Head of Engineering

About Metsa.ai

Founded in 2025, Metsa.ai is a new AI-powered travel platform redefining how people discover nature destinations. We curate exceptional nature hotels, authentic outdoor experiences, and pure gastronomy across the Nordics and beyond, intelligently matching each traveller with the right place, season, and activities. We're a small, fast-moving team, and you will play a defining role in building the technical foundation that powers everything we ship. Learn more on our blog: Metsa Trails.

Role Description

We're looking for a Head of Engineering who can take full ownership of our technical direction and build an engineering culture that ships. You will define the architecture, lead from the front, and work directly with the founders and Head of Product to turn product vision into reality. This role sits at the intersection of technical leadership, hands-on engineering, and team building, requiring both architectural depth and the pragmatism to move fast in an early-stage environment.

You will work closely with:

• Head of Product
• Frontend & backend developers
• Data and AI specialists
• Founders and CEO

You don't need to be a generalist, but you should feel comfortable making opinionated decisions across backend, data, and AI and knowing when to delegate.

Key Responsibilities

• Define our architecture, stack, and engineering practices with collaborative input, decisive leadership, and full accountability.
• Build AI-native product experiences using the latest in LLMs, retrieval, and generative AI.
• Lead the technical roadmap from MVP onward, defining priorities, releases, and long-term direction.
• Translate product requirements into scalable, well-structured technical solutions.
• Work closely with the Head of Product to plan sprints, clarify requirements, and ensure high-quality delivery.
• Hire and grow a small, high-calibre engineering team as we scale.
• Maintain clean documentation, sound architecture decisions, and cross-team technical communication.
• Coordinate with data providers, hotels, and partners on integrations and API connectivity.
• Analyse system performance and user behaviour post-launch to drive continuous improvement.

Must-haves

• 5+ years of experience in senior engineering roles, including at least one early-stage or startup environment.
• Proven track record in building and shipping production systems across backend, data, and AI.
• Strong grasp of modern AI tooling, LLMs, retrieval systems, generative AI and how to build with them.
• Solid technical understanding across backend architecture, APIs, and data pipelines.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to align technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proactive, structured, and comfortable owning cross-functional delivery.
• Interest in nature-focused travel, hospitality, and experiences.

Why join Metsa.ai:

• Help shape a platform redefining how travellers discover nature-focused experiences.
• High autonomy and real technical ownership, no legacy systems, no red tape.
• Small, ambitious, collaborative team that moves fast and ships.
• Ability to define the engineering culture and stack from day one.
• Senior leadership role with a path to CTO as the company scales.
• Competitive compensation and a meaningful equity stake, aligned with role, impact, and growth over time.

How to apply:

If this sounds like the right role for you, please send your CV and a short introduction to [email protected]