---
title: 'Tech Lead at Kavak'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/tech-lead-kavak-sao-paulo-3dfmy23b9z3e'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# Tech Lead at Kavak

- **Company:** Kavak
- **Location:** São Paulo, Brazil
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-07
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/kavak/f34e236a-7a71-4151-af72-010ebc88ff1e

## Job description

## About Kavak

As the first Mexican unicorn, with a presence in several countries and an AI-first business model, Kavak is redefining the used car market and the experience of millions of users in LatAm. We have been one of the most highly valued companies in the region and recently closed a USD $300M investment round led by Andreessen Horowitz, one of the largest investments they have made in Latin America. With this growth, we are excited to add people who will help us build the next chapter of our product and take our efforts to build with artificial intelligence to the next level.

We build with AI across our core operation: from conversational commerce, to generative marketing, to systems that extract insights from millions of interactions. We are a team that imagines the impossible, builds it, and lives disruption, proactivity, and ambition in a hypergrowth context.

## About the role

As Tech Lead in our new development team in Brazil, you will build the technology that powers Kavak’s processes in the country. The Purchasing platform is already live and you will keep it running, develop the Sales platform, and make sure everything reaches production. You will also start Car Journey from scratch, with a focus on the customer lifecycle.

You will lead a team of 5 engineers across Brazil and Argentina, report to the Senior Engineering Manager, and stay hands-on. You will help develop/customize core services, create localized tools and bring our AI harness from Mexico to Brazil and build specialized agents that fulfill what each customer wants to do (buy, sell, get a loan, renegotiate), with a personalized agent for every customer.

## Responsibilities

Technical leadership and architecture

- Own the quality of the code and architecture the team produces.
- Design solution architectures and be able to explain what was built at a low level of detail.
- Make critical technical decisions that shape product direction and business results.
- Keep AI as a core component of the design.

## Team leadership

- Coordinate a team of 5 engineers located in Brazil and Argentina.
- Stay hands-on, writing code alongside the team.
- Foster a culture of high ownership, where the team decides what to build and how, instead of just closing tickets.

Product and business impact

- Align with Product and Business teams on the roadmap of our applications.
- Negotiate priorities, backlog, and scope with Product and Business.
- Take Purchasing, Sales, and Car Journey from roadmap to production.

## Requirements

- 7+ years of experience in software engineering.
- Professional experience with Java or Go
- Strong backend experience with microservices and APIs.
- Experience designing solution architectures.
- Experience coordinating technology teams.
- Strong negotiation skills, including negotiating backlog with Product.
- Experience working in a fast-paced environment.

Plus:

- Familiarity with React Native, our frontend stack.
- Professional proficiency in Spanish

## Key qualities

- Proactive, and comfortable stepping out of your comfort zone to figure out what needs to be done.
- Experience at early-stage or growth-stage startups.
- Enthusiasm for working with AI-assisted development and agent-based products.

Kavak Talent Mindsets

- Deliver Impact: You prioritize what generates measurable results and raise the bar using technology and data. You have a consistent track record of delivering relevant and measurable results.
- Engage Fast: You act on problems and opportunities. You decide on time, advance in short cycles, and adjust when necessary without compromising standards.
- Engage with Purpose: You act with extreme ownership, taking total responsibility for results that impact your work and aligning decisions with Kavak's vision and purpose.
- Play to Win Together: You prioritize collective results over individual success.

## Benefits in Brazil

- Medical and dental coverage for you and your legal dependents
- Wellhub: physical activities and mental health support
- Meal and/or food voucher: credit on the Flash card, for you to choose where and how to use it
- Mobility support or transportation voucher
- Free on-site parking
- Chartered transportation (no deduction)
- Life insurance
- Amparo: To support for you and your family through the administrative, financial, and emotional challenges of losing a loved one
- Birthday day off
- Extended paternity leave
- Discount on car purchases from Kavak’s inventory, plus 4 inspections at a symbolic price, per current policy

## About Kavak

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Kavak is a technology-driven platform for buying, selling, financing, and managing pre-owned cars in emerging markets.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series E, valuation of $8.7 billion as of 2022)
- **Headquarters**: Mexico City, Mexico (Global HQ also listed as UAE)
- **Founded**: 2016
- **Founders**: Carlos García Ottati

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: E-commerce, Automotive (Used Cars), Financial Technology
- **Target customers**: B2C (individual car buyers and sellers), primarily in emerging markets
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To correct the vulnerabilities that cause risks and frauds in the transactions of the used car market and to provide access to financing opportunities.

## Products & Services
- **Kavak Marketplace (Buy & Sell)**: An e-commerce platform for buying and selling pre-owned cars with a 240-point inspection, 7-day return policy, and warranty included.
- **Kavak Crédito (Financing)**: Personal credit and automotive financing services, launched in November 2025, marking the company's entry into the financial services industry.
- **Kuna & Kavak Capital**: Other financial service brands offering additional lending and capital solutions.
- **Car Maintenance & After-Sales**: Services including vehicle reconditioning, repair, and quality certification through large-scale reconditioning centers.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: $8.7 billion (as of 2022 Series E round)
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue of $285M (estimated); Total Funding of $3.5B across 11 rounds.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: World's leading investors (specific names not listed in provided data); Partners include the Mexican Football Federation (FMF), Argentine Football Association (AFA), Uber (self-financing services), CONCACAF Champions Cup (sponsorship), and the NFL (commercial partner as of Dec 2025).
- **Growth Signals**: Operates in 8 countries (Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE); first unicorn in Mexico; largest used car platform in emerging markets; built the biggest reconditioning center in Latin America (São Paulo, Brazil, 2021); holds a 1.1% share of ~5 million annual used car transactions in Mexico (2024).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Inventory Ownership**: Kavak owns its inventory, eliminating middlemen and ensuring quality control.
- **Data & AI Pricing**: Proprietary algorithms collect public and internal data to project market trends, assess user ability to pay, and provide fair, transparent pricing.
- **Full-Lifecycle Service**: Covers the entire car ownership lifecycle (buy, finance, maintain, sell), creating high customer stickiness.
- **Emerging Market Focus**: Deep specialization in fragmented, high-inefficiency markets with massive growth potential.

## Strategic Focus
- **Financial Services Expansion**: Growing the financial segment (Kavak Crédito, Kuna, Kavak Capital) to offer more comprehensive solutions.
- **Geographic Expansion**: Continued presence and growth in LATAM and EMEA markets (including UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey).
- **Technology & Transparency**: Driving operational efficiency through technology to reduce fraud and risk in used car transactions.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as "game changers" with a culture based on creativity, empathy, and the will to win. Emphasizes a "people first" mentality, promoting diversity and inclusion.
- **Work Model**: Hybrid (roles listed in Mexico City, Buenos Aires) and remote options available depending on location and role.
- **Growth Trajectory**: Join one of the highest-valued private startups in Latin America, with rapid international expansion and a mission to transform a massive, traditional industry.
- **Team**: A global team of over 5,000 employees from 40+ nationalities, offering a diverse and international work environment.

## Sources
1. [kavak.com](https://www.kavak.com/)
2. [kavak.com/ae/about-us](https://www.kavak.com/ae/about-us)
3. [linkedin.com/company/kavakcom](https://linkedin.com/company/kavakcom)
4. [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavak_(company))
5. [jobs.lever.co/kavak](https://jobs.lever.co/kavak)

## Other roles at Kavak

- [Senior Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-kavak-buenos-aires-nfbm4kmye66v) — Buenos Aires, Argentina
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- [Senior Product Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-manager-kavak-mexico-city-9jgyzcm79t6m) — Mexico City, Mexico
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