Technical Lead Autonomous Networks

About Zinkworks

Zinkworks partners with leading Telecommunications and Financial Services organizations to modernize legacy systems, migrate mission-critical platforms to the cloud, and engineer AI-driven automation. From OSS transformation to rApp development and network intelligence, our teams simplify complexity and turn it into competitive advantage. Based in Ireland and operating across the EU, UK, and US, Zinkworks combines deep domain expertise with delivery excellence to help clients modernize faster and operate smarter.

About the Role

We are building a small, empowered product discovery team focused on Zinkworks’ Autonomous Networks product portfolio. This team will take new product ideas from concept through to high-fidelity working prototypes that telco operators can see, test, and react to.

As our Technical Lead – Autonomous Networks, you will be the on-the-ground engineering leader for this team. You will take strategic direction from our Domain-Focused Solution Architects and turn it into demoable products, leading a small senior engineering team to ship quickly, thoughtfully, and to a high technical standard.

This is a builder-architect role. You will stay close to the code, shape technical decisions, and ensure every product probe is designed with reuse in mind. The goal is not just to build impressive demos, but to create composable foundations that follow-on delivery teams can pick up and evolve into real product capability.

What You’ll Do

• Lead engineering execution for a senior product discovery team building high-fidelity product probes.

• Translate strategic architectural direction into practical, demo-buildable technical architectures.

• Stay hands-on where needed, setting the standard for code quality, delivery pace, and technical decision-making.

• Architect probes so they break down cleanly into reusable components for future delivery teams.

• Set the team’s engineering practices, quality bar, and AI-augmented development approach.

• Guide senior engineers across backend, frontend, and AI implementation work.

• Partner closely with the Product Manager to understand customer needs and shape delivery priorities.

• Work with the AI Architect to ensure each probe has the right AI capability, architecture, and quality approach.

• Make pragmatic technology choices based on what each probe needs.

• Keep the team moving through ambiguity without waiting for fully defined specifications.

Ideal Candidate Profile

You are a senior engineering leader who still ships code. You have led technical delivery before, but you have not moved away from engineering. You are comfortable owning architecture, guiding senior engineers, making practical technical decisions, and getting hands-on when needed. You understand that good architecture is not just what looks clean on a diagram; it has to decompose into reusable components, survive handover, and support the next team building on top of it. You are comfortable taking strategic direction from senior architects while owning the implementation path, and you can turn high-level product and technical direction into working software without needing every detail defined upfront.

Key Skills and Experience

• Strong senior-level software engineering background, with recent hands-on coding experience.

• Experience leading small, senior engineering teams.

• Strong architecture skills with a focus on practical implementation, reuse, and composability.

• Experience building prototypes, product probes, MVPs, or early-stage product capability.

• Strong cloud engineering experience, ideally with GCP.

• Ability to translate high-level architectural direction into buildable technical plans.

• Strong understanding of modern software delivery practices, engineering quality, and technical governance.

• Comfortable working in ambiguity and making pragmatic decisions quickly.

• Experience using AI-augmented development tools such as Claude, Cursor, or similar tools as part of daily engineering delivery.

• Enough frontend understanding to guide React/TypeScript engineers effectively, even if frontend is not your core discipline.

• Ability to work closely with product, architecture, backend, frontend, and AI engineering stakeholders.

Nice to Have

• Experience with telecoms automation, network management, OSS, RAN, or TMF Autonomous Networks.

• Experience with Google ADK or similar agent frameworks.

• Experience building AI-enabled or agentic software products.

• Experience in product-led companies, startup environments, innovation teams, or fast-moving discovery teams.

• Strong understanding of how prototypes evolve into production-grade delivery.

This Role Is Not For Someone Who

• Wants to work only as a paper architect without writing or reviewing code.

• Comes primarily from a pre-sales or solution consulting background.

• Needs a fully defined specification before they can make progress.

• Is uncomfortable taking architectural direction from another senior technical leader.

• Focuses on one-off demos without thinking about reuse, handover, or future delivery.

Inclusion & Diversity at Zinkworks

At Zinkworks, we are deeply committed to fostering a culture of diversity, inclusion, and belonging. We believe that our strength lies in the unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of our team members. By embracing an inclusive environment, we empower innovation and collaboration across all levels of our organisation. Based in Ireland, we are proud to support and engage with our local communities through meaningful initiatives that promote equity and opportunity. Our commitment extends beyond the workplace, as we actively contribute to creating a more inclusive and connected society for all.