Tech Lead – CLI & Local Experience

The role of a Tech Lead – CLI & Local Experience at Supabase

About the role

Supabase CLI is how developers build locally – and for many of them, it’s the first thing they touch after signing up. You’ll be the technical anchor for the team that owns that experience: local development, the supabase CLI, IaC workflows, and the tooling that makes Supabase feel like a first-class part of any dev environment.

This is a pure engineering role. No people management – you’re here to set the technical bar, drive architecture, and make the team faster and better through your work and judgment.

What you’ll do

• Set and drive the technical direction for Supabase CLI and local development tooling across Windows, Linux, and macOS
• Lead architecture decisions: write RFCs, build consensus, and move proposals to outcomes
• Be the go-to person for hard problems: cross-platform edge cases, release engineering, backwards compatibility, performance
• Work closely with the team lead and engineering leadership on roadmap tradeoffs providing the technical signal that informs prioritization
• Ship consistently: this isn’t a staff role that reviews PRs; you’re expected to be a significant individual contributor
• Actively develop the technical capabilities of the team through structured code review, pairing, design feedback, and setting a high bar others can grow toward
• Serve as a technical mentor and reference point for engineers across the team, helping them navigate hard problems and build stronger engineering judgment
• Engage with the open-source community around Supabase CLI: contributors, issues, feedback

What we’re looking for

• Strong TypeScript – this will be a TypeScript codebase and you should be genuinely comfortable at depth
• Deep cross-platform experience: filesystem, subprocess management, terminal handling, Windows/Linux/macOS quirks
• Solid understanding of CLI distribution and packaging (Homebrew, npm, APT, Scoop, Chocolatey, etc.)
• Track record building CLIs with great developer UX – intuitive structure, clear output, good error messaging
• Experience making and defending architectural decisions in a collaborative, async environment
• A genuine interest in developing other engineers – you take satisfaction in making the people around you better, not just shipping your own work
• Familiarity with agentic workflows and designing for agent use cases – the CLI needs to be seamless for agents, not just humans
• High autonomy – you don’t need a lot of direction to go deep and ship

Nice to have

• Go experience: helpful for navigating and understanding prior versions of the CLI codebase
• Familiarity with Effect – the functional TypeScript library the CLI repo is now built on
• Contributions to popular CLI tools or open-source dev tooling (Docker CLI, kubectl, gh, Terraform, Vercel CLI, etc.)
• Experience with containerization and local orchestration (Docker, k8s)
• Familiarity with Postgres, database migrations, and the Supabase local stack
• Experience with IaC or config-as-code workflows

What We Offer

• Fully RemoteWe hire globally. We believe you can do your best work from anywhere. There are no Supabase offices, but we provide a WeWork membership or co-working allowance you can use anywhere in the world.
• ESOPEvery team member receives ESOP (equity ownership) in the company. We want everyone to share in the upside of what we’re building together.
• Tech AllowanceUse this budget to set up your ideal work environment—laptop, monitor, headphones, or whatever helps you do your best work.
• Health BenefitsSupabase covers 100% of health insurance for employees and 80% for dependents, wherever you are. Your wellbeing and your family’s health are important to us.
• Annual Off-SitesOnce a year, the entire company gathers in a new city for a week of connection, collaboration, and fun. It’s a highlight of our year.
• Flexible WorkWe operate asynchronously and trust you to manage your own time. You know what needs to be done and when.
• Professional DevelopmentEvery team member receives an annual education allowance to spend on learning—courses, books, conferences, or anything that supports your growth.

About the Team

Supabase was born-remote and open-source-first. We believe our globally distributed team is our secret weapon in building tools developers love.

• 280+ team members
• 55+ countries
• 20+ languages spoken
• $500M raised
• 500,000+ community members

We move fast, build in public, and use what we ship. If it’s in your project, we probably use it in ours too. We believe deeply in the open-source ecosystem and strive to support—not replace—existing tools and communities.

Hiring Process

We keep things simple, async-friendly, and respectful of your time:

1. Apply – Our team will review your application.
2. Intro Call – A short video chat to get to know each other.
3. Interviews – Up to four calls with:
   • Team Leads
   • Future teammates
   • Someone cross-functional from product, growth, or engineering (depending on the role)
   • Someone from our leadership/founding team
4. Decision – We may follow up with a final question or go straight to offer.

All communication is remote and we aim to move fast.

To learn more about Supabase visit their website

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