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Lead Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Lead Engineer

San Mateo, CA · Remote

$116K - $153K/yr

For this role, we're looking for a Head of Engineering to help lead the rapid development and growth of PatternAI's automated ML/AI platform across 3 interoperating areas: software engineering, data ...

Lead Engineer

San Mateo, CA · On-site +1

$116K - $153K/yr

For this role, we're looking for a Head of Engineering to help lead the rapid development and growth of PatternAI's automated ML/AI platform across 3 interoperating areas: software engineering, data ...

Lead Engineer

Costa Mesa, CA · On-site

$48.07 - $52.88/hr

Lead Operating Engineer - JLL What this job involves: Join JLL as a Lead Operating Engineer and play a key role in supporting facility operations and engineering excellence within a commercial real ...

Lead Engineer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$130K - $140K/yr

We are looking for a Senior Physical Design Engineer with 8-14 years of experience to lead and execute RTL to GDSII implementation for low power SoCs on advanced nodes. This role demands deep ...

We are looking for a Senior Physical Design Engineer with 8-14 years of experience to lead and execute RTL to GDSII implementation for low power SoCs on advanced nodes. This role demands deep ...

Lead Engineer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$130K - $140K/yr

We are looking for a Senior Physical Design Engineer with 8-14 years of experience to lead and execute RTL to GDSII implementation for low power SoCs on advanced nodes. This role demands deep ...

Lead Engineer

Santa Clara, CA · On-site

$65 - $75/hr

We are looking for a Senior Physical Design Engineer with 8-14 years of experience to lead and execute RTL to GDSII implementation for low power SoCs on advanced nodes. This role demands deep ...

We are looking for a Senior Physical Design Engineer with 8-14 years of experience to lead and execute RTL to GDSII implementation for low power SoCs on advanced nodes. This role demands deep ...

We are looking for a Senior Physical Design Engineer with 8-14 years of experience to lead and execute RTL to GDSII implementation for low power SoCs on advanced nodes. This role demands deep ...

We invite you to join the world of luxury hospitality at Fairmont Grand Del Mar, as our new Lead Engineer. Responsibilities To assist or perform repairs and maintenance of equipment and the physical ...

Lead Engineer

San Diego, CA · On-site

$35.94/hr

We invite you to join the world of luxury hospitality at Fairmont Grand Del Mar, as our new Lead Engineer. Responsibilities To assist or perform repairs and maintenance of equipment and the physical ...

Lead Engineer

San Diego, CA · On-site

$35.94/hr

We invite you to join the world of luxury hospitality at Fairmont Grand Del Mar, as our new Lead Engineer. Responsibilities To assist or perform repairs and maintenance of equipment and the physical ...

Lead Engineer

Santa Monica, CA · On-site

$29 - $33/hr

As the Lead Engineer, you are responsible for performing ongoing facility maintenance and completing repairs on equipment to keep the property operating and repairing any problems when they are ...

Lead Engineer

San Diego, CA · On-site

$108K - $143K/yr

Lead Engineer Location : Sandiego, CA JD: * Audits - independent set of eyes to review various records and compare according to procedural requirements for both infusion and dispensing (e.g. TMVs)

Lead Engineer

Oakland, CA · On-site

$70 - $75/hr

Experience that is commensurate with the specific facility for the position of Senior/Lead Engineer: Prefer 5+ years progressive operations experience. Strong employee relation skills, coaching ...

Lead Engineer

Oakland, CA · On-site

$70 - $75/wk

Experience that is commensurate with the specific facility for the position of Senior/Lead Engineer: Prefer 5+ years progressive operations experience. * Strong employee relation skills, coaching ...

Lead Engineer

Oakland, CA · On-site

$70 - $75/hr

SKILLS / EDUCATION / EXPERIENCE: • Experience that is commensurate with the specific facility for the position of Senior/Lead Engineer: Prefer 5+ years progressive operations experience. • Strong ...

MarTech Lead Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$120K - $159K/yr

Job Role: Lead Full Stack Engineer - POD Location: San Francisco, CA Lead Full Stack Engineer in the POD is a senior technical leader responsible for architecting, building, and scaling ...

Principal / Lead Engineer Location: San Jose, CA Job Summary: * We are seeking a highly experienced Principal/Lead Engineer to drive the architecture, development, * integration, and delivery of PCIe ...

AI Lead Engineer

Cupertino, CA · On-site

$110K - $120K/yr

AI Lead Engineer 4 days ago Requisition ID: 1308 Salary Range: $110,000.00 To $120,000.00 Annually * Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or ...

Showing results 21-40

Lead Engineer information

See California salary details

$41.9K

$122.2K

$178.1K

How much do lead engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Sep 12, 2026, the average yearly pay for lead engineer in California is $122,163.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $101,200.00 and $133,200.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a lead engineer?

A lead engineer oversees a team of engineers who work on maintaining and streamlining corporate projects. In this job, your primary duties and focus is on the equipment, technology, and infrastructure that make up the company’s operating system. Educational qualifications include a bachelor’s degree in engineering and specialization in the company’s industry. You hone your skills as a junior engineer before gaining enough experience to advance your career to a lead engineer position.

What does a lead engineer do?

A Lead Engineer is responsible for overseeing technical projects, guiding engineering teams, and ensuring that design and development processes meet organizational goals. They serve as both a technical expert and a team leader, providing mentorship, setting project timelines, and coordinating with other departments. Lead Engineers often participate in decision-making, problem-solving, and quality assurance to deliver successful engineering outcomes.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a lead engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Lead Engineer, you need deep technical expertise in engineering principles, project management experience, and typically a bachelor's or master's degree in a relevant field. Familiarity with industry-standard design tools, version control systems, and certifications like PMP or Six Sigma are often required. Strong leadership, problem-solving, and communication skills distinguish top performers in this role. These skills ensure effective project delivery, team coordination, and technical excellence in complex engineering environments.

What are some common challenges lead engineers face when managing cross-functional teams?

Lead Engineers often face the challenge of aligning technical teams with stakeholders from other departments, such as product management or quality assurance. Balancing project deadlines with technical excellence can require strong communication and negotiation skills. It's also common to encounter differences in priorities or technical understanding, so building consensus and fostering collaboration are key. Adapting to shifting project requirements while maintaining team morale is another important aspect of the role.

What cities in California are hiring for Lead Engineer jobs?

Cities in California with the most Lead Engineer job openings:

What are popular job titles related to Lead Engineer jobs in CA?

For Lead Engineer jobs in CA, the most frequently searched job titles are:

Infographic showing various Lead Engineer job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 83% Full Time, and 17% Contract. Highlights an 100% In-person job distribution, with an average salary of $122,163 per year, or $58.7 per hour.

Lead Engineer

San Mateo, CA • Remote

$116K - $153K/yr

Full-time

Re-posted 7 days ago


Job description

Company Description

PatternAI is an automated ML/AI platform that reveals critical patterns in data for narrow business problems that impact virtually every company in the world- such as automating customer segmentation, automated predictive analytics, conversational intelligence, and more. 

Our mission is to build the world's most trusted intelligent machine in the cloud for business- a single automated ML/AI platform that can ingest data from any source and reveal deep patterns and insights- in short, a cloud robot that can do extraordinary things for business users. We've built an early version of this cloud machine today, which we call PatternAI, and we're just getting started. 

We're looking for the best and brightest teammates to help us accelerate that vision.

Job Description

For this role, we're looking for a Head of Engineering to help lead the rapid development and growth of PatternAI's automated ML/AI platform across 3 interoperating areas: software engineering, data engineering, and data science. 

You will collaborate closely with a talented team of engineers, data scientists, data engineers, and customer-facing stakeholders (sales, marketing, CS, etc.) to develop innovative solutions that balance the power of ML and an easy-to-use interface. We love candidates who can understand and take ownership of complex problems, make quick decisions, lead and mentor their team, and who are passionate about helping others perform at their best.

  • Collaborate with Product and Data Science teams throughout the software development lifecycle to ensure that we incorporate the principles of building cloud-based systems that are scalable, automated, distributed, and fault-tolerant

  • Actively work on creating cloud infrastructure to support scaling up systems, removing manual processes, and increasing the speed of product development

  • Perform production readiness checks for new services and features by advising on design reviews, capacity management, system monitoring, etc.

  • For team buildout, own the hiring plan and collaborate on recruiting, developing, and retaining exceptional people

  • Roll up your sleeves and be tactical: co-develop product roadmap and development timelines; deep dive on code reviews; identify best-practices and approaches to systems, etc.

Qualifications

To thrive in this role, you have deep technical expertise and knowledge:

  • B.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or formal degree in related field

  • 5+ years experience as an individual contributor on an engineering team

  • 3+ years of experience with data infrastructure and cloud applications

  • Experience deploying applications / tools into production environments

  • Extensive experience with AWS (EC2, ECS, S3, lambda, etc.)

  • Familiar with configuration management technologies (TerraForm, Ansible, Chef, Puppet, CloudFormation, etc.)

  • Comfortable writing scripts (Bash, Python, Go, Ruby, etc.)

  • Understanding of infrastructure security

Extra Credit

  • MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or a related field

  • Experience working with remote teams across multiple locations

  • Experience with Kubernetes and Docker

  • CI tools (Jenkins, Circle CI, etc)

Additional Information

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.