--- title: 'Technical Lead at Sekai' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/technical-lead-sekai-san-francisco-1g5rmq77d78h' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-10' --- # Technical Lead at Sekai - **Company:** Sekai - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-05-21 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sekai/655d5942-2f0c-4ce6-83df-8e8184222672 ## Job description Sekai is building the TikTok for mini apps — an AI-driven consumer platform where people create, remix, share, and play interactive content instantly. We are a Series A company backed by Khosla, a16z, Mayfield, and A*, with $30M raised to date. We are remote-first across all positions and are looking for ambitious, AI-native builders who want to help shape the next generation of consumer social products. Here are Sekai’s download links: - Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=chat.sekai.app&hl=en_US - IOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sekai-create-remix-play/id6504506653 ## About the Role We are looking for a Technical Lead to drive technical execution across backend, frontend, mobile, AI, and data. This is not a traditional people-management role. You will act as a technical partner to the founders, product team, and engineering team — turning ambiguous product goals into clear technical plans, unblocking hard engineering problems, and helping us scale the technical team. Our current technical surface includes Python, Go, Next.js, React, React Native, Flutter, native iOS/Android, AI systems, data infrastructure, and recommendation systems. We do not expect deep expertise in every area. In the AI era, we believe strong engineering leaders should be able to use AI tools to quickly ramp up on new languages, frameworks, and codebases. ## Responsibilities - Lead technical execution across backend, frontend, mobile, AI, and data initiatives - Translate ambiguous product goals into clear technical plans, milestones, owners, and trade-offs - Dive deep into hard technical problems and help drive them to resolution - Partner with founders, product, design, and engineering on technical decisions - Coordinate cross-domain engineering work and remove execution blockers - Raise the bar for engineering quality, speed, reliability, and maintainability - Help define hiring needs, role requirements, interview criteria, and technical evaluation standards - Build internal AI workflows and foster an AI-native engineering culture ## Qualifications - 5+ years of professional software engineering experience - Experience leading large-scope technical work across multiple engineers, teams, or product areas - Experience as a Technical Lead, Tech Lead, Engineering Lead, Head of Engineering, CTO, Staff Engineer, or hands-on Engineering Manager - Strong engineering fundamentals and technical judgment across multiple domains - Deep familiarity with AI tools and ability to use AI to augment technical execution and decision-making - Ability to operate under ambiguity and turn unclear goals into executable plans - Strong communication skills with founders, product managers, designers, and engineers - Startup-level ownership, urgency, and willingness to dive into details ## Preferred Qualifications - Experience with agentic AI systems, LLM workflows, AI agents, or AI-assisted product creation - Experience with machine learning, recommendation systems, ranking, experimentation, or data pipelines - Experience building consumer-facing products, mobile products, social platforms, creator tools, or developer tools - Experience in a VC-backed startup or high-growth technology company - Experience hiring, interviewing, or defining technical bars for engineering roles ## What We Offer - Top compensation package, including competitive salary and meaningful equity - Comprehensive health insurance and benefits If you are excited about building at the frontier of AI, consumer social, and interactive entertainment, we would love to hear from you. At Sekai, you will work with an AI-native team, move fast, own meaningful problems, and have the flexibility to explore new ideas from an early stage. ## About Sekai ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Sekai is an AI-native social platform that lets anyone create, play, and remix interactive mini-apps (called "Sekais") using text prompts, turning software into shareable cultural artifacts. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series A; raised $20M in June 2026) - **Headquarters**: Sunnyvale, California, United States - **Founded**: 2023 (incorporated as Versa AI, Inc.) - **Founders**: Lucky Zhang ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: AI-powered social content / User-generated mini-apps / Generative interactivity - **Target customers**: B2C – consumers (especially younger demographics) who want to create, discover, and remix playful, utility, or fan-interaction mini-apps; also creators and potential celebrity partners. - **Mission or purpose statement**: To move beyond static content (text, image, video) and build the first ecosystem for "Generative Interactivity" – making software a medium for creative expression and social sharing. ## Products & Services - **[Sekai Platform (app + web)]**: An AI-driven platform (iOS, Android, and web) where users describe an idea in natural language and a mini-app is instantly generated. Apps can be utilities, quizzes, polls, cards, games, or fan experiences. Users can play, remix others' creations, and share them. Includes a creator monetization path (in development). **Type**: AI-powered SaaS / mobile app ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (private company). - **Key Metric**: Total funding – $26M ($20M Series A co-led by Khosla Ventures and Connect Ventures in June 2026, plus $6M seed led by Mayfield in 2025). Also received $3M in pre-seed/non-equity assistance in 2024. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Khosla Ventures, Connect Ventures (joint CAA/NEA), a16z Speedrun, Mayfield, A*, MVP Ventures, 359 Capital, Parable VC, 645 Ventures. Early backing from a16z Games Speedrun. - **Growth Signals**: - 15 million mini-apps created, with over 200,000 generated daily. - Users spend more than 1 hour per day on the app. - 550% YoY headcount growth (from ~3 to 16 employees). - 4,689 LinkedIn followers (+611.5% yearly). - Active hiring: 7 open positions as of July 2026. ## Competitive Advantages - **First-mover in AI-native social app creation**: Unlike traditional social media, Sekai enables true interactive creation – not just content consumption. - **Remix culture + low barrier**: Users can create without coding; remixing others' apps lowers friction and drives viral loops. - **Strong engagement metrics**: >1 hour daily usage signals product-market fit and user “obsession” (per investor Nicole Quinn). - **Founder track record**: Lucky Zhang previously sold startups to Apple (Yi+ AI) and ByteDance (Blacktail), showing execution and exit experience. ## Strategic Focus - **Scaling the creator economy**: Sekai plans to help creators earn money from their mini-apps and interactive fan experiences. - **Expanding partnerships**: Working with CAA on creator and celebrity partnerships. - **Hiring aggressively** for engineering, product, and AI roles to build out the platform and mobile experience. - **Broadening beyond anime/fan-fiction** (initial niche) into general-purpose mini-app creation as AI coding models improve. ## Why Work Here - **Culture of creativity and impact**: Sekai describes itself as the “first AI-native social platform” – employees get to build a new medium, moving beyond doomscrolling to active creation and interaction. - **Early-stage growth**: Very small team (16 people) with massive funding ($26M) and explosive user traction – high ownership and ability to shape product. - **Founder with serial success**: Working under Lucky Zhang, who has sold two companies to Apple and ByteDance, provides credible leadership and deep AI/social experience. - **Remote/hybrid policy**: Likely flexible; job postings on Ashby (e.g., AI Product Engineer) include "Remote" tag. HQ is in Sunnyvale, CA, but team spans US, Indonesia, Singapore, NZ. - **Notable perks/engineering culture**: Focus on rapid prototyping, AI tools, and user-generated content. Roles posted include "AI Agent Engineer," "Senior Data Engineer," "AI Product Engineer" – strong AI engineering environment. ## Sources 1. [Sekai Official Website](https://sekaiapp.com/) 2. [Sekai LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/sekaiapp) 3. [Axios – Sekai raises $20M (June 2026)](https://www.axios.com/2026/06/01/sekai-mini-app-startup-funding) 4. [Sekai Careers Page (Ashby)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sekai) 5. [Google Play Store – Sekai App](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?hl=en_US&id=chat.sekai.app) ## Other roles at Sekai - [Senior Android Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-android-engineer-sekai-san-francisco-q9h3pwy2ymeq) — San Francisco, CA - [Founding iOS Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-ios-engineer-sekai-san-francisco-hey4az5dytnr) — San Francisco, CA - [AI Product Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-product-manager-sekai-san-francisco-sktzt4dzx3vx) — San Francisco, CA - [AI Agent Engineer (Coding Agent)](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-agent-engineer-coding-agent-sekai-san-francisco-bamz39dkfd3v) — San Francisco, CA - [AI Product Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-product-engineer-sekai-san-francisco-8w89jswmwt1r) — San Francisco, CA - [Technical Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-lead-sand-tech-holdings-limited-africa-united-kingdom-pjb4rkasx8cp) — Africa / United Kingdom - [Technical Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-lead-bjak-hong-kong-meq3xyc2nq5h) — Hong Kong - [Technical Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-lead-bjak-germany-xjp42s7bzj59) — Germany - [Technical Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-lead-bjak-china-fqqbswdvm86b) — China - [Technical Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-lead-bjak-austria-kd6msq2t9vc5) — Austria