Lead Engineer, CMS Builder - ZipRecruiter : Job Details

Job DescriptionJob DescriptionAbout Us

Circle is building the world's leading all-in-one platform for online communities. We make it possible for creators, coaches, educators, and businesses to bring together their audience with engaging discussions, live streams, events, chat, courses, and payments — all in one place, all under their own brand.

We're proud to be a fully remote company of around 180 (and growing!) team members from 30+ countries around the world. We seek exceptional individuals around the world, set them up to do the best work of their lives, and in turn, create a meaningful impact in their own lives. We don't track hours, but we do manage for high expectations very closely. We collaborate across time zones, are highly async, and like to document a lot.

Twice a year, we bring the whole company together in beautiful places around the world for our company offsites. So far, we've hosted offsites in Turkey, Portugal, Mexico, Thailand, Colombia, Italy, Ireland, and more, with still more to come!

About the role

We're not building another page builder. We're creating the platform that will define how communities build their online presence.Circle is evolving from the world's leading community platform into something bigger: the complete operating system for the creator economy. Our website builder isn't a feature—it's the cornerstone of a transformative vision where every creator, educator, and entrepreneur can build, grow, and monetize their entire business in one place.You'll lead the team architecting this future. Think visual design meets no-code development meets AI-powered intelligence—but built for the next of internet entrepreneurs.The Technical ChallengeThis isn't CRUD work with drag-and-drop sprinkled on top. You'll be solving problems like:

• Visual development environment that produces code cleaner than most developers write by hand.
• AI-powered design system that uses a prebuilt block library to suggest layouts that are actually consistent and convert.
• Performance architecture where sites load faster than static HTML through intelligent edge rendering.

Your decisions will directly impact how communities present themselves to the world and shape the future of online presence.What you'll be doing

Technical Leadership

• Architect the system that needs to scale from simple landing pages to dynamic community dashboards
• Build and mentor a world-class team of engineers who share your obsession with craft
• Drive technical decisions that balance innovation with reliability at massive scale

Product Vision

• Partner with design and product to define what visual development means in 2025 and beyond
• Use data and user insights to constantly evolve the product—not just build what's requested
• Push boundaries on what's possible in browser-based development tools
• Drive the evolution from simple page builder to a comprehensive platform that powers entire community experiences

Business Impact

• Own metrics that matter: creator success, publish rates, site performance, and platform growth
• Build features that directly drive Circle's expansion from community platform to creator OS
• Enable non-technical users to build professional web experiences
• Create competitive moats through technical excellence and user experience

What you'll need to be successful

• Strong alignment with our values, find our values on our career page if you haven't read up on them yet.
• You are proficient in English (spoken, written, and reading) at a CEFR Level C2 / ILR Level 5.

You have built complex browser-based applications

• You've architected visual editors, design tools, or similar complex front-end systems
• You know how to make 60fps interactions feel in a browser environment
• You've dealt with the edge cases that come with user-generated content at scale

You think in systems, not features

• You see a drag-and-drop editor as a visual programming
• You understand how design systems, component libraries, and visual tools create compound value
• You can architect for flexibility without creating an unmaintainable mess
• You know when to build, when to buy, and when to innovate

You lead through excellence

• You write code that serves as the quality bar for the entire team
• You mentor engineers through hands-on collaboration and thoughtful code reviews
• You can recruit world-class talent because they want to work with you
• You communicate complex technical concepts in ways that energize rather than confuse

Technical Requirements

• Deep expertise in modern JavaScript/TypeScript and React ecosystem
• Experience with Ruby on Rails or similar backend frameworks at scale
• Understanding of browser performance optimization, rendering pipelines, and modern CSS
• Bonus: Experience with visual programming, AST manipulation, or code

$160,000 - $170,000 USD per year

The cash compensation range shown is a starting point. In addition to equity, benefits and perks, your cash compensation is subject to an annual review and increase on a once per year basis.

The fun stuff

• Fully remote: work from anywhere in the world!
• Autonomy and trust to do your job: we care about outcomes over everything else.
• Paid time away: all employees are given 35 days of PTO annually. We also offer a paid sabbatical after 5 years.
• Generous U.S. benchmarked compensation and startup equity no matter where you are in the world.*
• Awesome medical coverage with 100% coverage for you and your family, or medical reimbursement options where applicable!*
• Parental leave for parents expanding their family, or just starting one.
• Home office stipend to help you get up and running.
• Learning & development stipend to help you level up your professional skills.
• Annual bonus potential for roles that don't already receive variable income or commission.
• Company retreats: Twice a year, the Circle team gets together for a fully paid company retreat in incredible places around the world! We've had past retreats in Colombia, Portugal, and Mexico, with more planned on the horizon.
• Check out our Careers page for more.

*Your role, location and unique circumstance may affect this.

, Equity &

As a fully-remote international company, is baked into our DNA. Here's how our CEO, Sid Yadav, frames our hiring mission: let's find talent in underserved and under-represented corners of the world, set them up to do the best work of their lives, and in turn, change their life. To achieve this hiring mission, we offer competitive U.S. benchmarked compensation no matter where someone's located in the world, and we proactively seek candidates who expand representation of backgrounds, cultures and lived experiences in our teams.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Circle is an equal opportunity employer and as such, we do not discriminate on the basis of , , , , , , , , , or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws. If you require any accommodations during the recruitment process, please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.

How We Use Candidate Data

At Circle, we are committed to protecting your personal information. As a job applicant, the personal data you provide to us is collected and processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This notice outlines the types of personal information we collect, the purpose for collecting it, and your rights.

Information We Collect: We collect the following categories of personal information from job applicants:

• Contact information (such as name, email address, phone number)
• Employment history and qualifications
• Education history
• References and any other information you choose to share with us during the application process

Purpose of Collection: We collect this information for the following purposes:

• To assess your qualifications and suitability for the position
• To communicate with you during the recruitment process
• To comply with legal and regulatory obligations

Your Rights Under GDPR and CCPA: You have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• The right to request access to the personal information we hold about you.
• The right to request the deletion of your personal information, subject to certain legal exceptions.
• The right to opt out of the sale of your personal information (Note: We do not sell personal information).

For more information about how we handle your personal data or to exercise your rights, please refer to our full Privacy Policy.

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this privacy notice.