Our mission is simple: to harness AI to solve humanity’s most pressing challenges. About the role The primary responsibility for this technical leadership role is the delivery of production-level intelligent solutions. The role encompasses client management and enabling of shared client interests. Working alongside the AI Solutions Director and Product Manager, you will provide technical input to scoping discussions and drive delivery of agreed outputs by a cross-functional squad. This is a player-manager role. You will be expected to contribute directly to technical delivery alongside leading the squad What you’ll do - Lead technical delivery across the full solution stack — from data ingestion and processing pipelines through to API and application layers — ensuring quality, reliability, and security throughout. - Act as the primary technical point of contact for the client, building strong relationships with their engineering and operations teams and representing Sand's technical approach with confidence. - Lead and mentor a cross-functional squad of data engineers, data scientists, and software engineers, setting standards and providing direction through code reviews and architectural decisions. - Work closely with the Solution Architect to translate design into day-to-day delivery decisions, managing technical risk and escalating where needed. - Work closely with the Product Manager, taking the product scope and breaking it into pieces of work that the cross-functional team can delivery - Contribute hands-on to delivery alongside leading the team, maintaining a strong understanding of the codebase and platform at all times. - Be at the client site working directly with the technical team to deliver the production system Who you are - 7+ years in a technical role, with at least 2 years in a technical lead or equivalent player-manager capacity — proven track record leading technical delivery, not just contributing to it, ideally in a client-facing or consulting delivery model. - Able to work across both software and data engineering; comfortable reviewing and unblocking React/TypeScript frontend work, Python (FastAPI/Django) or .NET backend work, and Azure data pipeline work — even if you don't write every line yourself. - Hands-on experience delivering on Microsoft Azure — specifically Event Hubs, Azure Data Lake, Azure Databricks, Azure Digital Twins, AKS/containers, and Azure AI services. - Comfortable being the primary technical face of Sand to a client in a regulated, critical-infrastructure environment — able to translate technical trade-offs for non-technical stakeholders and hold your own with client architects. - A track record of setting engineering standards and mentoring engineers through delivery, not just managing tickets. - Able to work autonomously in a small, internationally distributed team while staying tightly coordinated with a Solution Architect and wider delivery organisation. - Relevant Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field. - Tech stack: - - Azure: Event Hubs, Data Lake, Databricks, Azure Digital Twins, AKS, Azure AI services - Backend: Python (FastAPI / Django), .NET - Frontend: React, TypeScript What you will bring 7+ years of engineering across multiple stacks and domains, shipping and operating production systems that mattered. Genuine breadth. Not "full-stack" as in React-plus-an-API — full-stack as in the whole system: - Infrastructure (emphasis): Kubernetes, containers, networking, IaC — across AWS, Azure, and on-premises. You've run production infrastructure, not just deployed to it. - Backend: distributed services and stateful systems in Python and Node.js/TypeScript, on relational databases you know deeply. - Data engineering: pipelines, CDC/streaming, orchestration — moving heterogeneous data reliably at scale. - ML ops: serving and operating models and LLM systems in production, including offline environments. - Frontend: enough real experience to design, review, and build when needed. You won't be world-class at all of these — nobody is. Strong in most, dangerous in the rest, unafraid of any. System design earned the hard way — you know what breaks at scale because you've been paged for it. Range between IC and lead — you've led teams, you've been the strongest contributor on them, and you can tell which one a situation needs. Agency. You don't need all the requirements or someone telling you exactly what they want. Given a problem and a direction, you work your way around obstacles to an outcome. Fast learning as a default state. New domain, new stack, new constraint — never intimidated by a problem you haven't seen before. Sleeves rolled up, always. You get stuff done — then you own that stuff. Advantageous - Experience in utilities, or other regulated/asset-intensive sectors — particularly operational technology (OT), SCADA integration, or control-room environments. - Familiarity with environmental compliance, pollution event management, or network asset monitoring in a utility context. - Microsoft certifications (AZ-204, AZ-400, AI-102), Databricks, or other relevant cloud/data credentials. - Knowledge of data governance, quality frameworks, and security practices in regulated environments — particularly within an Azure landing zone. How we work Due to the highly collaborative and internationally distributed nature of our work, successful candidates must be comfortable operating in small teams while contributing to larger, globally coordinated efforts. A strong sense of ownership, self-motivation and discipline in maintaining clear and consistent communication through virtual collaboration tools and video conferencing is essential.